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Companies pay dividends to shareholders out of retained earnings. A company with negative retained earnings is said to have a deficit. It does not have any money in retained earnings, so it cannot pay out a dividend. To start paying a dividend, a company with negative retained earnings must generate sufficient revenues to make its retained earnings account positive.
How Retained Earnings Work
When a company is profitable, profits can be reinvested in the business -- for example a company could invest its profits in a larger factory or in acquiring another business -- or they can be paid out to shareholders as a dividend. The decision to issue dividends is up to the board of directors. But if a company is consistently unprofitable, its retained earnings may become negative. In this case, the board of directors have no funds in retained earnings, so it cannot pay out dividends.
References
- Seattle Central College: Corporations: Dividends, Retained Earnings, and Income Reporting
- University of Texas at El Paso: Shareholders' Equity
- Macrotrends. "Apple -- 40 Year Stock History, AAPL." Accessed Sept. 2, 2020.
- Apple. "Dividend History." Accessed July 31, 2020.
- Macrotrends. "Walmart -- 48 Year Stock Price History -- WMT." Accessed Sept. 2, 2020.
- Apple. "Q3F2018 Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations," Page 2. Accessed July 31, 2020.