Quick Read
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American Electric Power's last day to buy is today for its $0.97 dividend, while SBA Communications follows Wednesday with a payout using just 41% of AFFO.
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Sabra Health Care REIT offers the list's highest yield at 6%, though its dividend has sat at $0.30 since a 2020 cut.
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Popular's raised dividend is the best covered, taking just 23% of earnings, yet the cash doesn't arrive until January 2027.
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The window on the first of these five payments closes when the market closes today. American Electric Power( NASDAQ:AEP ) goes ex-dividend on November 10. To receive its $0.97 quarterly payment, you must own the shares by the end of trading today. Four more names go ex-dividend by Friday.
How the deadline works:the ex-dividend date is the cutoff, so you need to buy no later than the trading day before it to get the payment. If you buy on or after the ex-date, the seller gets the dividend, and the pay date is when the cash arrives, which can be weeks later.
American Electric Power (AEP): Last Day to Buy Is Today
American Electric Power yields 2.98% on its $3.80 indicated annual dividend at a premarket price of $127.42. The utility raised its quarterly dividend to 97 cents on October 20. Shares go ex on November 10 and payment is set for December 10, so the last day to buy is Monday, November 9.
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Payout coverage appears solid. Trailing diluted EPS of $6.12 puts the payout at about 62%. Third-quarter adjusted operating EPS came in at $2.23, beating the $2.04 estimate. Management now expects full-year EPS at or above the high end of $6.25 to $6.55. The catch is spending: the company has a $100B five-year capital plan running through 2031. A plan that size usually depends on outside financing, so the dividend is backed by growth in regulated earnings rather than extra free cash flow.
SBA Communications (SBAC): Buy by Wednesday
SBA Communications( NASDAQ:SBAC ) pays $1.25 per quarter, which works out to a 2.64% yield at $189.42. Shares go ex on November 12, and payment follows on December 10, so the last day to buy is Wednesday, November 11.
For a tower REIT, the right measure is AFFO. SBA raised its 2026 AFFO per share guidance to $12.15 to $12.37. At the midpoint, the $5 annual dividend uses only about 41% of AFFO, a payout low enough to leave cash for buybacks. The company bought back $300M of stock in the third quarter at an average of $179.68. Leverage stands at 6.4x net debt to EBITDA, inside its 6.0x to 7.0x target. Shares are down 40.14% over five years, and that decline accounts for part of today's yield.
Nexstar Media Group (NXST): Biggest Payment per Share on the List
Nexstar Media Group( NASDAQ:NXST ) pays $1.86 a share, for a yield of 3.93% at $189.50. The ex-date is November 13, and payment is due November 27, so the last day to buy is Thursday, November 12.
Measured against trailing EPS of $11.05, the payout is about 67%. GAAP results are noisy right now because of the TEGNA deal. Third-quarter EPS of $7.92 missed the $11.87 consensus, weighed down by $30M of transaction costs and an $11M debt-extinguishment loss. Cash flow shows a clearer story: adjusted free cash flow reached $1.1B through nine months. The balance sheet is the risk. Total debt is $11.4B and net leverage is 4.04x, which helps explain why the dividend has stayed at $1.86 since early 2025.
Popular (BPOP): Fresh Dividend Raise, Long Wait for the Cash
Popular( NASDAQ:BPOP ) raised its quarterly dividend 20% to $0.90. That brings the yield to 2.30% at $156.52. Shares go ex on November 13, so the last day to buy is Thursday, November 12. The payment doesn't come until January 4, 2027.
Of the five, this dividend is the most easily covered. Trailing EPS of $15.86 puts the payout near 23%. Third-quarter EPS was $4.21. Return on tangible common equity was 15.8%, and the bank returned $236 million to shareholders during the quarter.
Credit needs watching. The nonperforming loan ratio rose to 1.16% from 1.04%, and the tangible common equity ratio is 7.05%. The stock is up 27.77% this year, which has pushed the yield down.
Sabra Health Care REIT (SBRA): Highest Yield on the List
Sabra Health Care REIT( NASDAQ:SBRA ) is the one stock here with a yield high enough to call high-yield: 5.71% at $21.02. The $0.30 payment goes ex on November 13 and pays on November 30, meaning investors need to own shares by Thursday, November 12.
For this REIT, AFFO is the measure that matters. Management said the dividend was 73% of third-quarter normalized AFFO per share of $0.41. Measured against full-year AFFO guidance of $1.600 to $1.610, the payout is about 75%. Leverage improved to 4.54x net debt to adjusted EBITDA, and liquidity stood at about $1.2 billion. The stock has increased 15.95% this year, so a falling price isn't what's driving the yield. There is one catch. The dividend has been stuck at $0.30 since 2020, after a cut from $0.45, the kind of history that shows up on the warning-sign checklist we put in a free dividend trap guide.
Five Payments, Three Deadlines, One Week
Here's the timeline. American Electric Power's last day to buy is today. SBA Communications follows on Wednesday. Nexstar, Popular and Sabra share a Thursday deadline.
Buying a stock to collect one dividend doesn't work as a strategy on its own, because the share price usually falls by about the amount of the payment once shares go ex. Shares bought after that date don't qualify for the payment. The coverage ratios above are a better reason to own any of these stocks than the calendar.
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