Payments come from the corporate-actions record rather than from the filings. The XBRL tag for dividends covers only about a fifth of filers and arrives in a zoo of units, so the actual per-share cash — dated, with one-off specials flagged — is the more reliable source. The filings still answer whether earnings cover the payment.
The annual figure is the last 4 regular payments, not a rolling 365 days. A year-long window catches three payments or five depending on where its boundary lands — Exxon’s misses an August ex-date by two days and understates the yield by a quarter — so the count is what is summed, and a partial set publishes nothing rather than a low number.
ORCL · NYSE · Technology · Software Infrastructure
$137.87+4.0%Sep 29 close
Oracle sells business software, database products, cloud computing services, computer hardware, and related support and consulting.
Oracle Corp. pays its shareholders every quarter.
Paid out each year as a share of the share price
$0.50 every quarter
Every year we hold — the real record may be far longer
Of earnings, paid out rather than kept
Dated by ex-dividend day — the day you must already own the shares to be paid.
A dividend is not a promise. Companies cut them, and a high yield is often a share price that has fallen rather than a payment that has risen. This describes what has been paid, not what will be.