Ex-Dividend

Source: Encyclopedia of Banking & Finance (9h Edition) by Charles J Woelfel
(We recommend this as work of authority and you can order it here)                  

Without dividend.  Under the five-day delivery plan, unless an exchange directs otherwise, stocks sell ex-dividend on the fourth full business day preceding the stockholders of record date.  When the record date is a holiday or a Saturday, stocks sell ex-dividend on the fifth preceding full business day.  Transactions made on the cash basis on the ex-dividend date and up to and including the stockholders of record date carry the dividend.

For example, under the five-day delivery plan, where the stockholders of record date is a Monday, stocks sell ex-dividend on the preceding Tuesday; Tuesday, on the preceding Wednesday; Wednesday, on the preceding Thrusday; Thursday, on the preceding Friday; and Friday, on the preceding Monday.  The NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE and the majority of other stock exchanges operate on the five-day delivery basis on regular way transactions, i.e., stocks go ex-dividend on the fourth business day preceding the record date as fixed by the corporation, or the day of the closing of the transfer books therefore, except transactions therein made specifically for cash, or transactions for which a special ruling is made.

The AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE operates under the five-day delivery plan, but with appropriate adjustment of ex-dividend dates on stocks which transfer outside the New York City metropolitan area.  Transactions in stocks shall not be ex-dividend or ex-rights until announcement to that effect is made by the exchange.

Back to Information