Question re: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Dividend

[Lisa99]

Curious if anyone knows what the VATX dividend dropped from $0.37360 in March to $0.2647 per share in June.

I've looked through all of the documentation and googled but no luck.

 

[SecondCor521]

From what I read somewhere else, VTSAX has fiscal quarters that vary in length a little bit. This last one was about a week shorter than normal. That's one factor.

Also, VTSAX just passes through all the dividends they receive. Companies appear to have lowered the amount of dividends they pay in the past few months. I have hypothesized that this is to be able to invest more in their businesses, but do not know if that is the case.

 

[Lisa99]

Thanks, makes sense.

 

[alaska55]

From what I read somewhere else, VTSAX has fiscal quarters that vary in length a little bit. This last one was about a week shorter than normal. That's one factor.

Also, VTSAX just passes through all the dividends they receive. Companies appear to have lowered the amount of dividends they pay in the past few months. I have hypothesized that this is to be able to invest more in their businesses, but do not know if that is the case.

No They haven't lowered the Dividends just seem they payed quite a bit more in the March distributions for some reason. First two distributions of 2019 equaled about .64 cents and 2018 first 2 distribution equaled about .56 cents.
Funny 1st person does no research and 2nd person hypothesized.

 

[bingybear]

Look at it historically. It varies over time. I expect reasons given above are a good part of the distribution difference. While it is not likely for a index fund to have large capital distributions, it can happen with a large redemption.

 

[Lisa99]

Alaska, As my first post indicates I did a lot of research but got no results which is why I came here to ask.

 

[maybesomeday]

Ok maybe someone can explain ex Dividend to me, today in my brokerage account I was down a lot more than the actual market for stock (T) and I researched it and they said it was because of ex Dividend date is today, but how do you make any money if the take out the same amount you make when the Dividend hits.. why would anyone be in any of these stocks if they pay the money out of your own account, looks to me I will break even when the Dividend hits but today I lost money

 

[SecondCor521]

2nd person hypothesized.

The portion of my post which you bolded was not a hypothesis. It was a summary from memory my research into this topic when it was asked earlier on a different forum.

 

[RetireBy90]

Ok maybe someone can explain ex Dividend to me, today in my brokerage account I was down a lot more than the actual market for stock (T) and I researched it and they said it was because of ex Dividend date is today, but how do you make any money if the take out the same amount you make when the Dividend hits.. why would anyone be in any of these stocks if they pay the money out of your own account, looks to me I will break even when the Dividend hits but today I lost money

So when a stock goes ex dividend, the owner on that date gets the dividend. You can then sell that stock and still get the dividend in a couple weeks or so. Therefore, stocks normally take a drop equal to the dividend as the new owner isn't getting the dividend. Consider a stock sells for $10 and pays a $1 dividend. It goes ex today, so tomorrow stock is worth $9 price plus $1 dividend.



There are those that play games with buying just before ex date because the stock doesn't go down exact amount of dividend, normally a bit less so in the example, stock may go to $9.10 and you get a $1 so you could profit 1% if you held for one day.



At least that is the way it has been explained to me )

 

[audreyh1]

Ok maybe someone can explain ex Dividend to me, today in my brokerage account I was down a lot more than the actual market for stock (T) and I researched it and they said it was because of ex Dividend date is today, but how do you make any money if the take out the same amount you make when the Dividend hits.. why would anyone be in any of these stocks if they pay the money out of your own account, looks to me I will break even when the Dividend hits but today I lost money

Because stocks, on average and over long periods of time, appreciate more than any drop due to their dividend.