Shareholder yield shows how much cash a company returned to its shareholders over the last 12 months, through dividends and share buybacks, as a percentage of its market value.
Shareholder Yield = Dividend Yield + Buyback Yield
Dividend yield: regular dividends with an ex-dividend date in the last 12 months, divided by the last closing share price. Special (one-off) dividends do not count. Dividends that a company announced but has not yet paid do not count.
Buyback yield: the change in the number of shares outstanding, on the latest quarter date, compared with the same date 12 months earlier. We use the daily share count, which includes all share classes.
How we check the buyback yield
We compare the share count with the cash the company spent on buybacks, minus the cash it received from issuing new shares, as shown in its cash flow statement. If the two sources point in different directions (share count decreased but it received cash from share sales), we leave shareholder yield blank.
We also leave it blank when:
- the buyback yield is more than 30% a year. This is almost always a merger, a tender offer or a data error, not a real buyback.
- the dividend yield is more than 30%. This is usually a company paying out its capital as it winds down, or a one-off payment.
- the share count shows a buyback more than 5% higher than the cash the company spent, and the company's own reported share counts do not confirm it.
- the dividend yield is above 5%, but the cash the company paid in dividends is less than half of that.
A blank value means two independent sources could not confirm the number. We would rather show no number than a wrong one.
Example: A company has a €50 share price and pays €1 a year in regular dividends, a 2% dividend yield. Its share count fell from 1,000,000 to 980,000 over 12 months, a 2% buyback yield. Its cash flow statement shows it spent about €1 million on buybacks, which confirms the fall. Shareholder yield = 2% + 2% = 4%.
Shareholder yield can be negative. This happens when a company issues more new shares than it buys back.
How the buyback part is measured (updated August 2026)
We now measure share buybacks from the company's actual share count: the number of shares in issue today compared with the number twelve months ago. A fall in the count means the company bought shares back; a rise means it issued them. This replaces the older weighted-average share count, which could lag reality and overstate the yield.
Every buyback figure is cross-checked against a second, independent source, the cash the company reported spending on buybacks, net of new shares issued, in its cash-flow statement.
When the two sources disagree, or a figure is too extreme to trust automatically, we leave the cell blank rather than publish a number we cannot stand behind.
The whole calculation is refreshed every night, so a blank fills itself in as soon as the underlying data is corrected.
Worked example — Unilever (August 2026)
| Shares today | 2,154 million |
| Shares one year ago | 2,215 million |
| Buyback (from the share count) | +2.7% |
| Dividend yield | +2.2% |
| Shareholder Yield | 4.9% |
The buyback (+2.7%) plus the dividend yield (+2.2%) give a Shareholder Yield of 4.9%.
How to use the ratio
The larger the value the better - or the more cash the company returned to its shareholders.
Available as a screening ratio: Yes - the ratio is called Shareholder Yield
Available as an output column ratio: Yes - Look in the Valuation tab
How to select companies with the highest Shareholder Yield
To find companies with the best (highest) Shareholder Yield set the slider from 0% to 10%.
To find companies with the worse Shareholder Yield (companies issuing shares) set the slider from 90% to 100%.
More information about Shareholder Yield
You can read more information about Shareholder Yield here:
How and why to implement a shareholder yield investment strategy
How we find ideas for the Shareholder Yield investment newsletter
Best large cap investment strategy ever – Shareholder Yield keeps beating the market
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