First you count up what you paid for any shares bought in the past 24 hours. Determine how many shares of stock you hold. Dividends are paid out in addition to any gains in the value of the company’s shares and reward shareholders for holding a stock. Editorial Note: Forbes may earn a commission on sales made from partner links on this page, but that doesn't affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. While this includes stocks that don’t pay dividends, calculating dividends this way gives you a percentage that tells you how well the dividend income of a given stock contributes to the value of your entire portfolio. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/5\/5e\/Calculate-Dividends-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Calculate-Dividends-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/5\/5e\/Calculate-Dividends-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/aid1345852-v4-728px-Calculate-Dividends-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"546","licensing":"