On July 15, 2021, Diversified Healthcare (NASDAQ:DHC) announced shareholders can expect to receive a dividend payable on August 19, 2021. The stock will then go ex-dividend 1 business day(s) before the record date. Diversified Healthcare, whose current dividend payout is $0.01, has an ex-dividend date set at July 23, 2021. The payout equates to a dividend yield of 0.97% at current price levels.

Ex-dividend dates are when company shares stop trading with their current dividend payouts in preparation for those companies to announce new ones. Usually, a company's ex-dividend date falls one business day before its record date. Investors should keep this in mind when purchasing stocks because buying them on or after ex-dividend dates does not qualify them to receive the declared payment. Newly declared dividends go to shareholders who have owned that stock before the ex-dividend date. Typically, companies will announce and implement new dividend yields on a quarterly basis.

Over the past year, Diversified Healthcare has seen its dividend payouts remain the same and its yields climb upward overall. Last year on July 24, 2020 the company's payout sat at $0.01, which has returned to its value today. Diversified Healthcare's dividend yield last year was 0.95%, which has since grown by 0.02%.
Companies use dividend yields in different strategic ways. Some companies may opt to not give yields altogether to reinvest in themselves. Other companies may opt to increase or decrease their yield amounts to control how their shares circulate throughout the stock market.