What are Dividends and When they're Issued ?

Dividends are payments made by companies to their stockholders in order to share a portion of the profits from a particular quarter or year. The amount that any particular stockholder receives is dependent upon how many shares of stock they own and how much the total amount being divided up among the stockholders amounts to. This means that after a particularly profitable quarter a company might set aside a lump sum to be divided up amongst all of their stockholders, though each individual share might be worth only a very small amount potentially fractions of a cent, depending upon the total number of shares issued and the total amount being divided. Individuals who own large amounts of stock receive much more from the dividends than those who own only a little, but the total per-share amount is usually the same.

When Dividends Are Paid
How often dividends are paid can vary from one company to the next, but in general they are paid whenever the company reports a profit. Since most companies are required to report their profits or losses quarterly, this means that most of them have the potential to pay dividends up to four times each year. Some companies pay dividends more often than this, however, and others may pay only once per year. The more time there is between dividend payments can indicate financial and profit problems within a company, but if the company simply chooses to pay all of their dividends at once it may also lead to higher per-share payments on those dividends