Many of the stocks that I own and write Covered Calls upon also pay dividends.  Dividends happen on a regular basis and add significantly to my annual investment income.

Yesterday I received the following dividends in an IRA account for a total of $214.00:

I use my basis per share, excluding dividends, to determine the simple and annualized percentage return because I feel that it gives me a better representation of the value of the dividends as they relate to my portfolio.  My basis may be above or below the market price which causes my return to be lower or higher than published yields for a stock.

This dividend is a little unusual in that it was a cash payout and a stock payout.  ACAS solicited desires as to whether stockholders wanted a cash payout or a stock payout.  They then did a proration of cash and stock apparently taking into account the desires of the various stockholders.  My preference was all cash.  What actually happened was that I received the $37.04 as a cash dividend and the $176.96 as a stock dividend.  The stock dividend translates into an additional 54.9586 shares of ACAS.  ACAS is trading at about 3.08 at this writing so the current value of my new shares is about 169.27.