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Dividends & corporate actions

Ex-Dividend Date

The cutoff date on which a stock begins trading without the right to the next declared dividend; buyers on or after it do not receive it.

Part of the Growth & Capital Returns course · Lesson 20 of 26

What it is

The ex-dividend date (or ex-date) is the first day a stock trades without entitlement to the upcoming dividend. To receive that dividend you must own the shares before this date. If you buy on the ex-date or later, the seller keeps the dividend.

Why it matters

It determines who actually gets paid, so timing a purchase around it matters for income investors. A common misunderstanding is thinking you can buy the day before payment and collect the dividend, when in fact ownership before the ex-date is what counts; the share price also typically drops by roughly the dividend amount on the ex-date.

How it's calculated

It is a scheduled date set relative to the company's record date, not a computed figure. Under the standard T+1 settlement now used in the US and Canada, the ex-date generally falls on the same business day as the record date.

How Quintarthai uses it

Dividend details, including the dividend yield in the Key-metrics grid, appear on each company's deep-analysis page in the app.

Cross-border note. The US and Canada both moved to T+1 settlement in 2024 (Canada on May 27, the US on May 28), so ex-date conventions are now aligned across NYSE/Nasdaq and the TSX.

FAQ

If I sell on the ex-dividend date, do I lose the dividend?
No. If you owned the shares before the ex-date, you still receive the dividend even if you sell on or after the ex-date.
Why does the stock price drop on the ex-date?
The company is about to pay out cash, so the share price typically falls by about the dividend amount to reflect that value leaving the business.
Related terms
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