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What happens to a stock after a dividend? Every ex-date, company by company
On the ex-dividend date the price fell in 60% of cases, at the median by 67% of the dividend. At the median it was back at the last close before the ex-date after 1 trading day, and within a month in 88% of cases. We counted 592 ex-dates at 14 large US companies since 2015.
Back at the last close before the ex-date, within
How far did the price fall?
At the prices that actually traded, the price fell on the ex-date in 353 of 592 cases. The rule is that a price falls by about the dividend. Here the median was 67% of the dividend, and it varies a lot from one time to the next: everything else moves the price that day too. Why it falls at all is explained in the lesson on the ex-date.
The larger the dividend against the price, the more often the price fell. A small dividend is easily lost in a normal day's move.
| Dividend against the price | Ex-dates | Price fell | Fall against dividend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1% | 563 | 58% | 61% |
| 1–3% | 27 | 96% | 110% |
How long did it take to get back?
We count trading days from the ex-date to the first close at or above the last close before it. In 41% of cases the price was back on the ex-date itself, in 77% within a week, in 95% within three months and in 99% within a year.
The longest was Exxon Mobil: after its ex-date on Nov 8, 2019 it took 551 trading days, about 2 years.
Not back yet: 1 of the ex-dates, at Meta.
The price is not the whole story. The owner received the dividend in the meantime, so counting the cash the owner was back sooner than the price. What a holding has paid is worked out in the dividend calculator.
Company by company
Each row is the median of the company's ex-dates: the dividend against the price, the fall against the dividend and the trading days back. Longest is the longest wait that has ended.
| Company | Dividend | Fall against dividend | Trading days back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet | 0.10% | – | 2 |
| Apple | 0.17% | – | 1 |
| Broadcom | 0.54% | 141% | 1 |
| Costco | 0.21% | – | 0 |
| Eli Lilly | 0.47% | 71% | 1 |
| Exxon Mobil | 0.92% | 110% | 5 |
| JPMorgan Chase | 0.64% | 67% | 1 |
| Mastercard | 0.15% | – | 0 |
| Meta | 0.09% | – | 0 |
| Microsoft | 0.26% | – | 1 |
| Nvidia | 0.05% | – | 1 |
| Oracle | 0.38% | 48% | 1 |
| Visa | 0.18% | – | 0 |
| Walmart | 0.42% | 71% | 1 |
A dash means the median dividend is under 0.3% of the price. That is so small that a normal day's move says more than the dividend does.
How we counted
Amazon, Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, Netflix, Palantir and AMD paid no dividend in the period, so they are not in the tables.
- 14 of the 20 largest US companies on our list, from Jan 5, 2015 or from their listing, to Nov 6, 2026.
- The stored closes have the dividends worked in. We undo each dividend to get the price that traded. Prices are adjusted for splits, so old prices can look different from how they looked then.
- We compared the result with unadjusted closes on 4 November 2026. Of 592 ex-dates, 7 differed: five by days on the way back or by a rounding, and two by half a dividend.
- A week is 5 trading days, a month 21, three months 63 and a year 252. An ex-date not back yet counts as longer than any other.
- An ex-date on the newest session counts from the next day.
- These are today's largest companies. Companies that fell and never came back are not here, so the way back looks shorter than it was for all companies.
- Closing prices only. Fees and tax are not included.
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