Ex Dividend Date?

A dividend works as follows:
First, the Board of Directors announces the dividend, the size of the dividend, the record date, and the payment date. This is done on the declaration date (day in which all information regarding the dividend is published).

So on the declaration date management informs you about:

  • size of the dividend
  • the record date, the date by which investors must be on the company’s books in order to receive a stock’s dividend.
  • the payment date, the date at which the company pays the declared dividend only to shareholders who own(ed) the stock before the ex-date.

The ex-dividend date of a stock is the day on which the stock begins trading without the subsequent dividend value, so you only receive dividend when you hold through close of the day before ex-date.
The ex-date is not set by management but by the exchange (usually 1-3 days).

visualization from investopdia

So in your case you bought before ex-date, did not sell before close of the day before ex-date, so you’ll receive your dividend. You can sell on ex-date and you’ll still receive your dividend at or around pay date.

Also, a dividend is taxed (in Pepsi’s case 15%), so you’ll receive 85% of the dividend declared by Pepsi.

Note that dividends don’t always arrive directly on pay date, sometimes they arrive 1-14 days later into your account.

Maybe looking through this would help you:



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