The ex-dividend date (or ex-date) is the cutoff that decides who gets a stock’s next dividend. If you buy shares on or after the ex-dividend date, you will not receive that payment; the seller keeps it. If you buy before the ex-date, the dividend is yours. For U.S. stocks, the ex-dividend date is now usually the same day as the company’s record date, or one business day earlier if the record date falls on a weekend or holiday. There are exceptions: when a dividend equals 25% or more of the share price, the ex-date is pushed to one business day after the dividend is paid, and stock prices often drop by roughly the dividend amount on the ex-date.
Source: Investor.gov (U.S. SEC), “Ex-Dividend Dates: When Are You Entitled to Stock and Cash Dividends”
Image: Stock ticker board on Market Street, San Francisco, photo by Francisco Gonzalez (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.