Sep 19, 2026 · 14 min · 14 segments
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And one more thing before the weird part is that nobody's sure how it got its name.
Now, the company says Leo Hirschfeld invented it in 1896 and named it after his little girl Clara, who was nicknamed Tootsie.
A company this old, and we cannot even confirm the origin story.
Now that's weird, but it is not.
The weirdest part, which is that Tootsie Roll pays a normal cash dividend of nine cents a share four times a year.
And the yield is about nine tenths of one percent, which is pretty low and uninspiring for such a mature company.
But every March, Tootsie Roll does something almost nobody else does.
It hands every single shareholder a three percent stock dividend.
If you own 100 shares, you wake up with 103.
Now your brokerage will show that as a 103 for 100 split, and that's exactly how it behaves.
You have more shares, a lower price per share, and the same money.
It's literally a neutral net worth event.
But Tootsie Roll doesn't call it a split.
In the annual report, they call it a stock dividend split.
And that word choice has a real consequence, which I'll show you in a few minutes.
And they have done this every year for decades.
Now, many websites run the same math is that you have 3% in free shares, a 1% cash dividend.
And if you sell the bonus shares, you've built yourself a 4% yield from a company that has not cut its dividend in 60 years.
But it's kind of wrong.
And one more thing before the weird part is that nobody's sure how it got its name.
Now, the company says Leo Hirschfeld invented it in 1896 and named it after his little girl Clara, who was nicknamed Tootsie.
A company this old, and we cannot even confirm the origin story.
Now that's weird, but it is not.
The weirdest part, which is that Tootsie Roll pays a normal cash dividend of nine cents a share four times a year.
And the yield is about nine tenths of one percent, which is pretty low and uninspiring for such a mature company.
But every March, Tootsie Roll does something almost nobody else does.
It hands every single shareholder a three percent stock dividend.
If you own 100 shares, you wake up with 103.
Now your brokerage will show that as a 103 for 100 split, and that's exactly how it behaves.
You have more shares, a lower price per share, and the same money.
It's literally a neutral net worth event.
But Tootsie Roll doesn't call it a split.
In the annual report, they call it a stock dividend split.
And that word choice has a real consequence, which I'll show you in a few minutes.
And they have done this every year for decades.
Now, many websites run the same math is that you have 3% in free shares, a 1% cash dividend.
And if you sell the bonus shares, you've built yourself a 4% yield from a company that has not cut its dividend in 60 years.
But it's kind of wrong.
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