Financial Dictionary

DIVIDEND - A cash payment financed by profits that is designated by a company's board of directors to be distributed among stockholders.

A portion of the principal, or profits, divided among several owners of a thing.

The term is usually applied to the division of the profits arising out of bank or other stocks; or to the division among the creditors, of the elects of an insolvent estate.

In another sense, according to some old authorities, it signifies one part of an indenture.