+1 to previous comment.
If the dividend yield is 5% and you buy $1000 worth of shares then the dividend will be $50. Whether that's 100 shares at $10 each or 10,000 shares at 10c each doesn't change this.
Things to consider:
1. Dividends can and do change. Eg just because a company paid a dividend of 50c per share recently is no guarantee that the next dividend will be the same amount. It's not like a term deposit with a bank where you are guaranteed a set rate of interest for the period of the deposit. That said, if the business itself is stable, has a long history of paying reasonably consistent dividends and nothing much is likely to change with the underlying business then the dividend
probably won't change much at least in the short term.
2. Are the dividends franked either partially or fully? To compare a franked dividend paying stock with one that pays unfranked dividends, you need to adjust the figures to take tax into account.
3. Is the company paying dividends from real, ongoing income that is likely to be sustainable? Or are they running down cash / physical assets in order to make the payments? The former is far more likely to be sustained in the long term than the latter.
4. Be aware that if a company is paying a dividend yield that is unusually high (compared to other shares) then another way of looking at that is to say that the stock itself is cheap. Now, if a stock is cheap then that might represent a good buying opportunity but on the other hand it may well reflect a general expectation that there's trouble ahead. A high dividend yield is no guarantee that the business itself is going to prosper, or even survive at all, in the long term.
Myself, I look for companies with a good track record of paying increasing dividends over time, where the underlying earnings are also increasing and where there isn't an excessively high risk of things going wrong (eg due to technology or regulatory change).
