How We Compute Every Number

Where the data comes from

All dividend and price data comes from Polygon.io, a licensed market data provider. We pull the full universe of US cash dividend records (ex-dividend date, pay date, amount per share, declared frequency) and end-of-day closing prices.

We refresh this dataset once per trading day. Every data page shows its snapshot date so you always know how fresh the numbers are.

Dividend yield

Yield = trailing 12-month cash dividends per share ÷ last closing price. We use trailing payments actually made — not annualized forward guesses — so a stock that just cut its dividend shows the honest blended number, and a special dividend shows up in the trailing figure.

Prices are last close, not live quotes. Intraday moves change yield slightly; the calculator lets you override the price if you want to model a specific entry point.

Dividend growth rates

1-year growth compares the last 12 months of payments to the 12 months before that. 3-year and 5-year figures are compound annual growth rates (CAGR) over those windows.

New listings without enough history show no long-run rate rather than a misleading one.

Raise streaks

A streak counts consecutive completed calendar years in which total dividends per share were maintained or increased versus the prior year. The current partial year is excluded until it ends. Our history window is six years, so streaks cap there — a 6-year streak may in reality be much longer (dividend aristocrats have 25+).

Income projections

Calculator projections compound your inputs: starting investment, monthly contributions, dividend yield, dividend growth, optional share price growth, and dividend reinvestment (DRIP). They assume rates stay constant, which never happens in reality — treat projections as a planning range, not a prediction.

We deliberately default to conservative assumptions and never model leverage, options income, or tax effects unless a calculator explicitly says so.

Who writes this site

Everything on this site is written and maintained by The Dividend Calculator Team. We don't use invented author personas. When we make a claim about tax rules or account types, we cite the primary source (IRS, Treasury). When you spot an error, tell us — corrections ship with the next daily update.

What this site is not

Not financial advice, not a brokerage, not a recommendation to buy any security. It's a set of free tools and reference data for doing your own math.