Dividend Amount - Equity Derivatives Provision

Record Amount, Paid Amount, Ex Amount: the difference betwixt? A Dividend Amount is a Dividend Amount, end of the day. What this is all to do with is when a Dividend Amount is deemed to occur, and therefore which Dividend Period it falls in.

It may fall in the Dividend Period in which the ex-dividend date, the record date or the dividend payment date falls. That is all, really.

There are four crucial dates: in order, these are the “declaration date”, the “ex-dividend date”, the “record date”, and the “Dividend Payment Date”.

Declaration date: The declaration date (also called an announcement date is the date on which the issuer announces there will be a dividend. They usually happen quarterly, for those stocks which are regular dividend payers. This comes first. The dividend declaration will include the size of the dividend (the Dividend Amount), the ex-dividend date (being the last date on which, if you buy the stock, you get the dividend), and the Dividend Payment Date — the date on which a dividend is actually paid. Timings are likely to be (these are indicative — I just made them up okay):

Ex-dividend date actually keys off the record date, and is set based on stock exchange rules — usually a business day before the record date. If you buy a stock on or after its ex-dividend date, you won’t get the dividend because the trade won’t settle until after the ...
Record date, being the date you actually have to be on the register of shareholders to qualify for the dividend, which will be paid to whoever was the holder of record on the record date, whether or not they have subsequently sold the share, on the
Dividend payment date which may be as much as a month or more after the original dividend declaration date.

References