Apple Inc. stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 3 days time. You can purchase shares before the 9th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 15th of August. Apple’s next dividend payment will be US$0.77 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$3.08 to shareholders.
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Apple paid out just 25% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether Apple generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. The good news is it paid out just 24% of its free cash flow in the last year.
Apple has been growing earnings at a rapid rate, and has a conservatively low payout ratio, implying that it is reinvesting heavily in its business; a sterling combination.
MacDailyNews Take: Incorrect date.
Apple’s dividend is payable on August 15, 2019 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 12, 2019.
Update: August 5, 9:46pm PDT: Correct date. See first comment below. Thanks, jetlag11!
Actually August 9 is the correct date. The company (Apple) establishes the record date (8/12) but the ex-cividend date is 8/9. See this from Investopedia:
The ex-date occurs before the record date because of the way stock trades are settled. When a trade occurs, the record of that transaction isn’t settled for one business day. This is known as the “T+1” settlement. Thus, if an investor owned the stock on April 7 but sold the stock on April 8, they would still be the shareholder of record on April 11 because the trade hasn’t fully settled. However, if the investor had sold the stock on April 7, then the trade would have settled by April 11, and the new buyer would be entitled to the dividend.