To receive a dividend you must own the stock before its ex-dividend date.
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.
Check your understanding
You want to receive the next declared dividend. When must you own the shares?
Entitlement depends on owning the shares before the ex-dividend date; buying on or after the ex-date means the seller keeps the dividend.