Dividends & Share Buybacks: Payout Policy, Yields & EPS Effects
Sit in the CFO's chair of a fictional manufacturer: payout and retention, dividend and FCF cover, sustainable growth, buyback EPS accretion, buyback vs dividend, buyback price vs value, Lintner smoothing and a payout capacity dashboard, every cell checked live. Educational only, not investment advice.
The first lesson is free — no account needed.
About this course
A dividends and share buybacks course that puts you in the CFO's chair of one fictional manufacturer, Halvern Industries, in a spreadsheet, for finance students, corporate finance staff, analysts and investors who read payout announcements. You calculate the payout and retention ratios over five years, test dividend cover by earnings and by free cash flow with buybacks included, find the sustainable growth rate and the highest payout that still funds a 9% growth target, model a USD 300m buyback with the shares retired, the interest income given up, EPS before and after and the price at which it stops being accretive, show why a dividend and a buyback of the same size leave a shareholder equally rich and measure shareholder yield, test buyback prices against intrinsic value, smooth the dividend with a Lintner-style model, and build a payout capacity dashboard. Illustrative figures, educational only, not investment or financial advice. The first lab is free.
Lessons
- Payout Ratio, Retention Ratio & Earnings RetainedFree
- Dividend Cover by Earnings and by Free Cash Flow, Buybacks Included Pro
- Sustainable Growth Rate: ROE × Retention and the Payout Ceiling Pro
- Share Buyback Mechanics: Shares Retired and EPS Accretion Pro
- Buyback vs Dividend: the Equivalence and Shareholder Yield Pro
- Buyback Price vs Intrinsic Value: Who Wins, Who Loses Pro
- Dividend Smoothing (Lintner) and the Special Dividend Pro
- Payout Capacity Dashboard: FCF, Leverage Headroom and the Payout Mix Pro