Record date
The date on which a shareholder must be on the register to receive a declared dividend or to vote.
Updated 2026-07-26
The record date fixes the population. Whoever the register shows as a holder at the close of that day receives the distribution or the vote, regardless of what they do afterwards.
Because settlement takes time, the record date and the last day to buy in order to qualify are different days. That gap is the reason the ex-date exists as a separate concept.
Proxy statements use record dates in the same way for meeting eligibility, which is why the term appears in the voting context as well as the dividend one.
Related terms
3 entries- DEF 14A
- The definitive proxy statement sent to shareholders before a meeting, covering the items to be voted on.
- Ex-dividend date
- The first day on which buying the shares no longer carries the right to the declared dividend.
- Payment date
- The date a declared dividend is actually paid to qualifying holders.
Where this appears in the data
Written for reading the records published here. This is not a legal, tax or accounting definition, and where a jurisdiction defines the term precisely, that definition governs.