*Every* Ex-Div Date and Payout Date on the Dividends tab of my portfolio view is wrong. As of two or three days ago every date is reported as one day early. Interestingly, this is limited to the Portfolio report; individual stocks show correct dates on their Dividend History view.
There are now at least two other reports of this data error issue that affects all dividend-paying stocks. It's more than two weeks since my first report. Please correct this issue and improve the review process for website changes to catch obvious coding errors. Reporting different dates on different pages is a clear indication that something is wrong.
Here are the other two reports I found:
Ending 2021 the Ex-Div and Payout Dates are day early, … / Feedback Forum / Seeking Alpha
Here's yet another report of the same systemic error:
Significant number of dividend payout dates incorrect / Feedback Forum / Seeking Alpha
This issue continues to be flagged by additional reports. How many complaints will it take to get this systematic error corrected? Here's another one:
dividend dates of PBCT in dividend tab for Portfolio are … / Feedback Forum / Seeking Alpha
FIX IT! Bad data and I am PAYING you for it!??
Blackstone is a major stock. I own it and the Ex div date on Alpha is 2/3/22 Wrong!
It's 2/4/22 and if you I sold on 2/3 I would miss out on $1,000. You could COST ME MONEY.
I am NOT paying you for bad data, This is NOT the first bad Ex-date I've come across.
We are looking into this.
Regards,
Shubham Shresth
Data QA Analyst, Seeking Alpha
Shubham, I see that you are now taking a look at this. I guess a little anger is needed to get the attention of SA Support. Thanks @pkonarske11 for your report.
The issue is easily demonstrated by comparing the dividend dates on the Dividends tab of the Portfolio view with the dates shown on the Dividend tab of any individual security. The final proof is comparing the dates to a dividend announcement press release from that company. As noted in my initial report, this error was introduced into the Portfolio view back in mid-December.
For completeness, here's the latest report of this issue (erroneously marked Completed; the issue has nothing to do with time stamps):
I see that a change has finally been made in reported dividend dates. The good news is that the Dividend tab of the Portfolio view is now consistent with the dates reported for individual securities. The bad news is that now both are incorrect (refer to my original post for how it used to be). That is doubly sloppy; who is verifying these changes before they're deployed???
The SA dates are all one day too early. They have been wrong for six weeks.
GET THIS FIXED. NOW.
Here is a specific example so there's no confusion over what is wrong.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY)
Official dividend announcement press release
"The dividend is payable on February 1, 2022 to stockholders of record at the close of business on January 7, 2022."
It's not specified in the press release, but the business day prior to the Record Date is the Ex-Div Date: 1/6/2022
SA dates for BMY dividend reported on BMY dividend history
| Year | Declare Date | Ex-Div Date | Record Date | Pay Date | Frequency | Amount | Adj. Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | |||||||
| 12/12/2021 | 1/5/2022 | 1/6/2022 | 1/31/2022 | Quarterly | 0.5400 | 0.5400 |
SA Dates from Dividend tab of Portfolio
| Symbol | Ex-Div Date | Payout Date | Yield TTM | Yield FWD | 4Y Avg Yield | Div Rate TTM | Div Rate FWD | Payout Ratio | 4Y Avg Payout | Div Growth 3Y | Div Growth 5Y | Years of Growth |
|---|
| BMY | 1/5/2022 | 1/31/2022 | 3.01% | 3.23% | 3.02% | $2.01 | $2.16 | 26.80% | 35.26% | 7.68% | 5.61% | 15 Years |
|---|
The dividend dates have reverted back to the inconsistent state reported in my original message. The Dividend History dates are correct, the Portfolio View dates are wrong.
How can it be that a broad category of financial information on SA is allowed to be inconsistent and wrong for two months? It's been a couple weeks since this topic was tagged "Under Review". What has been done and when can a resolution be expected?
The situation with reported dividend dates continues to evolve, with the most recent changes appearing to indicate a general but incomplete improvement. This update was written Sunday, 3/6/2022.
Bad news: Dividends with ex-div dates prior to 3/10/2022 (one week in the future and all past dates) continue to be incorrect on the portfolio Dividend tab and correct on the Dividend History tab of the individual security. The persistent inconsistency between different views is befuddling, frustrating and difficult to understand.
Good news: Dividends with ex-div dates after approximately 3/10/2022 now appear to be correct on the portfolio Dividend tab and on the Dividend History tab of the individual security.
The apparent difference in how future dividend dates are reported compared to dates in the past (and less than a week into the future) is yet another inexplicable example of SA's complete inability to manage and report simple financial information. The 3-month anniversary of this reported bug is about a week away; that's sad.
It appears that this problem is now corrected. In fact it was fixed several months ago, but it is clear that nobody is monitoring these bug reports and closing them appropriately. The Feedback Forum would be much more beneficial to users if SA was more proactive in tracking resolution.
This error caused *every* ex-dividend and dividend payout date on the Portfolio Dividend tab to be incorrect for several months before it was fixed. Isn't that worthy of a little more attention? There is a response above from someone whose Seeking Alpha job title is "Data QA Analyst". SA's data quality assurance is sorely lacking and there doesn't appear to be a workable process in place to do anything to improve it.
We are looking into this.
Regards,
Shubham Shresth
Data QA Analyst, Seeking Alpha