Returns on common stock

Monticello view-shed being reworked by C.W. Hurt Contractors, L.L.C. (Thomas Jefferson's home is located on the distant ridge line, right hand side of photo beneath the bare poplar limbs)

Returns on common stock reflected this trend after the early heavy losses were made up. From 1890 to 1895 a seven percent common stock dividend was distributed. Thereafter until 1914 earnings on both types of stock varied between twelve and sixteen percent, and in addition the surplus was twice capitalized into common stock.
Another index of the company's health is the scattered information on the growing value of its stock. As early as 1893 preferred stock sold at an eight percent premium; in two years this had doubled. At the end of another decade the premium reached fifty percent: the stock which had sold for fifty dollars in 1884 now brought seventy-five dollars at a public sale and eighty dollars in a private transaction. By 1913, some of the stock of the company had exchanged hands at $110 a share.--Harry Poindexter