You're all excited. You finally have money to invest, and
you're planning to plunk $10,000 into
Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM).
You're especially psyched about its generous 4.8% dividend
yield, as it will mean a quarterly payout of $120 for
you.
Well, hold those horses. The stock's "
ex-dividend"
date was yesterday, Sept. 24. That means you're not entitled
to its upcoming dividend. Dividends don't get paid to
whomever is holding a share of stock on the dividend's
payment date. Instead, you have to own a stock before its
ex-dividend date in order to receive the payout. (In
newspaper listings, you'll sometimes see an "x" next to
stocks that are trading ex-dividend.)
If you sell your shares on or after that ex-dividend date,
you'll still get the dividend payment.
Fortunately, it's not a secret when stocks go
"ex-dividend." You can look up such info online (and can
always just give the company a jingle and ask). At Yahoo!
Finance, for example, look up
Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) and you'll see that
its upcoming quarterly dividend payout will be distributed on
Oct. 13, and that its ex-dividend date is Sept. 28. Here's
the scoop on five of the biggest dividend payers out there,
to give you an idea of how far apart the dates tend to
be:
Company
Dividend Yield
Dividend Pay Date
Ex-Dividend Date
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM)
2.4%
Sept. 9
Aug. 11
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
2.1%
Dec. 9
Nov. 17
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)
0.4%
Oct. 30
Oct. 2
General Electric (NYSE: GE) Continued... |