Dividend Yield

The Dividend Yield measures how much a security paid out in income, per unit, relative to its price. If a stock distributed BRL 1.50 per share over a period and is worth BRL 30.00, its dividend yield for the period is 5%.

It is a widely used indicator to evaluate and compare income-generating securities, such as stocks and real estate funds: the higher the dividend yield, the larger the share of the security's price that went back to the investor as income.

How it is calculated

A security's dividend yield over a period is the sum of the income paid per unit, divided by the security's closing price:

$$\text{Dividend Yield} = \frac{\text{Sum of income per unit in the period}}{\text{Security closing price}}$$

• Income per unit: the sum of the amounts paid per share or quota in each income event whose ex-date falls within the queried period. Only the income the position received counts, that is, those whose ex-date occurred while there was a position in the security. What matters is the ex-date, not the payment date.
• Closing price: the security's most recent close before the period's end date (endDate), considering the days the position was held. If the position was closed before the end date, the close of the last day with a position is used.

The result is a decimal number: 0.05 means 5%.

Since the calculation is done per unit, the dividend yield does not depend on the quantity of shares or quotas held. It shows the income yield of the security itself during the period it was in the portfolio, not the return on the investor's capital. That return is measured by the P&L, the TWR and the IRR. The result is reported per security: positions in the same security held at different brokers produce a single value.

Example

A stock was bought on 2023-02-23 and sold on 2023-08-30. In that interval, it had three income ex-dates:

Ex-date	Income	Amount per share
2023-04-28	Dividends and income	BRL 2.93
2023-06-13	Dividends and interest on equity	BRL 1.89
2023-08-22	Dividends and interest on equity	BRL 1.15
Total		BRL 5.97

Querying the period from 2023-02-23 to 2023-08-30, the price used is the close of 2023-08-29, the last day before the end date, of BRL 32.40:

$$\text{Dividend Yield} = \frac{5.97}{32.40} \approx 0.184 \quad (18.4\%)$$

Which income events are included

Income	Event type	Included?
Dividends	CASH_DIVIDEND	Yes
Interest on equity	CASH_JSCP	Yes
Income (such as real estate fund distributions)	CASH_INCOME	Yes
Interest	CASH_INTEREST	Yes
Return of capital	CASH_RETURN_OF_CAPITAL	Yes
Amortizations	CASH_AMORTIZATION and CASH_AMORTIZATION_UNSCHEDULED	No
Premiums	CASH_PREMIUM	No

Amortizations and premiums are left out because they pay back part of the invested capital rather than a yield on it. Events that change the quantity of securities, such as stock bonuses and splits, are not included either. Learn more about event types in Security Events.

Which securities have a dividend yield

The dividend yield is calculated for variable income securities that distribute income:

• Stocks (STOCK_LOCAL) and BDRs (STOCK_BDR)
• ETFs (STOCK_ETF)
• Real estate funds (FII)
• Stock forwards (FORWARD_STOCK)
• Offshore stocks, ETFs and REITs (OFFSHORE_STOCK, OFFSHORE_ETF and OFFSHORE_REIT)
• Custom securities (GENERIC), based on the events registered by the organization (see Custom Security)

We do not calculate dividend yield for fixed income securities and investment funds.

Closed, reopened and short positions

• Position closed during the period: income with ex-dates up to the closing date is included, and the price used is the close of the last day with a position.
• Period without a position: if the security left the portfolio and came back later, income with ex-dates in the interval without a position is not included.
• Short positions: income is considered in the same way, since the calculation is per unit and does not depend on the position's sign.

To help interpret these cases, the response includes the hasOpenPositionAllDays field, which indicates whether there was a position on every day of the queried period. When it is false, the dividend yield does not cover the whole period and should be read with caution. When startDate is not informed, the period starts at the earliest date in Gorila's database, so this field is usually false.

Where to access

In GorilaCORE, the dividend yield of a portfolio's positions is available through the List Position Dividend Yield endpoint. For each security, the response includes:

• dividendYield: the dividend yield for the period, in decimal format (0.05 = 5%);
• hasOpenPositionAllDays: whether there was a position on every day of the period;
• currency: the security's payment currency;
• security: the security's basic data.

The period is defined by the startDate and endDate parameters. When endDate is not informed, today's date is used, and since the price considered is the most recent close before the end date, the result uses yesterday's close. The endpoint also allows filtering by security, asset class, security type, classification and broker.

To see each income event that impacted the portfolio, with dates and amounts received, check the Portfolio Security Events.