Background
Many publicly traded companies, and some privately held ones, pay dividends to their stockholders. The question of who should be paid dividends becomes complex, as these companies are continually being traded and the composition of their shareholders changes each day. To settle this question, companies designate a date, known as the record date. Dividends are paid to the list of shareholders who hold stock on the record date. The process is further complicated by the fact that it takes time for a stock purchase to "clear" or "settle." To allow time for this processing, stock exchanges set a date — generally two business days prior to the record date — known as the ex-dividend date.
Read more about this topic: Ex-dividend Date
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)