Can the ex-dividend date for a security occur after the payable date?
As you may have already noticed, securities often increase in share price between the time the dividend is announced and the ex-dividend date. Likewise, the same security will many times fall the day of the ex-dividend date. This is due to investors buying up shares to capture the dividend and then selling them after they are guaranteed to be a shareholder of record for the upcoming dividend payment. Whenever a company makes an abnormally large dividend payment, they are required by the exchanges to postpone the ex-dividend date until after the payment date. This way, the security is somewhat protected against a quick run-up in the share price, followed by a sharp crash after the ex-dividend date. Take a look at this example from Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS): “The special dividend will be payable on May 1, 2006 to shareholders of record as of April 14, 2006. Because of the magnitude of the special cash dividend, the New York Stock Exchange has determined that the ex-dividend date will be May
