Dividends can produce as much as a third of your total return over long periods, and you can even retire on dividends.
There are 4 key stock dividend dates that are involved with dividend payments:
1- The Declaration Date is several weeks in advance of a dividend payment—it’s when company’s board of directors sets the amount and timing of the proposed payment.
2- The Payable Date is the date set by the board on which the dividend will actually be paid out to shareholders.
3- The Record Date is for shareholders who hold the stock before the payable date and receive the dividend payment. That date is set any number of weeks before the payable date.
4-The Ex-Dividend Date is two business days before the record date and it’s when the shares begin to trade without their dividend. If you buy stocks one day or more before their ex-dividend date, you will still get the dividend. That’s when a stock is said to trade cum-dividend. If you buy on the ex-dividend date or later, you won’t get the dividend. The ex-dividend date is in place to allow pending stock trades to settle.
We think very highly of stocks that have been paying dividends for five or more years, at TSI Network. Many of these stocks fit in well with our three-part Successful Investor philosophy:
1- Invest mainly in well-established companies;
2- Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities);
3- Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.
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WBD recently accepted a $31.00-a-share takeover offer from Paramount Skydance Corp. (Nasdaq symbol PSKY), which owns the CBS television network and Paramount studios. That topped an earlier deal to sell the studios and streaming operations to Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq symbol NFLX) for $27.75 a share.
You can’t fake a record of dividends. That’s why we place a high value on a sustained history of dividend payments. When you’re looking for income-producing stocks, a high dividend yield should also be one of your most important investment considerations. But that shouldn’t come at the expense of sustainability.
Starbucks last raised your quarterly payment in November 2025 by 1.6%. The new annual rate of $2.48 a share yields 2.5%.
Walmart has raised your annual dividend rate each year for the past 53 years. It last increased your quarterly payment in April 2026, to $0.2475 a share, up 5.3% from $0.235. The new annual rate of $0.99 yields 0.8%.
However, to conserve cash for debt repayments and other uses, Telus will pause its previously announced plan to increase the annual rate by 3% to 8% from 2026 through to the end of 2028.
Kraft recently paused its plan to split the company into two publicly traded companies—one would focus on products like sauces, spreads, and shelf-stable meals; the other would make frozen meats and ready-to-eat foods for North America. Instead, it will focus on improving its profitability. The company will also spend $600 million on new products.