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Do you have any equities that pay special dividends in cash or stock?

#1
I currently receive special cash dividends from Main Street Capital and CME Group.  This month, Commerce Bancshares,  goes ex-dividend in advance of paying their annual 5.0%  stock dividend. The stock dividend is in addition to their regular cash dividend of 1.44%.   Earlier, I asked Investor Relations about this;

 
CBSH has paid a stock dividend since 1994.  They have found it to be very popular with retail investors who hold their stock.  It's paid at the end of the year in December.  This year, the Record Date is 11/30/2018.  The Ex-date is generally two business days before the Record Date.  Whole shares that are issued are not subject to federal tax.  Any fractional shares will be issued as cash and are taxable.
 
I was attracted to CBSH for a variety of reasons, mainly their improving financials.  To be clear, I'm not suggesting anyone buy them. They are neither distressed or
trading at deep value.  Yet it is nice to find a share-holder friendly company with a little growth to go along with a 6.4% dividend.
 
I'll be interested to see how this works out.   I expect to see the stock drop later this month.  I also wonder if this is treated as a stock split to avoid taxes.  CBSH continues to buy back shares and it doesn't look like this policy has been dilutive to shareholders.
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#2
A stock dividend of the same company is considered a split. If they made a 5% stock dividend, it would be a 105:100 stock split. Suppose you held 144 shares of xyz when a 105:100 split occured. That comes to 151.2. Normally you would get 7 shares of stock added, and get cash in lieu of the 0.2 shares. That shows up in your statement as CIL if they don't spell it out. That should be accounted for as you selling 0.2 shares.
 
I used to have a company that would do those fractional stock dividends each year. I don't remember what it was. I don't like it, myself. In a taxable account, it's  little extra chore at tax time to get the basis assigned for the CIL.
 
Sometimes a company spins off part of their operation. That is called a spinoff. In this case, you end up owning shares in a different company.
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#3
(11-19-2018, 06:18 AM)FrugalToque Wrote: A stock dividend of the same company is considered a split. If they made a 5% stock dividend, it would be a 105:100 stock split. Suppose you held 144 shares of xyz when a 105:100 split occured. That comes to 151.2. Normally you would get 7 shares of stock added, and get cash in lieu of the 0.2 shares. That shows up in your statement as CIL if they don't spell it out. That should be accounted for as you selling 0.2 shares.
 
I used to have a company that would do those fractional stock dividends each year. I don't remember what it was. I don't like it, myself. In a taxable account, it's  little extra chore at tax time to get the basis assigned for the CIL.
 
Sometimes a company spins off part of their operation. That is called a spinoff. In this case, you end up owning shares in a different company.

I've never held an equity that issued an annual stock dividend so this is a little bit new.  I figured it would be treated as a split so the first thing I did was check for an annual split on Active Trader Pro.  Nothing. 
 
Then I thought if it was a split, it must be diluting the share count.  They do adjust for it in their financial statements but their shares outstanding are actually down 8.5% in the last five years.  So then I looked closely at the last three years of ex-dividend dates expecting to see a 5% drop but there isn't one, at least not going by the close.
 
I did put CBSH in my T-IRA because I agree with you in that it's probably going to adjust the cost basis on my other shares and I'm not sure how Fidelity will handle this since it doesn't appear to be recognized as a typical split.
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#4
https://www.splithistory.com/cbsh/ shows the splits.

Yahoo shows the splits

ATP graphs don't show the splits.

The splits are not quite annual; the last previous one was 2016.
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