Unpaid Dividend

  

Categories: Stocks

The company declared it on November 17th. They said they'd pay it January 15th. It is owed. Legally. No matter what.

As of November 18th, it's unpaid. It lives on the balance sheet as Obligations Payable or Dividends Payable or something like that. And, as soon as its paid, well...then it's over. The divvy is sent out; investors smile, and they wait 90 more days until the next one hits.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are Dividends: Declaration...15 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what are dividends? that is declaration date ex-dividend

00:07

date pay date and record date yeah so you thought you could just invest in the [Money transfers to market for stock]

00:12

stock pay 20 bucks a share and get to know 30 cents a share in dividends four

00:16

times a year right? That was all you needed to know oh yeah not so easy well maybe

00:21

it is easy but things are never so simple on the street the mean street you

00:26

know the Wall Street when you buy a share of stock that pays a dividend a

00:30

whole bunch of technical questions get asked and they basically all revolve [Question marks revolving around a stock]

00:34

around whether or not you are entitled to that thirty cents and if you think

00:39

about it dividends have been around for a long long time a whole bunch of

00:42

schemers out there trying to kind of ripoff that dividend in nefarious ways [Person tears off dividend from stock]

00:46

all right well why does it matter whether you're entitled to that thirty

00:50

cents or not well with all those nefarious people out there wouldn't you

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think there are a whole bunch of sharpies they're trying to legally take [Man reading book of laws and loopholes]

00:57

advantage of the system like you know buying that $20 a share stock the day

01:02

before the dividend is payable holding the stock until that investor is owed

01:07

the dividend and then just selling the stock like five minutes later it's like

01:11

an ATM courtesy of equity stock dividend right good buy it and you sell it a [Person uses a equity stock dividends ATM]

01:16

couple days later make free profit move on well the markets are smarter than we

01:20

are and they adjust to that very quickly So anyway the laws have to

01:25

be crystal clear as they apply to that process or innocent people kind of get [Man locked away in a cell]

01:30

taken and each of the terms are on the technicals behind who gets what when in

01:33

the land of dividends matters a lot all right first up declaration date okay

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that's the date when the board of directors publicly announces that they

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will in fact pay a dividend along with the details relating to that dividend

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like how big it will be the day you'll have to own the stock to be entitled to

01:51

receive that dividend and also the date that the dividend will actually be paid

01:56

all right so that's that next up the ex-dividend date and yes it [Laws appear]

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sounds like something Charles Xavier and Magneto would argue about but in fact [Charles Xavier and Magneto appear]

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it's not although that'd be a cool superhero to be like a ex-dividend

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opposed to an x-men maybe that's like a Wall Street superhero

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our lawyers are glaring at us right now the ex-dividend date is the last date

02:16

after which shares bought in a given company don't automatically have that

02:21

periods dividend attached so think about it like it's a Macy's white flower day [Macy's advert appears on TV screen]

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sale discount on the share you're buying if you don't buy it by say

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close of market Tuesday or whenever it is well then you don't get it that's the

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ex-dividend date you don't get that freebie dividend discount when you buy

02:40

the share if you buy it after the close like at 4:01 p.m. on Tuesday you had to

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buy it before the market closed on that Tuesday or whenever the ex-dividend date [Man stood next to clock]

02:49

was got it all right so all the other dates before this are called cum

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dividend or with dividend such that anyone owning this stock at that period

02:58

has legal right to receive the dividend all right it is natural then for a $40

03:03

stock paying say a 50 cent dividend to naturally drop 50 cents the day after

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the ex-dividend date comes into effect and in reality more or less this is what

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happens albeit with many twists and turns in the market that is the stock

03:18

goes from 40 bucks to 39.50 a share you know the next minute so the key

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delimiter date is the record date shareholders have to register their

03:28

ownership and yes your brokerage does that automatically usually of a given

03:32

share of stock on or before the date of record to get that dividend and

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eventually when the dividend is finally paid magically that date is called the [Magicians stick taps stock and disappears in smoke]

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pay date yeah shocker so yeah that's a lot of dates to keep track of kind of

03:47

reminds us of ourselves when we were in our 20s in college and had a social life

03:51

not anymore [Group of girls sitting together]

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