what is proprietorship business? Proprietorship or sole proprietorship which is also known as sole trader, is a type of business entity owned and operated by one person. It is also like a individual giving business name for himself to perform business activities professionally.
Consider an example. Assume company Alpha has declared a dividend of $1 payable on May 1, 2015 to shareholders of record as of April 10, 2015. The record date is therefore April 10, 2015 and the ex-dividend date is two business days before the record date, or April 8, 2015.
Notice that the record date follows the ex-dividend date by two business days for each quarterly dividend. In the first quarter you must have purchased the stock by February 20 to be listed as a stockholder on February 23 and receive the dividend on March 19.