Why do the yields listed in High-Yield International differ from the yields on other web sites?
Dividend yields can be calculated in a number of ways, and depending on which way they are calculated, various web sites will often list different yields for the exact same security. When payments vary greatly, the most reasonable calculation involves taking the last 12 months of dividend payouts (trailing twelve months, or ttm) and dividing that figure by the firm’s current share price. This is called a trailing yield. Some financial web sites and other media sources report yields a bit differently — instead of showing trailing yields, they list forward yields. Unlike a trailing yield, a forward yield projects dividend payments over the next 12 months, and is best used when these payments can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. The forward yield takes the stock’s latest declared dividend payment and annualizes it over the next 12 months. In High-Yield International, we generally use trailing yields when possible, as they represent concrete dividend payments that a firm has already
