When do I get paid?
Companies have a financial calendar, usually available to view on the website, which sets out when dividends will be paid. This will help you find out when you need to be an owner of a share in order to receive a dividend. We will use the case of Marks & Spencer to illustrate – see Table 3.2.
Its year-end is 2 April 2012. So the profits for the previous 12 months are added up and a balance sheet is drawn up for that date. This takes time to do and so the company does not announce its results until 22 May. This is remarkably fast; most companies take at least two months. In this announcement there will be a figure proposed as the dividend amount (the final for the year). This was 10.8p per share.
Table 3.2 Marks & Spencer’s ...
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