[unkulunkulu]

> Dividend payments aren't free. In fact, you can see that for dividend paying stocks, the share price steadily goes in the months leading up to a dividend payment, and on the dividend date it goes down roughly equal to the dividend paid.

I thought it was a matter of math: company gave away some amount of money per share so it should have lost exactly that amount in valuation, what’s the catch?

[kgwgk]

Taxes are one of the reasons why the decline in price due to the dividend distribution may not be exactly equal to the amount distributed. And of course the decline in price due to the dividend distribution cannot be measured.