Income investors have many reasons to love dividend stocks. Most dividend stocks pay out quarterly or annually giving investors the assurance of supplemental income to offset planned expenses. For example, assume a company with a stock price of $50 pays a quarterly dividend with an annual yield of 5%. Assuming the stock price (and therefore the dividend yield) stays constant, an investor who owns 500 shares would receive $312.50 every three months or $1250 per year. In the U.S., most dividends are cash dividends, which are cash payments made on a per-share basis to investors. For instance, if a company pays a dividend of 20 cents per share, an investor with 100 shares would receive $20 in cash. Earnings per share is a ratio that gauges how profitable a company is per share of its stock. Dividends per share, on the other hand, calculates the portion of a company's earnings that is paid