What is a stock dividend?

[snowe18]

I have purchased Wal-Mart stock through company payroll deductions. What is a dividend and how often does it occur?

[1 Night Stand]

dividend is the reward offered to shareholders after they minus retained earning.

[Emily E]

If you own stock, you own a part of the company. When profits are good, the board may decide to give part of the money to the stockholders, thats a dividend.

[Frank Castle]

It's like a salary but you don't have to actually work and you cannot be fired.

In the specific case of Wal-Mart they will pay you $0.22 USD each quarter PER SHARE.

If you want to make $22.00 then just buy 100 shares.
If you want to make $222.00 then just buy 1000 shares.
If you want to make $2222.000 then just buy 10000 shares.

You get the idea.

Wealthy families do not work anymore because they have many shares.

After you are dead your children will get your shares and Wal-Mart will pay them as usual until they die.

Wealthy families have been doing this since 1972

[Serge M]

You may not realize that you are asking two different questions. For the second question, a dividend is a company's distribution of its income to its shareholders in the form of cash. Some companies pay quarterly dividends, others annual or semi annual. Some do not pay dividends.

A stock dividend is distribution of shares of stock to stockholders. For example, if you own 100 shares of WalMart and the company declares a 10 percent stock dividend, it will issue 10 more shares of stock to you. The price of the shares in the market will decline about 10 percent because there are more shares for the same company without any change in the company's assets. Your 110 shares will be worth about as much as your origianl 100 shares.