I bought some British Aerospace shares on 20 July via my bank and sold some of them today just after the announcement of the results and of the dividend payable. Am I entitled to this dividend on either all the shares I bought or only on the ones I still have, or neither or both? TIA
No. If you read their announcement, it'll say when the ex-dividend date is - probably at least a fortnight after the announcement. So whoever bought your shares will get it.
Okay, thanks for that.
To expand - you suggest that you still own some shares. You will get the dividend if you own the shares on the ex-dividend date.
Note that the dividend is paid based on the company share registry on the record date which is usually a few days before the ex-dividend date.
Therefore it is possible to sell shares before the ex-dividend date but still get the dividend. This dividend then has to be given to the person who bought the shares. I'm not sure how this situation is normally resolved - it may be that the share price when you sell is adjusted or there may be some other protocol to get the dividend to the right person.
Tim.
Interesting; thanks.
Interesting, but wrong, methinks....
The record date is normally two trading days *after* the ex-div date, precisely so that trades conducted prior to the ex-div date reach the registrar in time for him to record, and therefore subsequently pay the upcoming dividend to, the new share owner.
Whereas trades conducted on or after the ex-div date will not be recorded until after the record cut-off date for the upcoming dividend, so the registrar subsequently pays it to the previous share owner. The share is sold *without* the right to that dividend and, everything else being equal, the share price on the first day of ex-div trading should have fallen by the amount of the divi foregone.
This process sometime used to go wrong when trades before the ex-div didn't actually get to the registrar in time, so he erroneously paid the divi to the previous owner. The trader/broker then had to write a grovelling letter to this lucky individual and ask for the dividend to be returned, so it could then be paid to the righful (new) owner of the share. At least, that's the kind of letter I used to get when I owned paper share certificates.
Ah, thanks. Yes. That makes sense. I've never traded shares at or close to the ex-dividend date so although I knew there was a potential complication I've never been affected by it.
Tim.
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