Ex-Dividends To Watch: 3 Stocks Going Ex-Dividend Thursday: LPHI, RESI, LNCO

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Thursday, Thursday, June 5, 2014, 4:00 AM ET, 23 U.S. common stocks are scheduled to go ex-dividend. The dividend yields on these stocks range from 0.1% to 10.9%. All of these stocks can be found on our stocks going ex-dividend section of our dividend calendar.

Highlighted Stocks Going Ex-Dividend Thursday:

Life Partners Holdings

Owners of Life Partners Holdings (NASDAQ: LPHI) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 5 cents per share. At a price of $2.50 as of 4:00 p.m. ET, the dividend yield is 7.9%.

The average volume for Life Partners Holdings has been 33,800 shares per day over the past 30 days. Life Partners Holdings has a market cap of $47.0 million and is part of the insurance industry. Shares are up 41.6% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.

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

Life Partners Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Life Partners, Inc., operates in the secondary market for life insurance worldwide. It facilitates the sale of life settlements between sellers and purchasers, but does not take possession or control of the policies.

TheStreet Ratings rates Life Partners Holdings as a sell. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its unimpressive growth in net income, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself. You can view the full Life Partners Holdings Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Altisource Residential Corporation

Owners of Altisource Residential Corporation (NYSE: RESI) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 45 cents per share. At a price of $27.48 as of 9:36 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 6.4%.

The average volume for Altisource Residential Corporation has been 733,700 shares per day over the past 30 days. Altisource Residential Corporation has a market cap of $1.6 billion and is part of the real estate industry. Shares are down 7.5% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

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

Altisource Residential Corporation, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Altisource Residential, L.P., focuses on acquiring, owning, and managing single-family rental properties in the United States. The company has a P/E ratio of 11.13.

TheStreet Ratings rates Altisource Residential Corporation as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, solid stock price performance and impressive record of earnings per share growth. However, as a counter to these strengths, we find that we feel that the company's cash flow from its operations has been weak overall. You can view the full Altisource Residential Corporation Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

LinnCo

Owners of LinnCo (NASDAQ: LNCO) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 24 cents per share. At a price of $28.26 as of 9:36 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 10.4%.

The average volume for LinnCo has been 1.2 million shares per day over the past 30 days. LinnCo has a market cap of $3.6 billion and is part of the energy industry. Shares are down 8.5% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

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

LinnCo, LLC, through its limited liability company interests in Linn Energy, LLC, focuses on the acquisition and development of oil and natural gas properties in the United States. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

TheStreet Ratings rates LinnCo as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, good cash flow from operations and expanding profit margins. 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 LinnCo 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.