Dividend calendar

A dividend calendar is a date-ordered list of dividend events across securities, in which each line is tied to an issuer and shows the stage the payout has reached. It neither calculates nor forecasts the payout; it lays out along a timeline what the company has already decided and what is expected on the basis of the company's past practice.

What a calendar line is made of

A payout passes through a chain of corporate steps, and that chain is exactly what the calendar reflects. First the board of directors recommends the amount, then the general meeting approves the decision — this is a corporate action with its own disclosure procedure. After approval, the list of persons entitled to the money is fixed, and only then does the payment period begin. The amount shown in the line rests on what is set out in the issuer's dividend policy and on the figure from which the payout is calculated — the dividend base.

Converting the record date into a trading date deserves separate attention. The right to the payout goes to whoever is on the list on the record date, but an exchange trade does not credit the security instantly: T+1 settlement applies. The last day to buy with the right to the dividend is therefore the day before the record date, and the trading day that follows it is the ex-dividend date, also known as the cut-off. The calendar shows both dates, and these are the two that are most often confused with each other.

An example based on the platform's data

The platform displays the payouts with the nearest record dates in a separate block:

Each line here is not a recommendation to act but the state of a process: whether the decision has been approved or only recommended so far, which date secures the right and when the transfer of money begins.

What the calendar does not contain

The calendar describes dates, not price. The yield shown next to a line is recalculated from the current quote and changes every trading day, so one and the same payout looks different depending on the day it is viewed. Nor does the calendar describe how the security behaves after the record date: the dividend gap and the closing of the gap are separate stories, and they cannot be derived from the schedule.

The second common mix-up is the blending of two different lists. The date on which the participants of the meeting are determined is fixed earlier and follows its own rules: this is the record date for the meeting, not the date of the right to the money. The person who votes the security and the recipient of the payout may turn out to be different persons, and the calendar keeps these events apart precisely because they do not coincide.