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:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“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)