Common Shares
Common shares will often pay out a portion of the earnings as dividends. The dividend yield is the total dollars (Yen, etc.) paid in a year divided by the spot price of the shares. Most web sites and reports are updated with the expected future year's payments, not the past year's.
The price/earnings ratio quoted for common shares is the reciprocal of what is called the earnings yield. EarningsPerShare / SharePrice.
Read more about this topic: Yield (finance)
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or shares:
“You common people of the skies,
What are you when the moon doth rise?”
—Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639)
“Anyone who knows a strange fact shares in its singularity.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)