Ex-Dividend: Meaning and Date (2024)

FAQs

What is the meaning of ex-dividend date? ›

The ex-dividend date or "ex-date" is usually one business day before the record date. Investors who purchase a stock on its ex-dividend date or after will not receive the next dividend payment. Instead, the seller gets the dividend. Investors only get dividends if they buy the stock before the ex-dividend date.

If you buy stocks one day or more before their ex-dividend date, you will still get the dividend. That's when a stock is said to trade cum-dividend, or with dividend. If you buy on the ex-dividend date or later, you won't get the dividend. The ex-dividend date is in place to allow pending stock trades to settle.

Another important note to consider: as long as you purchase a stock prior to the ex-dividend date, you can then sell the stock any time on or after the ex-dividend date and still receive the dividend. A common misconception is that investors need to hold the stock through the record date or pay date.

Existing shareholders of a company's stock receive notification, typically by mail, when the company declares a dividend payment. Included in the information, along with the amount of the dividend, the record date, and the payment date is the ex-dividend date.

The ex-dividend date occurs first. You must have acquired your shares before the ex-dividend date in order to receive a dividend. If you acquired your shares on or after the ex-dividend date, the previous owner will receive the dividend. Sell your shares on or after the Ex-Dividend Date and you'll receive the dividend.

The record date: The date that determines all shareholders of record who are entitled to the dividend payment. This date usually occurs two days after the ex-date. The payment date: This is the day dividend payments are issued to shareholders and is usually about one month after the record date.

The stock price drops by the amount of the dividend on the ex-dividend date. Remember, the ex-dividend date is the day before the record date. If investors want to receive a stock's dividend, they have to buy shares of stock before the ex-dividend date.

When it comes to investing for dividends, there are three key dates that everyone should memorize. The three dates are the date of declaration, date of record, and date of payment.

If you buy a stock one day before the ex-dividend, you will get the dividend. If you buy on the ex-dividend date or any day after, you won't get the dividend. Conversely, if you want to sell a stock and still get a dividend that has been declared, you need to hang onto it until the ex-dividend day.

Ex-dividend date: This is the day after which dividend payments will no longer be paid to investors who purchase a stock. Record date: The dividend record date is the date which one must own shares in order to be eligible for dividend payments.

Why does stock price fall on ex-dividend date? ›

So the new investors have no incentive to buy the stock. The stock price adjusts to the dividend paid out as opportunity lost and analysts calculate this as the ex-dividend price of the stock. For instance, IDFC Ltd announced an interim dividend of Rs 11 per share and its share price reduced by Rs 13 on the payout day.

If you have bought a stock one day before the ex-dividend date, you will be eligible to get the dividend amount. However, if you buy the stock on the ex-dividend date or after the ex-dividend date, you won't be eligible to receive the dividend.

“Dividend capture strategy” returns are the trading technique of buying a stock just before the dividend is paid, holding it just long enough to collect the dividend, then selling it. If you can sell it for as much as you paid, you have “captured” the dividend at no cost, other than the transaction costs.

Investors must have bought the stock at least two days before the official date of a dividend payment (the "date of record") in order to receive that payment. The company pays out the dividend to shareholders.

What Is a Good Dividend Yield? Yields from 2% to 6% are generally considered to be a good dividend yield, but there are plenty of factors to consider when deciding if a stock's yield makes it a good investment. Your own investment goals should also play a big role in deciding what a good dividend yield is for you.

The ex-dividend date is the first day the stock trades without its dividend, thus ex-dividend. If you want to get the dividend payment, you need to own the stock by this day. That means you have to buy before the end of the day before the ex-dividend date to get the next dividend. In other words, it's the cut-off date.

The declaration date is the day on which the board of directors announces the dividend. The ex-date or ex-dividend date is the trading date on (and after) which the dividend is not owed to a new buyer of the stock. The ex-date is one business day before the date of record.

What Is Cum Dividend? A stock is cum dividend, which means "with dividend," when a company has declared that there will be a dividend in the future but has not yet paid it out. A stock will trade cum dividend until the ex-dividend date. After that, the stock trades without its dividend rights.

Book closures allow companies to bring clarity to the process of stock ownership. After a company declares a book closure it continues to maintain records of ownership. The record date is the date that companies check to see if an investor is on their books and therefore eligible to receive a dividend.