How do mutual fund dividends work?

I got a dividend today off one of my funds..... it only transacted 1.6 shares! I thought a dividend would transact all the shares I hold. So, the reason it was only a small amount is because of the vast majority of stocks the invest in and only 1 company gave a dividend? Why would they give me such a small dividend I own more than 1.6 shares. The dividend didn't show up on Yahoo's historical prices either

OK, I took the total amount earned divided by the total amount held...and got 1/5. I think, that is how much the dividend really was, maybe I am wrong!

Dividends are payments made by a company to its shareholders. When a company earns a profit, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings), or it can be paid to the shareholders of the company as a dividend. Many companies retain a portion of their earnings and pay the remainder to their shareholders. Publicly-traded companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, commonly annually, bi-annually or quarterly; however, they may declare a dividend at any time.

Dividends are usually paid in cash. Sometimes dividends instead take the form of shares in the company (either newly-created shares or existing shares bought in the market). Exceptionally, dividends might take the form of shares in other companies or other assets.

It looks like you received a dividend paid out in shares. To figure out the dollar amount, take your 1.6 shares received and multiply by the share price. Then find out how many shares you actually own in that company. Divide the multiple by the number of shares.

For simplicity's sake we'll say the share price is $100. If you received 1.6 shares, you received the equivalent of $160 dollars. If you own 100 shares, the dividend paid was $1.60 per share ($160/100).

View news on the company and you'll find out the exact numbers using the math I gave above.

The dividend is based on the total # of shares that you own. You could have asked them to cut you a check or simply have them reinvest the $ back into the mutual fund (you chose the later).

1.6 shares x the share price is the amount of the dividend.

Give Yahoo Finance a day or two to show the dividend payout.