How this site computes shareholder yield
Last updated October 20, 2026. Thresholds below are the ones the code uses today.
Net shareholder yield is what a company hands back to its owners minus what it hands to employees in stock, as a share of its market value: (dividends + buybacks − stock-based compensation) ÷ market cap, averaged per year over a window. A company that spends $10 billion on buybacks while issuing $10 billion of shares to staff has not shrunk, so its net yield is only its dividend.
What is the formula?
For a window of N fiscal years (1, 3 or up to 15), the page averages the yearly dollars and divides by today's market capitalisation:
- Dividend yield = average yearly dividends ÷ market cap
- Buyback yield = average yearly share repurchases ÷ market cap
- Stock comp yield = average yearly stock-based compensation ÷ market cap
- Net shareholder yield = dividend yield + buyback yield − stock comp yield
Because market cap is today's, the yield moves with the price while the dollars stay as filed. See shareholder yield in the glossary.
What else does the page compute?
| Measure | Definition |
|---|---|
| Share-count change per year | Compound change in the split-adjusted share count between the first and last year with a reliable count (at least three years of share counts are used even for a one-year yield) |
| Shares retired (15-year view) | 1 minus the ratio of the latest to the earliest split-adjusted share count, as a percentage of the company |
| Buybacks as % of profit | Cumulative buybacks divided by cumulative net income over the window |
| Buybacks as % of market cap | Cumulative buybacks divided by today's market cap |
Where does the data come from, and what is left out?
Dividends, buybacks, stock compensation, net income and share counts come from each company's 10-K filings through the SEC's company-facts data on SEC EDGAR, up to 15 fiscal years. Share counts are split-adjusted by chaining restated values across filings. A figure a company does not report is shown as n/a: if stock comp was never reported, no net yield is computed; if the share count is unreliable, no share-count trend is shown. Stock comp missing in some years of a window understates the drag, and the page flags it.
What are the limits?
Buybacks are the cash spent, not the shares retired, and a company can buy back stock at a high price. Market cap today is used for every year, so a company that grew a lot looks different from one that did not. Dividends and buybacks measure what was returned, not whether returning it was wise. The table on Shareholder Yield Leaders ranks all tracked stocks.
Frequently asked questions
Why use market cap rather than price per share?
A yield needs a base the dollars can be compared with. Total dividends and buybacks over total market value is the same as per-share figures for a company with a constant share count, and it works when the count changes.
Can net shareholder yield be negative?
Yes. If stock-based compensation exceeds dividends plus buybacks, the company is issuing more value in stock than it returns.
How often does it update?
The filings change once a year per company, so the dollars update when a 10-K arrives; the market caps update with the weekly refresh.