Shareholder Distribution: Definition, Types, Example

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated May 20, 2025 at 2:16 PM

Key Points

Shareholder distributions are direct financial returns to shareholders, like cash or equity boosts.
These distributions indicate a company’s good health and excess cash, not regularly expected like dividends.
Types of distributions include special dividends, return of capital, and stock buybacks.

There are several ways to make money with stocks, but one of the least considered is shareholder distribution. Although this might not happen with regularity, if your company is doing well enough to issue shareholder distributions, you're definitely on the right path.

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An image of a share certificate. — Image source: Getty Images.

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About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

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