When a company earns a profit, it pays a certain amount of the profit to its shareholders, in the form of dividends. The company also retains a part of the profit in order to re-invest in the business.
The companies of the world follow different types of dividend structures. A company's dividends may be declared quarterly, bi-annually or annually. In some companies, the board of directors put the proposal of dividend payments to a vote in the company's annual meeting. The mode of payment of the dividends may vary from one company to another. Companies may pay dividends in the form of checks, stocks, property, or in some other form, dependent upon the company's policy. The dividend per share to be paid by the company is determined by the amount of profit earned in that fiscal year.
According to the dividend history of JP Morgan Chase, the company issued dividends of $1.0600 in 1999, $0.9133 in 2000, $1.3400 in 2001, $1.3600 in 2002, $1.3600 in 2003, $1.3600 in 2004, $1.3600 in 2005, $1.3600 in 2006, and $1.0600 in 2007.
GE pays dividends quarterly, and for over one hundred years, the company has paid dividends each quarter. GE's dividends have increased for each of the previous consecutive 31 years.
Mellon Investor Services manages the direct stock purchase and the dividend re-investment program for Microsoft. Microsoft pays a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share. Microsoft started paying quarterly dividends in 2005, prior to which the company paid dividends annually.
Arecent declaration made by the Intel Corporation's board of directors confirmed that the company will pay a quarterly dividend of 11.25 cents per share on the common stock of the company.