There are two main ratios when we talk about dividends: dividend yielding and dividend payout ratio. Bot are very useful to know and important.
Dividend Yield
Dividend yield mostly depends on dividend policy of the company and may very from 0% to 10%. Sometimes it can be even more than 10% but it will more rear occasions that more often occur only in unstable emerging market or during turmoils in financial markets.
Too high dividend yield is also not necessary good thing because usually stocks that pay high dividend yield have very low potential for future growth. Otherwise stocks would cost much more and dividend yield would decrease, because it depends on stock price that is on exchange.
However, dividend yield is especially important for value investors. It even may be the main ratio for them because it is the yield of their return. Dividend yield shows how much of money investors will receive compared to the value of shares. It is similar to yield of bonds because both yields including bond yield to maturity and dividend yield represent annual return that is highly expected from the investment if everything will go without unexpected circumstances.
Dividend Payout Ratio
Another ratio is profit payout ratio which is important as well when we talk about dividends. The main thing about payout ratio is that dividend payout ratio depends on dividend policy of the company and may very from 0% to 100%. Sometimes it can be even more than 100% but dividend payout ratio won't be very consistent ratio over long term and is probably to decrease in the future.
It is true that dividend payout ratio is also not necessary good thing because may rise such questions as is it healthy for the company? What is the future? What are investments in production capacities and etc. All those answer are important and can be a part of a strategy how to maximize stockholders value.
