The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is yet again having a pleasing start to the trading day.
At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has gained a robust 0.73% and is back over 6,860 points. But the same can't be said of the Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ) share price
Bank of Queensland shares are seemingly having a shocker today. This ASX 200 bank closed at $7.70 a share yesterday. But BOQ opened at $7.46 a share this morning and has fallen further to $7.35 a share at present. That's a drop worth a nasty 4.55%.
To be fair, most other ASX bank shares are having a clanger today as well.
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares are down 0.79%, and the National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price is slipping 0.25%.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) shares are down more than 4% after the company reported its full-year results this morning.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares are bucking the trend, currently up 0.35%, but they have also spent much of the morning in the red.
So why is BOQ outdoing them all?
Why is the Bank of Queensland share price down 5% today?
Well, shareholders can breathe a sigh of relief. That's because the BOQ share price's falls are mostly due to the bank trading ex-dividend for its upcoming final dividend payment.
As we covered yesterday, BOQ is scheduled to trade ex-dividend for its latest shareholder payment today. This means that, from the current session, any new shareholder in BOQ is ineligible to receive the bank's latest dividend.
And it is a chunky dividend at that. BOQ will dole out its final dividend of 24 cents per share, fully franked, next month on 17 November.
But since new investors going forward cannot receive this dividend, its value has effectively vanished from the market. As such, the market has removed its value from the Bank of Queensland share price. This is the normal process every time an ASX share pays out a dividend.
This final dividend of 24 cents per share is a pleasing 9.1% increase over last year's final dividend of 22 cents per share. It brings BOQ's total dividends paid out over the past 12 months to 46 cents per share.
Investors have until Monday, 31 October to opt in for the bank's optional dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) if they wish to receive additional shares in lieu of cash.
As of Bank of Queensland's closing share price yesterday, this gives BOQ shares a dividend yield of 5.97%, or 8.53% grossed-up with those full franking credits.
