What exactly are dividends?

What does the "cents" in the dividends mean? stocks?

• I was looking a timeline of a certain stock, and I came across that in a certain time last month, the company paid out dividends and the dividend says 12 cents. The stock cost around 9 dollars, so in comparison 12 cents is miniscule. I also look around other stocks, and the dividends of those companies are also in cents, like mcdonalds, which dividends says 70 cents. What does the cent on the stock actually mean, please educate me.

• Answer:

  let us say that the 12 cents was a quarterly yield ($0.48/year or $0.48/$9*100= 5.3%) not a bad yield. So if you had a 1000 shares at $9.00 ea you would make $120 every 3 months in dividends or $480.00/year. A lot better than interest in any bank account....I am sorry if you feel $480.00 is a trivial amount of money.