Shareholders are interested in the following ratios:

Dividends per share

Total dividends / number of shares issued

 A higher figure means the shareholder got a larger return

Good to compare with competitors

Businesses can improve this themselves by increasing dividend payments

Dividend yield

Ordinary share dividend / market price x 100

Compares the return amount with what would be needed to purchase a share

The higher the better

This ratio varies daily with changes to a companies share price