Five dividends land in investor accounts this month, but only for people who own the shares before Friday, August 7. That’s the ex-dividend date every one of the names below shares, which turns a routine income roundup into a timing exercise. The buy-by deadline is the close of trading on Thursday, August 6.
One of the five (a coal MLP with real coverage questions) carries a supersized yield; the rest have varying yields but they’re still worth checking out. The main point here is the ex-date, and a quick read on whether each payout looks safe.
Quick mechanics: to receive a dividend you must own the shares before the ex-dividend date. Buying on or before August 6 captures the payment; buying on August 7 or later doesn’t. The stock also typically opens lower by roughly the dividend amount on the ex-date, so this is about eligibility, not free money.
Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP)
Alliance Resource Partners (NASDAQ:ARLP) is a coal MLP with a growing oil-and-gas royalty arm. The quarterly distribution is $0.60 per unit ($2.40 annualized), a yield of 9.2%, with payment on August 14. The ex-dividend date is August 7, so the last day to buy is August 6.
MLPs are judged on distributable cash flow rather than EPS, and ARLP issues a K-1 at tax time. Still, the $2.40 annualized distribution sits above trailing EPS of $2.06, and management already cut the payout from $0.70 to $0.60 in 2025 to shore up the balance sheet. Data-center-driven power demand is a tailwind for baseload coal; commodity swings and coal’s secular decline are the offsets.
Capitol Federal Financial (CFFN)
Capitol Federal Financial (NASDAQ:CFFN) is a Kansas and Missouri regional bank paying $0.085 per share quarterly ($0.34 annualized), a yield of 3.7%. Payment lands August 21, with the August 7 ex-date meaning shares must be held by August 6.
Coverage here is the cleanest of the group. Against Capitol Federal’s full-year EPS of $0.66, the $0.34 payout is comfortably absorbed by earnings. Capitol Federal has also posted eight consecutive quarters of net interest margin expansion, which reinforces the durability of the payout.
Baker Hughes (BKR)
Baker Hughes (NASDAQ:BKR | BKR Price Prediction) is an energy-technology and oilfield-services company paying $0.23 per share quarterly ($0.92 annualized), a yield of 1.5%. Payment is August 17, the ex-date is August 7, and the buy-by deadline is August 6.
Baker Hughes has strong coverage. As it turns out, Baker Hughes’s trailing EPS of $3.15 sits well above the $0.92 annualized payout, and Q2 2026 free cash flow of $1.109 billion dwarfs the dividend outlay. The company just booked record IET (Industrial & Energy Technology) orders of $7.09 billion in Q2, extending a 10-quarter EPS beat streak.
Citizens Community Bancorp (CZWI)
Citizens Community Bancorp (NASDAQ:CZWI) is a Wisconsin and Minnesota community bank paying $0.105 per share quarterly, with a forward yield of 1.4% on an annualized basis around $0.32 per share. Payment is August 21; the ex-date is August 7 and the buy-by deadline is August 6.
On CZWI’s EPS of $1.31, the payout is well covered. However, Q2 EPS came in at just $0.11, hit by a provision spike to $4.33 million tied to three loan relationships, and nonperforming assets nearly doubled to $32.43 million. That single quarter puts CZWI’s payout coverage on the tighter side of the group.
ArcBest (ARCB)
ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB) is a less-than-truckload freight and logistics operator paying $0.12 per share quarterly ($0.48 annualized), yielding 0.4%. Payment date is August 21, with the same August 7 ex-date and August 6 last-day-to-buy.
ArcBest’s trailing EPS of $0.73 covers the $0.48 annualized payout, though not as generously as usual because freight-cycle earnings remain depressed. The trailing P/E ratio of 197.68x reflects that trough, though Q2 delivered a non-GAAP EPS of $2.38 against a $2.26 consensus, hinting at a firmer operating backdrop.
The Takeaway
The window here is short. Any purchase on or after August 7 misses this cycle’s payment across all five names, so investors interested in capturing these dividends can act by the close of August 6.
Please note that chasing payouts isn’t a viable strategy. Buying purely to catch a dividend often leaves investors with the same cash back and a lower cost basis, not extra income. Coverage matters more than yield: CFFN and BKR screen as the best-covered payouts, ARCB and CZWI look adequate with caveats, and ARLP’s headline yield comes with the reality of a recent cut and a distribution above trailing EPS.
Investors who miss the August 7 ex-date can watch for the next quarterly cycle rather than force a trade in the final hours. Ex-dates come around every three months, and the coverage quality of a payer matters far more than a single check.
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