Investing in Stocks With Dividends vs Stocks Without Dividends

Stocks are usually of two types, one that offers dividends and the other one that does not.

Author: Chadi Kattoua
Chadi Kattoua
Chadi Kattoua
I hold a Master's in Business Data Analytics and a Bachelor's in Finance. I serve as a Techno-Functional Consultant within financial technology, specializing in delivering comprehensive solutions for banks in trade finance and associated software platforms. Concurrently, I contribute as a part-time Data Scientist and Data Strategy Consultant. Additionally, my skill set encompasses a solid background in financial research analysis, further enhancing my capabilities in the dynamic intersection of finance and technology.
Reviewed By: Matthew Retzloff
Matthew Retzloff
Matthew Retzloff
Investment Banking | Corporate Development

Matthew started his finance career working as an investment banking analyst for Falcon Capital Partners, a healthcare IT boutique, before moving on to work for Raymond James Financial, Inc in their specialty finance coverage group in Atlanta. Matthew then started in a role in corporate development at Babcock & Wilcox before moving to a corporate development associate role with Caesars Entertainment Corporation where he currently is. Matthew provides support to Caesars' M&A processes including evaluating inbound teasers/CIMs to identify possible acquisition targets, due diligence, constructing financial models, corporate valuation, and interacting with potential acquisition targets.

Matthew has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in German from University of North Carolina.

Last Updated:December 8, 2023

What Is Investing In Stocks With Dividends Vs Stocks Without Dividends?

To obtain and raise funds to run their operations, corporations issue shares. The holders of these shares are known as shareholders. These shareholders may be entitled to some of the company's assets and earnings. 

Stocks are usually of two types, one that offers dividends and the other that does not. 

Investing helps grow your money over time. Investing in multiple instruments helps mitigate the risk of investing in high-risk securities. It helps increase your capital and avoid the impact of inflation on your savings.

What Are Dividends?

A dividend is a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders. These payments are usually made quarterly and might take the form of cash payments or stock reinvestments.

Shareholders must approve dividends using their voting powers. So even though stock dividends are less prevalent than cash dividends, they are still a possibility. 

Stock dividends are a payment delivered to shareholders in shares instead of cash. They offer the benefit of rewarding shareholders while not affecting the company's financial position, which may lower earnings per share.

Various exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds can also pay dividends.

The dividend yield is a percentage that shows how much dividend a company pays each year compared to its share price. 

And it's crucial to know since a greater yield makes a company appear more alluring, while a lower yield might make a stock appear less competitive with its industry.

It is calculated as a percentage of a company's share price using the following formula: 

Dividend/Price

If a common shareholder of a dividend-paying company owns the shares on the ex-dividend date or earlier, they are eligible to receive the payment.

Investing In Stocks That Offer Dividends

Dividend-paying equities are advantageous for shareholders to invest in. Investors may continue to keep the shares and benefit from share price growth while also receiving a regular income in the form of dividends from their stock investment. 

While there is fluctuation in the stock market, these payments are money put in your pocket regardless of the market.

Companies with a history of consistently paying dividends tend to be managed more effectively because they are conscious of the requirement to pay investors the same amount or even higher whenever payments are declared. 

Companies with a lengthy history of distributing such payments from retained earnings are often large-cap and well-established businesses. 

However, they tend to be stable and produce consistent returns on investment over time. As a result, their stock prices might not offer the kind of tremendous percentage gains that you could see in the stock prices of younger firms.

How To Invest 

It takes time and effort to create a portfolio of individual dividend equities, but for many investors, it is worthwhile. 

How to purchase a dividend stock is explained below:

1. Search For the Best Website 

Along with your online stock broker's website, there are several financial websites where you may search for stocks that pay dividends. 

2. Compare and Contrast

Compare the dividend yields of a high-dividend company with its peers before digging deeper into a stock. 

It might be a warning sign if a company's dividend yield is much greater than that of similar firms because the company's shares might have decreased in value due to financial issues, which is why the result is high. 

It's also possible that the high yield won't endure for very long. For example, a corporation experiencing financial difficulty could lower or even eliminate its dividend to save money. So it is, at the very least, worthwhile to investigate the business and the dividend's security.

The stock's payout ratio will then show you how much of the company's revenue is allocated to dividends. An excessively high payout ratio indicates that a significant portion of the company's earnings goes toward shareholders' payments. 

Dividend payout ratios can occasionally reach 100%, indicating that the business may be incurring debt to pay dividends. 

3. Set a Budget 

Choose the number of shares you wish to purchase. Next, you must decide what percentage of your portfolio should be invested in each stock to diversify your portfolio correctly.

Investing In Stocks Without Dividends

Why would anyone want to invest in a business that does not provide dividends? The decision to buy stocks without dividends might have several advantages.

As a result, it is expected that the value of their share prices will increase over time. When it is time for the investor to sell his shares, he may experience a more significant return rate than he would have from investing in a firm that pays on stocks.

There are several methods to evaluate these types of stocks; the following are some methods: 

1. The P/E Ratio

The price-to-earnings ratio, sometimes known as the P/E ratio, is a well-liked equation for evaluating equities. For example, a corporation with solid earnings and a low price will have a low P/E ratio regardless of any payments. 

P/E Ratio= Earnings per share / Market value per share

Value traders believe that these equities are undervalued. The possibility of turning significant earnings into dividends adds value to a firm with a low price and high yields.

2. Book Value

When a company has no earnings and does not provide dividends, book value might be used to determine how much its shares are worth. Likewise, a company's assets and liabilities may be added to get the business's book value from the balance sheet.

Stock prices of businesses currently losing money and unable to pay their debt might drop below book value. At the very least, stocks that are undervalued when compared to their book value make attractive targets for takeovers.

Book value per share = (Total common stockholders' equity - Preferred stock) / Number of common shares of the company

3. Growth in Profits

Year-over-year (YOY) profit growth is a popular statistic for estimating the growth that investors might require before investing in any company's stock. Investors care more about where profits are heading than where they are now. 

A corporation is substantial if its earnings increased last year than the previous year and showed a constant expansion pattern. 

High payments on stocks are only an inducement to purchase and hold a company's shares while it goes out of business if earnings continue to decline. Focusing on indicators like profit growth is preferred by growth investors.

A stock with low P/E ratios, good profit growth, or trades below book value may be a great investment.

Where To Invest? Stocks With Dividends Vs Stocks Without Dividends

In the opinion of many wise investors, dividends are the secret to long-term investment success. 

Most do not place large wagers on how a stock will do over the upcoming quarter or the following year. Instead, they emphasize high-quality enterprises that continue to pay dividends.

There is no requirement that you must exclusively purchase paying equities, though. There are other possibilities. In some circumstances, what is not provided via dividends may be made up for stock appreciation.

Each has comparative benefits and drawbacks. But, as was already said, most consistently paying corporations are big, well-known businesses that are unlikely to fail.

Their returns can often be counted on to reflect the market's performance throughout time closely. They often experience less volatility and perform better in adverse markets than in non-paying equities.

However, a shareholder who purchases paying equities may fall short of building a well-diversified portfolio and, as a result, may be more exposed to risk. 

Spreading your risk enables you to reduce the likelihood that the performance of a single investment will be reflected throughout your whole portfolio.

You may lower your risk by diversifying your assets over several different businesses or even other asset classes since you do not want the success of your investment portfolio to depend on a single firm.

Additionally, depending on the market conditions, various asset classes and individual assets within the same asset class will respond differently. Because your portfolio has a range of investments, it is less likely to lose money overall if one area crashes.

If you invest in dividend stocks, you can lose out on potentially lucrative returns from firms that often do not give dividends and instead choose to reinvest profits in developing new products.

The best way to determine where to invest ultimately depends on considering your unique financial objectives, financial planning, and overall investing strategy, considering elements like your risk tolerance.

Researched and authored by Chadi Kattoua | LinkedIn

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