IEPF
Regulation & taxAlso called: Investor Education and Protection Fund, Unclaimed dividend, Unclaimed dividends
The Investor Education and Protection Fund, to which dividends left unclaimed for a number of consecutive years fixed in the Companies Act — and the shares behind them — are transferred.
In plain terms
Not a confiscation. The rightful owner can claim them back through a prescribed application verified by the company and then the authority, and it is far harder for an heir than for the person who bought the shares.
AIS
Regulation & taxAlso called: Annual Information Statement
The Annual Information Statement on the income tax portal, listing the transactions the department already holds on record — share sales reported by your broker, dividends and interest received.
In plain terms
Read it before you file rather than after. A mismatch is the commonest trigger for a notice, and it is almost always clerical: an account you forgot about, or a corporate action recorded differently.
Dividend discount model
Fundamental analysisAlso called: DDM, Gordon growth model
Valuing a share as the present value of all the dividends it will pay.
In plain terms
The Gordon growth version is next year’s dividend ÷ (required return − growth). Very sensitive to the gap between those two rates.
Dividend mandate
Market basicsThe bank account details held for you — by your depository participant for demat holdings, or on the folio at the registrar — into which dividends and redemptions are credited.
In plain terms
It does not follow you when you change banks, and it lives in a different place for every folio. A dividend that fails to arrive is usually this record rather than the company.
Equity method
AccountingAlso called: One-line consolidation, Equity accounting
The treatment of an associate or joint venture under which the investment starts at cost and is then increased by the investor’s share of the investee’s profit, reduced by its share of losses, and reduced again by dividends received.
In plain terms
One post-tax line of profit and one line of carrying amount. No revenue, no assets, no borrowings and no interest cost from the investee reach your accounts at all.
Financing cash flow
AccountingAlso called: Cash flow from financing
The cash flow bucket covering borrowing and repayment, share issues and buybacks, and dividends paid.
In plain terms
Read it alongside the other two. Negative operating cash flow with a large positive here describes a company kept alive by fresh borrowing rather than by trading.
Payout ratio
Fundamental analysisThe proportion of earnings paid out as dividends.
In plain terms
Under about 60% is affordable. Above 100% the dividend is funded from reserves or debt — a countdown.
Price index
Market basicsAlso called: Price return index
An index computed from the prices of its constituents alone, with dividends excluded — the series almost every headline index level quoted in India refers to.
In plain terms
The counterpart of the total return index, not another name for it. Comparing a holding that pays out against a price index charges the holding for its own dividends, and the error is the difference in the two payout rates, compounded.
Registrar and transfer agent
Market basicsAlso called: RTA
The firm a company appoints to maintain its register of members and to process folio-level requests — dividends, transmission, dematerialisation and corporate action entitlements.
In plain terms
For anything held in physical form this is your counterparty, not your broker. A handful of these firms maintain the registers of most listed Indian companies.
Retained earnings
AccountingCumulative profits a company has kept rather than paid out as dividends.
In plain terms
The harvest management decided not to distribute. Where it went over ten years tells you more about them than any strategy deck.
Total return
Market basicsPrice change plus dividends, the complete return from holding an asset.
In plain terms
A stock yielding 6% while falling 15% is not producing income. Judge holdings on this, never on yield. On a high-payout instrument such as a REIT it is most of the answer, and none of it is on the price chart.
Total return index
Market basicsAlso called: TRI
The same index basket computed with dividends reinvested, as against the price index, which excludes them.
In plain terms
Over weeks the difference is invisible; over a decade it is two different-looking charts. Any statement that “the index went nowhere” is being made on the series that throws the dividends away.
Holding company
Fundamental analysisA listed entity whose principal asset is stakes in other companies rather than an operating business of its own.
In plain terms
You own the underlying indirectly and receive only what flows up as dividends, taxed on the way. That is the structural reason these trade below the sum of their parts.
NRO account
Regulation & taxA rupee account for income earned in India, with repatriation capped annually.
In plain terms
Rent, dividends and pension land here. Sending money out needs a limit and a CA certificate.
Put-call parity
DerivativesAlso called: Conversion, Reversal
The no-arbitrage link between a call, a put, the share and the strike: C + PV(K) = P + S.
In plain terms
If one side gets cheaper, traders buy it and sell the other until the gap closes. Dividends and costs explain most apparent breaks.
Standalone
AccountingAccounts covering the parent legal entity only.
In plain terms
Subsidiary profit appears only as dividends and subsidiary debt not at all. Rarely the right set.
SWP
Market basicsSystematic Withdrawal Plan — a fixed amount redeemed from a fund at regular intervals.
In plain terms
More tax-efficient than dividends: only the gain portion is taxed, and at capital gains rates.