what does the dividend yield tell you 
the dividend yield is a financial ratio that tells you the percentage of a company s share price that it pays out in dividends each year for example if a company has a 20 share price and pays a dividend of 1 per year its dividend yield would be 5 if a company s dividend yield has been steadily increasing this could be because they are increasing their dividend because their share price is declining or both depending on the circumstances this may be seen as either a positive or a negative sign by investors 