How dividends work
What a dividend is, who decides it, the four dates that govern it, how the money reaches you, and what it does and doesn't tell you about a company.
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Learn: dividends & ex-dividend dates
Plain-English guides to how dividends and ex-dividend dates actually work — the mechanics, the dates, the tax rules, and the numbers worth checking before you rely on an income stream.
Start with how dividends work if you want the whole picture, or the four dividend dates if you just need to know which one decides whether you get paid. For measurements across our whole covered universe rather than explanations, see our dividend timing research.
Ex-dividend date vs record date vs payment date
The four key dividend dates, in order, and which one actually decides whether you're entitled to the payout.
T+1 settlement and ex-dividend dates
Since May 2024 the ex-dividend date falls on the same day as the record date, not before it — which makes a lot of older guidance wrong.
What happens to a stock price on the ex-dividend date?
Why a share price falls by roughly the dividend on the ex-date, and what it means for buyers, sellers, and traders.
Dividend yield explained
How yield is calculated, trailing versus forward, and why an unusually high yield is more often a warning than a bargain.
The dividend payout ratio
The sustainability check that yield can't give you — including why the cash-flow version is more honest than the earnings one.
Qualified vs ordinary dividends
The lower tax rate depends on a holding-period test measured around the ex-dividend date. How the 61-day rule works, and who fails it.
Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs)
How reinvestment compounds, the tax you owe on cash you never received, and the cost-basis records you'll eventually need.
Monthly vs quarterly dividends
About 91% of US payers pay quarterly and 8% monthly — and the split shapes which companies you end up owning.
Dividend Aristocrats and Dividend Kings
What 25- and 50-year increase streaks actually prove, why boards defend them so hard, and how they end.
Why companies cut dividends
What drives a board to cut, the signals that appear first, and what our own research found about how far ahead the market prices it.
Special dividends
One-off payments, why they distort yields and growth figures, and the 25% rule that puts the ex-date after the payment date.
How to read a dividend announcement
The four facts to pull out of a declaration, the wording that signals a change in policy, and the details that are easy to misread.
Dividend capture strategy explained
How buying before the ex-date to collect a dividend really works — and why the price drop means it isn't free money.
Ready to use it? Browse the announcement and ex-dividend calendar or read how the predictions are made.
Not investment advice. Where a dividend announcement date is shown it is a
statistical estimate computed from that company's own declaration history —
when we expect a board to declare, not a statement by the company. Ex-dividend dates come from
the company: where one is shown, it has been declared. A dividend can be changed or cancelled at
any time. Always verify against the company's official announcement before trading.
Data derived from public sources; last built 2026-09-18.