Ex-Dividends To Watch: 5 Stocks Going Ex-Dividend Monday: INF, POR, CY, ITUB, PM

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

Monday, Dec. 23, 2013, 9 U.S. common stocks are scheduled to go ex-dividend. The dividend yields on these stocks range from 0.6% to 8.1%. All of these stocks can be found on our stocks going ex-dividend section of our dividend calendar.

Highlighted Stocks Going Ex-Dividend Monday:

Brookfield Global Listed Infrastructure

Owners of Brookfield Global Listed Infrastructure (NYSE: INF) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 95 cents per share. At a price of $19.57 as of 9:32 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 7.2%.

The average volume for Brookfield Global Listed Infrastructure has been 75,000 shares per day over the past 30 days. Brookfield Global Listed Infrastructure has a market cap of $150.8 million and is part of the financial services industry. Shares are down 3.1% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Portland General Electric Company

Owners of Portland General Electric Company (NYSE: POR) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 28 cents per share. At a price of $30.33 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 3.6%.

The average volume for Portland General Electric Company has been 727,600 shares per day over the past 30 days. Portland General Electric Company has a market cap of $2.4 billion and is part of the utilities industry. Shares are up 11.6% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

The company has a P/E ratio of 26.77.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Owners of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: CY) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 11 cents per share. At a price of $10.13 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 4.3%.

The average volume for Cypress Semiconductor Corporation has been 3.2 million shares per day over the past 30 days. Cypress Semiconductor Corporation has a market cap of $1.5 billion and is part of the electronics industry. Shares are down 5.5% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and markets mixed-signal, programmable solutions, specialized semiconductor memories, and integrated semiconductor solutions.

TheStreet Ratings rates Cypress Semiconductor Corporation as a hold. Among the primary strengths of the company is its expanding profit margins over time. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, generally higher debt management risk and disappointing return on equity. You can view the full Cypress Semiconductor Corporation Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Itau Unibanco

Owners of Itau Unibanco (NYSE: ITUB) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 7 cents per share. At a price of $13.32 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 0.6%.

The average volume for Itau Unibanco has been 9.6 million shares per day over the past 30 days. Itau Unibanco has a market cap of $68.0 billion and is part of the banking industry. Shares are down 17.6% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Philip Morris International

Owners of Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 94 cents per share. At a price of $85.60 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 4.4%.

The average volume for Philip Morris International has been 5.1 million shares per day over the past 30 days. Philip Morris International has a market cap of $137.0 billion and is part of the tobacco industry. Shares are up 2.2% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

Philip Morris International Inc., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products. The company has a P/E ratio of 16.22.

TheStreet Ratings rates Philip Morris International as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, growth in earnings per share and good cash flow from operations. However, as a counter to these strengths, we find that the stock has had a generally disappointing performance in the past year. You can view the full Philip Morris International Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

More About Dividends:

One benefit of owning a stock is the potential that you will be paid a dividend. The distribution of dividend payments is another way for a company to share its profit with you. A dividend means that the company pays you a certain amount of money, either as a one-time payment or more commonly on a quarterly basis, for each share of stock you own.

Many times, dividends come at the expense of greater price appreciation, because the company is distributing its profits to shareholders rather than reinvesting the profits back into the growth of the company. However, companies that pay dividends can be very attractive to investors when they offer a steady stream of income. There are some important terms and dates an investor should be familiar with before purchasing any dividend-paying companies. Let's work through an example to help better explain some of these terms:

On March 1, ABC Widget Company has decided that because it holds excess cash and lacks investment opportunities, it would like to reward shareholders with a regular quarterly dividend payment. The date for this particular announcement is known as the declaration date. It is on this date that the company announces the specific dividend payment along with the holder of record date (aka record date) and the payment date. The company announces that a dividend payment of 25 cents per share will be payable March 31, 2012 (the payment date) to all shareholders of record at the close of business on March 16, 2012 (holder of record date). What does this all mean? Well the short story is that the company looks at its records on March 16 and anyone listed on the books as an owner of ABC Widget company will be eligible for the dividend payment (on March 31).

The one other important term to remember is the ex-dividend date. The ex-dividend date (typically two trading days before the holder of record date for U.S. securities) is the day in which a company begins trading without the dividend. In order to have a claim on a dividend, shares must be purchased no later than the last business day before the ex-dividend date. A company trading ex-dividend will have the upcoming dividend subtracted from the share price at the start of the trading day. Many times, the price of a stock will increase in anticipation of the upcoming dividend as the ex-dividend date approaches, yet will fall back by the amount of the dividend on the ex-dividend date.

• See our dividend calendar.