Find the income your shares pay, a stock's dividend yield, or how a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) grows over the years with rising dividends and share prices.
Estimates for planning, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures use US rules unless the page says otherwise.
How it's calculated
Dividend income = shares × annual dividend per share Dividend yield = annual dividend per share ÷ share price × 100
A company that pays quarterly divides its annual dividend into four payments. If a stock pays $0.50 a quarter, the annual dividend is $2.00. At a $50 share price the yield is 2.00 ÷ 50 = 4%, so $10,000 invested would pay about $400 a year.
How the DRIP projection works
A dividend reinvestment plan uses each dividend to buy more shares, including fractions of a share. Each period the calculator:
- grows the share price by your yearly price growth, spread evenly over the year,
- pays the dividend: shares × that year's dividend per share ÷ payments per year,
- buys more shares with it at that period's price (or keeps it as cash),
- adds any yearly contribution at the end of the year, and raises the dividend per share by your dividend growth rate for the next year.
Worked example
$10,000 in a $50 stock with a 4% yield ($2.00 a share a year, paid quarterly). The dividend grows 5% a year and the price 6% a year. After 10 years with dividends reinvested you'd own 288.99 shares (from 200) worth $25,876.86, after receiving $6,162.02 of dividends. Next year's dividends would be about $941.47. Taking the dividends as cash instead leaves you 200 shares worth $17,908.48 plus $5,031.16 in cash, $22,939.63 in all.
Limitations
- Dividends aren't guaranteed. Companies can cut, suspend or raise them. Growth rates here are your assumptions, not forecasts.
- Tax. Reinvested dividends are still taxable in the year they're paid, as if you'd received the cash. Qualified dividends are taxed at the lower capital gain rates and other dividends as ordinary income. The projection ignores tax, so in a taxable account your real result is lower.
- Prices move. A steady price growth rate smooths out real swings. Buying more shares when prices are low helps a DRIP; that isn't modeled.
- Fees, special dividends and the timing of ex-dividend dates aren't included.
Sources
How we checked this
Before every update, this calculator is run in a real browser with these known answers, and it must match all of them:
- 200 shares × $2.00 a year = $400.00, $100.00 a quarter ✓
- $10,000 at a 4% yield pays $33.33 a month on average ✓
- Quarterly $0.50 on a $40 stock: $0.50 × 4 = $2.00 a year, a 5% yield ✓
- DRIP: $10,000, 4% yield, 5% dividend growth, 6% price growth, 10 years = $25,876.86 ✓
- Same without reinvesting: $22,939.63 including the cash ✓
- 3% yield plus $1,200 a year for 20 years = $114,136.80 ✓
- Edge case: 0% yield and no growth leaves $10,000.00 ✓
Last checked October 26, 2026. Spotted something wrong? The math is done in your browser with the formula shown on this page, so you can check any result by hand.
Questions people ask
How do I calculate dividend income?
Multiply the number of shares by the annual dividend per share. 200 shares paying $2.00 a year is $400 a year, or $100 each quarter.
What is a dividend yield?
The annual dividend per share as a percent of the share price. A $2.00 dividend on a $50 stock is a 4% yield. When the price rises and the dividend doesn't, the yield falls.
How do I calculate dividend yield?
Add up a year of dividend payments per share and divide by the share price, then multiply by 100. Quarterly $0.50 payments on a $40 stock: $2.00 ÷ $40 = 5%.
Are reinvested dividends taxed?
Yes. The IRS says dividends used to buy more shares must be reported as income, the same as dividends paid in cash.
How much do I need to invest to make $1,000 a month in dividends?
$12,000 a year ÷ the yield. At a 4% yield that's $300,000; at 3% it's $400,000, before tax.