As far as I understand it, retained earnings are: net income (or loss) minus dividends. The company that I'm looking at has had absolutely fantastic and steady growth in net earnings without any losses for the past ten years. However, from 2013 to 2019, the company had negative retained earnings. Does that mean that it paid shareholders more than it earned? If so, how did that happen? How is it possible if the dividend yield is only 1.10%? I'll post a link in the comments with the graph because this subreddit won't let me. The company that i'm talking about is POOL. Maybe someone will find something that i'm missing.
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