"19 June Comment Clarification.

"Every stock website seems to struggle with dividends and current yield so I always go direct to the source. VALE (US) paid an interim instalment of $.588. Should the second instalment equal at the current price ($19.40) the yield would be 6.06%
(0.588 * 2 / 19.4).


BHP (US) paid an interim instalment of $.55. Should the second instalment equal at the current price ($67) the yield would be 1.64% (0.55 * 2 / 67).


"COTD stated yesterday "BHP Billiton (yield 4.53%) ... Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (0.98%)".

"I must be missing something and I would appreciate some education as I have also been paying close attention to dividends since 2008. (I own VALE and the healthy dividend has kept me in the stock despite the miserable decline and Brazilian tax policy.)"

David Fuller's view Thanks for your clarification on the dividend for VALE, and I agree that sources for this information can be confusing. My handiest source is Bloomberg and my reference the other day was this Description Page which now shows an "Ind Gross Yield" of 0.95% (lower centre). However, this low figure for such an important and successful miner should have prompted me to look further and BBG's separate Dividend Page provides this information - also confusing but the "Special Cash" payments appear to explain the difference. I sometimes also check the Financial Times in this tedious process of establishing dividend yields. The FT's European edition lists VALE but not the dividend, however it currently reports 4.2% for the UK listing of BHP.