The Growing Power of Dividends
Learn everything you need to know in '7 Winning Strategies for Dividend Investors' for FREE from The Successful Investor.
The Best Canadian Dividend Stocks to Buy: REITS Canada and other Top Canadian Dividend Stocks.
Topic: Dividend Stocks
May 3, 2024|by Pat McKeough
Add Comment
Will using the ex-dividend date and record date get more dividend returns?
Knowing your ex-dividend date, and record date, will help you get full value from your dividends, but trying to make a quick buck buying and selling around key dividend dates is not worth the risk.
Dividend stocks are an essential part of a good conservative investing philosophy. But there are certain details you should know about the way dividends are paid out. Key to that is understanding the ex dividend date and record date. The ex-date for dividends is a crucial concept for dividend investors to grasp.
What’s the difference between ex-dividend date and record date?
The ex dividend date and record date are closely related and often confused. The ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date when the shares begin to trade without their dividend.
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. It’s why investors pay close attention to both the ex dividend date and record date when buying shares. Understanding the ex-date for dividends is essential for maximizing your dividend income.
The Growing Power of Dividends
Learn everything you need to know in '7 Winning Strategies for Dividend Investors' for FREE from The Successful Investor.
The Best Canadian Dividend Stocks to Buy: REITS Canada and other Top Canadian Dividend Stocks.
What’s an ex-dividend date example for investing?
In this ex-dividend date example, a company’s ex-dividend date is February 21, 2023, one business day before the record date of February 22, 2023, meaning investors who bought the stock before February 21 would receive the $0.52 per share dividend payable on February 24, while those who bought on or after February 21 would not.
Let’s say a company’s dividend of $0.52 a share was payable on Friday, February 24, 2023, to those shareholders of record at the close of business on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, the record date.
One business day before that record date, the shares began to trade without their dividend, that is, on the ex-dividend date of February 21, 2023. If you bought this dividend-paying stock one day or more before the ex-dividend date, you still got the dividend (because the shares are trading cum-dividend, or with dividend). But if you bought these shares on the ex-dividend date or later, you would not receive the dividend. Knowing the ex-date for dividends allowed investors to time their purchases to qualify for the payout.
How does the ex-dividend date affect stock prices?
On the ex-dividend date, a stock’s price typically falls by approximately the amount of the dividend.
This price adjustment is a reflection of the stock’s reduced value after the dividend payout. However, the actual price movement can be more complex. While the stock price theoretically should drop by the exact amount of the dividend, real-world factors often intervene. Market sentiment, company news, or broader economic factors can cause the price to fall less than the dividend amount or even rise on the ex-dividend date. Additionally, for stocks with high dividend yields, this price drop can be more noticeable and may affect short-term trading strategies. Long-term investors, however, generally don’t need to be concerned about this temporary price adjustment, as they benefit from both the dividend income and the potential for future stock price appreciation.
What is the dividend capture strategy, and how does it work in your investing strategy?
“Dividend capture” is the trading technique of buying a dividend 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 for it (and that’s not guaranteed), you have “captured” the dividend at no cost, other than the transaction costs.
To do this, you would buy shares in stocks just before the ex-dividend date, so you would be a shareholder of record on the record date, and would receive the dividend. Because the stock falls by the amount of the dividend on the ex-dividend date, the strategy then calls for you to wait for the stock to move back to the price where you bought it at before the ex-dividend date. At this point, you sell the stock for a break-even trade.
Dividend capture strategies may have appeal for securities dealers or brokers executing huge trades with very low transaction costs. Corporations may even have tax benefits. But for the average investor, there’s little chance of making a significant profit on this use of ex dividend date, and record date. Trying to game the ex-date for dividends is generally not advisable for retail investors.
How can understanding ex-dividend dates help maximize dividend income?
Knowledge of ex-dividend dates allows investors to time their purchases to qualify for dividend payouts.
The ex-dividend date, also known as the ex-date for dividends, is a key concept for dividend investors. It represents the date on which a stock begins trading without the value of its upcoming dividend payment. Investors who purchase the stock before the ex-dividend date are entitled to receive the dividend, while those who buy on or after the ex-date will not receive the payout. The ex-dividend date is typically set one business day before the record date, which is the cutoff date used to determine which shareholders are eligible for the dividend. Some investors attempt to employ a “dividend capture” strategy, buying stocks just before the ex-date to collect the dividend and then selling the shares. However, this approach is risky and generally not recommended for average investors due to transaction costs and the uncertainty of the stock price recovering after the ex-date drop. Understanding the ex-dividend date is crucial for investors seeking to maximize their dividend income, but attempting to exploit it for short-term gains is usually not a wise strategy.
We often receive questions about ex-dividend dates, which play a crucial role in dividend investing. To help clarify some common points of confusion, we’ve compiled answers to frequently asked questions about ex-dividend dates and their implications for investors:
What happens if you sell a stock on its ex-dividend date?
If you sell a stock on its ex-dividend date, you will still receive the dividend because you owned the stock before the ex-dividend date.
How often are ex-dividend dates typically set?
Ex-dividend dates are typically set quarterly for most stocks, aligning with the company’s dividend payment schedule, though some companies may have different frequencies.
Can ex-dividend dates affect option prices?
Yes, ex-dividend dates can affect option prices, particularly for deep in-the-money calls, as the stock price is expected to decrease by approximately the dividend amount.
What is the significance of the payment date in relation to the ex-dividend date?
The payment date, which comes after the ex-dividend date and record date, is when the company actually distributes the dividend to eligible shareholders.
How do ex-dividend dates work for mutual funds?
Mutual funds also have ex-dividend dates, but they may distribute dividends more frequently than individual stocks, sometimes monthly or quarterly.
Is using the ex-dividend date as an investing strategy new to you? What do you think of this investing strategy in the current market? Please share your thoughts with us.
This post was originally published in April 2017 and is regularly updated.
Comments
Tell Us What YOU Think
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Please be respectful with your comments and help us keep this an area that everyone can enjoy. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Terms of Use, please click here to report it to the administrator.
Announcing our first new advisory in 15 years!
Learn More
The Successful Investor Inc. and its affiliate Successful Investor Wealth Management (referred to hereafter as TSI Network) know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting websites owned by or associated with TSI Network, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
This privacy policy is applicable to all TSI Network Visitors, Clients, Employees, Suppliers, Web sites, Management, and all other interested parties. Any links to or from our site are not covered by this policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every site that you visit.
The privacy of the site/store visitor is very important to TSI Network, and is respected at all times. The information we receive from customers helps us to personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network.
We do not collect or disclose personal information, except when it is provided to us voluntarily by the site/store visitor with their consent.
We store subscriber and password files containing personal information securely. These files are stored in secure areas that are not accessible to the general public. We are always working to ensure the security of your personal information.
We are continuously in the process of improving our sites and services. If any new features or policies require a change to this current policy, we will post a clear notice of this change on pages of our site where the privacy policy appears. The principle behind this privacy policy is to collect information with your knowledge and consent.
What personal information do we collect?
The information we receive from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network. TSI Network may collect personal information online for all legal purposes, which include, but are not limited to:
Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way through sign-up forms or ordering forms for publications and services. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our services and features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing your web browsing experience for you, improving our website, and communicating with you.
Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many websites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your web browser accesses TSI Network.
Information from Other Sources: For reasons such as improving personalization of our service (for example, providing better product recommendations or special offers that we think will interest you), we might receive information about you from other sources and add it to our account information. We also sometimes receive updated delivery and address information from our shippers or other sources so that we can correct our records and deliver your next purchase or communication more easily.
We do reserve the right, however, to collect and perform statistical analyses of the internet traffic to our website for our internal use. However, information collected does not allow us to identify any individual, and will not collect any personal information of the visitor. Furthermore, we do not sell, rent or loan to any outside parties the information collected and analyzed.
Although you may be able to access some of our websites without being required to register or provide personal information, certain websites and sections of our websites may require registration. In addition, if you choose to contact us to ask a question, we will collect your personal information so that we can respond to your question.
To make the visitor’s experience on our website easier, we may use per-session “cookies” (session identifiers) to track the state of the visitor session. This “cookie” is destroyed when your session with our website is over.
Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide features like "Remember Me" for our paying subscribers. Cookies are also used during the ordering process to help ensure your order is handled correctly. We do not extract any information about individual users or their computers as a part of this process.
The "Help" portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, cookies allow you to take full advantage of some of TSI Network's most useful features, and may be required to access certain areas of our website.
Internet Protocol (or IP) addresses are collected for all visitors to this site. This information is used for the purposes of traffic analysis.
Does TSI Network Use the Information It Receives?
"Contact Us" and Comment Features: TSI Network encourages visitors to its websites to contact us with questions and comments. Email addresses and other information of persons using these features may be collected in order to facilitate our responses to those inquiries.
Purchases of Merchandise: TSI Network websites may offer individuals the opportunity to purchase branded or other merchandise online. In connection with those purchases, customers may be asked to submit personal information, such as shipping addresses and credit card information, which is required to complete the transaction. TSI Network may also offer a Membership program, through which purchasers of its products may receive discounts on their online purchases. Membership registration may involve the submission of personal information to TSI Network and assignment of a user ID and password.
Agents: We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.
Promotional Offers: We may make our postal mailing list available to organizations offering products or services that might interest you. If you prefer NOT to receive these offers, please send an email with your name and address to service@tsinetwork.ca with "Do Not Rent Name" in the subject line. We do NOT make our email list available outside our organization.
Protection of TSI Network and Others: We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with law; enforce the terms of the Legal notices that accompany this policy; or protect the rights, property or safety of TSI Network, our users or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
In addition to these limited disclosures of personal information, TSI Network may provide its affiliates or unaffiliated third parties with aggregate information about visitors to our sites. For example, we might disclose the median ages of visitors to our websites, or the numbers of visitors to our websites that come from different geographic areas. Such aggregate information will not include information of any individual visitors to our websites.
TSI Network may provide personal and other information to a purchaser or successor entity in connection with the sale of TSI Network, a subsidiary or line of business associated with TSI Network, or substantially all of the assets of TSI Network or one of its subsidiaries, affiliates or lines of business.
With Your Consent: Other than as set out above, you will receive notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.
Except as provided herein, TSI Network will not sell or rent personal information about you to unaffiliated third parties.
We may disclose personal information you have provided through our websites, for the above purposes, to persons or companies that we retain to carry out and other activities for which you have registered or in which you have otherwise asked to participate. In particular, we may for these purposes transfer information to any country (including the USA and other countries which may not offer the same level of data protection as Canada). We also will disclose personal information if required by law, including compliance with warrants, subpoenas or other legal processes.
TSI Network requires persons and companies to which it discloses personal information to restrict their use of such information to the purposes for which it has been provided by TSI Network, to adequately protect the information, and not to disclose that information to others. TSI Network cannot be responsible, however, for any damages caused by the failure of unaffiliated third parties to honour their privacy obligations to TSI Network. Similarly, TSI Network is not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites that are linked to our websites.
COMMENTS: TERMS OF USE
We’re always happy to receive feedback, comments and ideas from TSI Network visitors, and we encourage you to add your perspective to any issue by leaving your comments on the site.
To make sure users get the most out of the site’s comments function, we’ve provided a few guidelines:
- Do not post threatening, harassing, defamatory, or libelous material.
- Do not intentionally make false or misleading statements.
- Do not offer to sell or buy any product or service.
- Do not post material that infringes copyright.
- Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law.
- TSI Network will not accept responsibility for information posted in the comments.
Please note that we reserve the right to delete or edit all comments. As well, we may close posts to further comments at our discretion. If a user repeatedly abuses our comment policy, we may also revoke that user’s access to our comments section.
By commenting on TSI Network, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post on the site, and that you will relieve us from any and all liability that may result from those postings.
Special Note for Parents
TSI Network does not sell products for purchase by children. If you are under 18, you may use TSI Network's site only with involvement of a parent or guardian
How do we protect your personal information?
TSI Network does everything possible to prevent unauthorized intrusion to its websites and the alteration, acquisition or misuse of personal information by unauthorized persons. Notably passwords submitted by users of our websites are encrypted using encryption mechanisms. However, TSI Network cautions visitors to its websites that no network, including the Internet, is entirely secure. Accordingly, we cannot be responsible for loss, corruption or unauthorized acquisition of personal information provided to our websites, or for any damages resulting from such loss, corruption or unauthorized acquisition.
How do we maintain the integrity of your personal information?
TSI Network has procedures in place to keep your personal information accurate, complete and current for the purposes for which it is collected and used. You may review the information that you have provided to us and where appropriate you may request that it be corrected. If you wish to review your personal information please send a request to: service@tsinetwork.ca.
How do I withdraw my consent to use Personal Information? Access, Correction, Inquiries and Complaints
If you wish to request access to, or correction of, your personal information in our custody or control, or find out how we've used or disclosed that information, please make your request in writing to us. We may need to verify your identity before searching for or providing you with personal information. In some circ*mstances, we may not be able to provide access to your personal information, for example if it contains the personal information of other persons, if it constitutes confidential commercial information, or if it is protected by solicitor-client privilege. If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct, your personal information, we will advise you of the reasons for this refusal.
If you do not want to receive promotional offers, please notify TSI Network by sending an email to service@tsinetwork.ca.
How can you ask questions about our Privacy Policy and access your personal information?
The provision of information by you is entirely voluntary and you have the right not to provide information. Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to receive certain information as to whether or not personal information relating to you is held by TSI Network and to obtain a copy of such information that is sought. You may also have the right to require information, where appropriate, to be erased, blocked or made anonymous or to have data updated or corrected. If you do not wish TSI Network to hold information about you or if you wish to have access to information, modify information, or object to any processing of information or if you have questions please contact us.
What Choices Do I Have?
- As discussed, you can always choose not to provide information even though it might be needed to make a purchase or to take advantage of TSI Network features.
- You can add or update certain information as explained in the section "How Can I Change My Information?"
- If you do not want to receive email or other mail from us, please notify TSI Network by sending an email to service@tsinetwork.ca.
- The "Help" portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, you will not be able to use important features of TSI Network sites if you do not use cookies.
Changes to this Policy
This Policy is the sole authorized statement of TSI Network's practices with respect to the collection of personal information through TSI Network's websites and the subsequent use and disclosure of such information. Any summaries of this Policy generated by third party software or otherwise (for example, in connection with the "Platform for Privacy Preferences" or "P3P") shall have no legal effect, are in no way binding upon TSI Network, shall not be relied upon in substitute for this Policy, and neither supersede nor modify this Policy.
TSI Network may revise this Policy from time to time.
Legal Notices and Disclaimers
The contents of this web site and our publications are based upon sources of information believed to be reliable, but no warranty or representation, expressed or implied, is given as to their accuracy or completeness. Any opinion reflects the Successful Investor’s judgment at the date of publication and neither the Successful Investor, nor any of its affiliated companies, nor any of their officers, directors or employees, accepts any responsibility in respect of the information or recommendations contained in the publications or on this web site. Moreover, the information or recommendations are subject to change without notice.
Information presented on this web site or contained in our publications is not an offer, nor a solicitation, to buy or sell any securities referred to on the web site or in the publications. The material is general information intended for recipients who understand the risks associated with an investment in any securities referred to in the publications or on this web site. The Successful Investor has made no determination regarding whether an investment, course of action, or associated risks are suitable for the recipient.
CLOSE
Enter Your Log In Credentials
- Lost your password? Create New Password
- No account? Sign up
