Guides / Marks and Spencer ex-dividend date: how the dividend timetable works and where to check it

Marks and Spencer ex-dividend date: how the dividend timetable works and where to check it

The ex-dividend date is the first day M&S shares trade without the right to the next dividend. M&S announces it with each dividend in its results, and the dividends page on its corporate website is the place to check the current timetable.

By MarketFrame · Published 19 October 2026 · Updated 19 October 2026

Short answer: buy M&S shares before the ex-dividend date and you qualify for the next dividend. Buy on or after it and the seller keeps that payment. Each dividend has its own ex-dividend date, and M&S announces it with its results. Quote pages often show one date with no label, so this page explains the dates behind it, using M&S's own announcements.

The dates in an M&S dividend timetable

M&S's dividends page sets out each timetable in the same order. Here is the 2025/26 final dividend as a worked example. It has already been paid, so it shows the sequence and is not a date to act on:

Declaration: the final dividend of 3.0p per share was declared with the full-year results on 20 May 2026.
Ex-dividend date: 4 June 2026, the first day the shares traded without the right to this dividend.
Record date: 5 June 2026. Shareholders on the register at close of business that day were paid.
Last election date: 19 June 2026, the deadline to change how you receive the dividend, for example by joining the reinvestment plan.
Payment date: 10 July 2026.

In every recent M&S timetable, the ex-dividend date falls one business day before the record date. That gap comes from how share trades settle, and our guide to what the ex-dividend date means explains it in full. This page sticks to how it applies to M&S.

There was one more step for the final dividend: shareholders approved it at the AGM on 7 July 2026, three days before it was paid.

Interim and final dividends: how the M&S calendar splits across the year

M&S has two dividends a year, each with its own set of dates:

The interim dividend comes with the half-year results in early November. The most recent was 1.2p per share, announced on 5 November 2025. M&S said it was set at one third of the prior year's total, in line with its policy. It went ex-dividend on 27 November 2025, with a record date of 28 November 2025, and was paid on 9 January 2026.
The final dividend comes with the full-year results in May. The ex-dividend date usually falls in late May or early June, and payment follows in July.

The history table on the M&S dividends page shows the same pattern going back to the 1990s: ex-dividend dates in November and late May or early June, with payments in January and July. The same table also shows a gap. No dividends were paid between January 2020 and the interim that went ex-dividend on 16 November 2023. A long run of dates does not make the next payment certain.

So when a calendar shows a single M&S date, first work out which dividend it belongs to. If the page doesn't say "interim" or "final", you cannot tell which payment it refers to.

Where to confirm the current M&S dates

There are three places to check, in this order:

The M&S dividends page on the corporate website. It shows the latest timetable and a history of past dates and amounts. On 19 October 2026 the latest timetable there was still the 2025/26 final, which means the next interim had not yet been announced.
The results announcement. The half-year and full-year results declare each dividend and set out its dates, and they go out as regulatory announcements on results day.
Shareview, run by Equiniti, the M&S registrar. M&S says shareholders can use it to give or check bank mandate details and to choose how their dividends are paid.

Aggregators and quote pages copy from these sources and can lag behind them or drop detail. Use them as a prompt to check, and treat the company's own page as the final word.

How M&S pays its dividends

M&S's dividends page sets out the payment options:

Bank transfer only. Cash dividends go straight into a nominated bank account. M&S stopped paying by cheque in July 2018.
Dividend Re-investment Plan (DRIP). Run by Equiniti Financial Services, it uses your cash dividend to buy more M&S shares. To join for a given dividend, you need to sign up before that dividend's last election date. Our dividend reinvestment plans guide covers how DRIPs work in general.
EQ Boost. Dividends can be used to buy eVouchers for M&S and other retailers.
Overseas payments. The registrar offers a service that pays the dividend in your local currency, for a fee.

How to read an M&S dividend announcement

When you have the results announcement in front of you, look for these points:

Interim or final. This tells you which timetable the dates belong to.
The amount per share, in pence, and any explanation of how it was set. In November 2025, for example, M&S tied the interim to one third of the prior year's total.
The ex-dividend, record and payment dates. Match each one to the sequence above.
Approval. A final dividend goes to shareholders at the AGM, which happens after the ex-dividend and record dates.

For the same reading process applied to another company, see the Taylor Wimpey dividend walkthrough.

What the ex-dividend date does and does not mean

The ex-dividend date tells you one thing: who receives the next dividend. It does not tell you when the money arrives, since that is the payment date. It does not promise future dividends either, as the gap from 2020 to 2023 shows. And it says nothing about where the share price is heading.

This page is general information. It gives no price, no yield and no view on whether to buy, sell or hold M&S shares.

How M&S dividend news shows up on MarketFrame

Every morning, MarketFrame reads the UK business news on each FTSE 100 company and scores the tone of the coverage, from −10 (clearly bad news for the company) to +10 (clearly good). The M&S news history shows how coverage has read day by day, including around results days, when the dividend is announced. The daily hub at /ftse-news shows the whole index.

FTSE 100 membership changes at each quarterly review, so this page does not state M&S's position in the index. The company list shows the companies MarketFrame covers.

News tone is not a share-price forecast. It measures how the coverage reads, and nothing more. The archive runs from 30 September 2026 and is free to read. Accounts are not open yet, and there is a waitlist on the homepage.

Questions people ask

What is the ex-dividend date for Marks and Spencer shares?

It changes with every dividend. M&S announces it with its half-year and full-year results. Check the current one on the dividends page of the M&S corporate website. On 19 October 2026 the latest timetable shown there was for the 2025/26 final dividend, which went ex-dividend on 4 June 2026.

Where does Marks and Spencer publish its dividend dates?

In its results announcements and on the dividends page of its corporate website. That page also has a history of past dates and amounts. Equiniti, the registrar, runs Shareview, where shareholders manage their bank mandate and dividend choices.

Can you buy shares on the ex-dividend date and still get the dividend?

No. The ex-dividend date is the first day the shares trade without the right to that dividend, so you need to buy before it. Our ex-dividend date guide explains why the cut-off sits where it does.

How often does Marks and Spencer pay a dividend?

M&S has usually paid twice a year: an interim dividend declared with the half-year results and paid in January, and a final dividend declared with the full-year results and paid in July. The history table on its dividends page shows no payments between January 2020 and the interim that went ex-dividend in November 2023, so the pattern is not guaranteed.

Is the ex-dividend date the same as the payment date?

No. For the 2025/26 final, the ex-dividend date was 4 June 2026 and the payment date was 10 July 2026. The ex-dividend date decides who qualifies. The payment date is when the money arrives.