what is yield on cost yoc 
yield on cost yoc is a measure of dividend yield calculated by dividing a stock s current dividend by the price initially paid for that stock for example if an investor purchased a stock five years ago for 20 and its current dividend is 1 50 per share then the yoc for that stock would be 7 5 yoc should not be confused with the term current dividend yield the latter refers to the dividend payment divided by the stock s current price rather than the price at which it was initially purchased understanding yield on cost yoc yoc shows the dividend yield associated with the initial price paid for an investment for that reason stocks that have grown their dividends over time can deliver very high yocs especially if the investor has held on to the stock for many years in fact it is not unusual for long term investors to own stocks whose current dividend payments are higher than the original price paid for the security producing a yoc of 100 or greater yoc is calculated based on the initial price paid for a security therefore investors must make sure they keep track of the holding costs they have incurred for that security over time as well as any additional share purchases they have made all of these costs should be included in the cost component of the yoc calculation otherwise the yield will appear unrealistically high 