Accumulating Shares: Overview, How It Works, Example

What Are Accumulating Shares?

By Lyle Daly – Updated May 30, 2025 at 7:07 PM | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Companies can issue accumulating shares to save cash and invest in growth, without diluting current shareholder value.
Shareholders generally can't choose between cash or stock dividends; this is decided by the board of directors.
Setting up a DRIP allows investors to automatically reinvest dividends, growing their shareholdings over time.

Accumulating shares are a form of compensation for a company's shareholders or employees. Although most businesses opt for cash dividends, this isn't required, and some may choose to pay accumulating shares.

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

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About the Author

Lyle Daly is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering information technology and cryptocurrency. Lyle has been a contributor at the financial services company since 2018. His work has been featured on USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, Fox Business, and Nasdaq. Before joining The Motley Fool, he wrote for financial brands including Intuit.

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