Sharesave and shares about to go ex-dividend

MoneySaverLog

Hi

I'm in a sharesave and the shares are about to go ex-dividend tomorrow. I have a option price on my shares and I believe I don't get the dividend until the option date.

However, I hear that the share price is about to drop, due to the ex-dividend date being tomorrow. Do I get more options in this case? It seems I'll get penalised otherwise as I don't get a dividend payment and the price of the shares end up going down by roughly the dividend I'm told.

Am I reading this right?

chris_m

Unless the sharesave maturity date is also imminent (i.e no dividend because you don't own the shares at the ex-div date but insufficient time for the price to recover after the ex-div drop) I wouldn't have thought this would be much of an issue.

You have an option to buy a number of shares at the option price once the scheme matures. Unless something drastic happens, like a share reissue (or whatever it's called) where, say, every ten shares are replaced by one new share, then your option will be for that number of shares at that price, irrespective of the price at the time the scheme matures.