With the recent buzz around Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) and its third-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, March 25, some investors may be eyeing potential gains from the company's dividends.

As of now, the company has an annual dividend yield of 0.99%. That’s a quarterly dividend amount of 45 cents per share ($1.80 a year).  

So, how can investors exploit its dividend yield to pocket a regular $500 monthly?

To earn $500 per month or $6,000 annually from dividends alone, you would need an investment of approximately $603,973 or around 3,333 shares. For a more modest $100 per month or $1,200 per year, you would need $120,867 or around 667 shares.

To calculate: Divide the desired annual income ($6,000 or $1,200) by the dividend ($1.80 in this case). So, $6,000 / $1.80 = 3,333 ($500 per month), and $1,200 / $1.80 = 667 shares ($100 per month).

Note that dividend yield can change on a rolling basis; the dividend payment and the stock price fluctuate over time.

How that works: Compute the dividend yield by dividing the annual dividend payment by the stock’s current price.

For example, if a stock pays an annual dividend of $2 and is currently priced at $50, the dividend yield would be 4% ($2/$50). However, if the stock price increases to $60, the dividend yield drops to 3.33% ($2/$60). Conversely, if the stock price falls to $40, the dividend yield rises to 5% ($2/$40).

Similarly, changes in dividend payments can affect the yield. If a company increases its dividend, the yield will also increase, provided the stock price stays the same. Conversely, if the dividend payment decreases, so will the yield.

CTAS Price Action: Shares of Cintas rose 1% to close at $181.21 on Monday.

Analysts expect the company to report quarterly earnings of $1.24 per share. That’s up from $1.13 per share in the year-ago period. The consensus estimate for Cintas' quarterly revenue is $2.82 billion (it reported $2.61 billion last year), according to Benzinga Pro.

On March 11, Cintas agreed to acquire Unifirst (NYSE:UNF) for $310 per share in cash and stock, representing an enterprise value of approximately $5.5 billion.

Photo via Shutterstock