If you happen to own stock in a company that pays out a dividend, then you can usually expect to get paid a dividend four times a year or once a quarter.
the date of when you actually get paid is going to fluctuate entirely on the different companies that you own.
there's even companies out there that pay once a month, which is really awesome.
But most of the time you can expect four times a year as a dividend and the dates are all going to fluctuate.
When Are Dividends Paid?
So if you're wondering when you're going to get paid a dividend from the different companies that you own.
all you have to do is pay attention to four different dividend dates that i'm going to explain right here and those dividend dates are issued for every single dividend out there on the market.
So every single time a company declares a dividend you will have those dates available for you for all of the different stocks and the different companies that you own.
if you just randomly go out there and buy some shares of a company just because you want to get their most recent dividend that might not actually happen.
If you don't pay attention to those dividend dates. because the dates determine whether or not you qualify for the dividend, and that's why you need to pay attention to them.
Okay, so as far as the dividend dates go i want to explain this as simple as i can but i still have to explain what they are.
So the first one that you're going to run into this is called the declaration date, and this is really important here because this means that a dividend is going to be issued.
Now what happens is the board of directors they decide that they are going to declare a dividend.
They're going to tell you how much that dividend is going to be and then they're also going to give you a few more dates that are really important as well.
Specifically the payment date of when you're actually going to get paid out that dividend.
then the last day that you can actually get on the books and i'll explain what those are here.
So now that the dividend has been declared.
They're also going to issue the other three dates that we need to pay attention to here.
The first one is going to be called the x dividend date think of it just like an x.
i'm going to explain more on this later because this is actually the most important date to pay attention to.
but think of it just like the x or the last day that you have to get on the books.
the next date that you're going to have is called the record date, and this is always going to be one trading day after the x date.
So the record you have to be on the books in order to be paid out a dividend just think of it like that.
the last date this is the day that we actually get paid.
This is the payment date and it's usually a couple weeks to a month past the ex dividend date, and that's usually how it occurs now that you understand the basics of the four different dividend dates.
Let's go back and talk about the x dividend date because this is the number one date that you need to pay attention to as far as knowing for sure.
If you're going to be issued a dividend or not. now think of it like an x like i said earlier the x date.
if you don't happen to own shares of that company and you want to get in on their most recent dividend.
all you have to do is buy those shares at least one day prior to that x date in order to be issued a dividend.
if you plan on selling the shares and you want to get that dividend, then you have to sell those shares on the x date or after and this is all you have to pay attention to.
everything in the trading world takes two business days to complete meaning they're open monday through friday not talking about a weekend or a holiday.
But as long as you're just making sure that you give it two business days to be on record, then you're good to receive those dividends.
So as an example here pretend that a dividend was declared at the beginning of the month.
So the first of the month and then on the 15th that happens to be the x dividend date and then on the 16th that's going to be the record date and then on the 30th that's going to be your payment date.
if you go back to the 15th, let's pretend that that's a wednesday on your ex dividend date, and they're not closed for a holiday then all you have to do is make sure that you buy those shares on.
Tuesday the 14th to make sure that you're on record in order to get paid those dividends.
if you already own the shares, you really don't have to worry about a thing if you're not planning on selling them, but if you do plan on selling them and you want to get that dividend.
just make sure that you're doing that on the 15th on the wednesday or later in order to be issued that dividend for that current dividend that's being paid out now.
If you want to know how to find these specific dividend dates, you can usually just do a simple google search for the company and the dividend and you can find that information or you can go to lots of different stock trading websites and different brokerages offer them as well.
just remember that if you don't own shares of that company that you just need to buy them one business day prior to the x date and then if you're selling them and you want a dividend, just make sure that you sell them on the x date or later.
So we think now you know everything about When Are Dividends Paid?