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Looking at the universe of stocks we cover at Dividend Channel, on 2/29/24, Ashland Inc (Symbol: ASH), Stepan Co. (Symbol: SCL), and TransAlta Corp (Symbol: TAC) will all trade ex-dividend for their respective upcoming dividends. Ashland Inc will pay its quarterly dividend of $0.385 on 3/15/24, Stepan Co. will pay its quarterly dividend of $0.375 on 3/15/24, and TransAlta Corp will pay its quarterly dividend of $0.06 on 4/1/24. As a percentage of ASH's recent stock price of $93.43, this dividend works out to approximately 0.41%, so look for shares of Ashland Inc to trade 0.41% lower — all else being equal — when ASH shares open for trading on 2/29/24. Similarly, investors should look for SCL to open 0.42% lower in price and for TAC to open 0.86% lower, all else being equal.

Below are dividend history charts for ASH, SCL, and TAC, showing historical dividends prior to the most recent ones declared.

Ashland Inc (Symbol: ASH):

Stepan Co. (Symbol: SCL):

TransAlta Corp (Symbol: TAC):

In general, dividends are not always predictable, following the ups and downs of company profits over time. Therefore, a good first due diligence step in forming an expectation of annual yield going forward, is looking at the history above, for a sense of stability over time. This can help in judging whether the most recent dividends from these companies are likely to continue. If they do continue, the current estimated yields on annualized basis would be 1.65% for Ashland Inc, 1.67% for Stepan Co., and 3.42% for TransAlta Corp.

In Tuesday trading, Ashland Inc shares are currently off about 0.8%, Stepan Co. shares are down about 1.1%, and TransAlta Corp shares are off about 4.4% on the day.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.