what is a dividend rate 
the dividend rate is the total expected dividend payments from an investment fund or portfolio expressed on an annualized basis plus any additional non recurring dividends that an investor may receive during that period depending on the company s preferences and strategy the dividend rate can be fixed or adjustable the dividend rate is closely related to dividend yield and is sometimes used interchangeably understanding dividend ratesthe dividend rate is an estimate of the dividend only return of an investment such as on a stock or mutual fund assuming the dividend amount is not raised or lowered the rate will rise when the price of the stock falls and conversely it will fall when the price of the stock rises because dividend rates change relative to the stock price it can often look unusually high for stocks that are falling in value quickly new companies that are relatively small but still growing quickly may pay a lower average dividend than mature companies in the same sectors in general mature companies that aren t growing very quickly pay the highest dividend yields consumer non cyclical stocks that market staple items or utilities are examples of entire sectors that pay the highest average yield 