Indicated Dividend

Many companies pay dividends, especially big, fat, publicly traded ones.

AT&T has paid a dividend for over 100 years. How do they pay? Well, they simply indicate via some kind of press release, or even an 8K filing, that yes, they are in fact, going to pay 15.5 cents a share next quarter per share of common equity. (Dividends don't get paid on stock options or bonds; bonds carry interest charges with them, but that's a whole 'nother story.)

So AT&T indicates that the dividend is coming, and investors are happy to snarf up that cash.

The whole notion of indicating matters, though: Some companies commit to paying dividends over longer periods of time. For others, the indications are all done as "special dividends," i.e. as if they are a one-time only thing, even if the company has paid a special dividend for decades.