Street Name vs Holder of Record: Cede & Co

Street name vs holder of record is the difference between the name on your brokerage statement and the name on a company's shareholder register. For almost every US retail investor the holder of record is Cede & Co, the nominee of the Depository Trust Company, while your broker holds a position on DTC's books and you hold the beneficial interest. That one arrangement sets how your dividends arrive and why the ex-dividend date and the record date now land on the same day.

Who is the holder of record when you buy stock?

Every US public company keeps a shareholder register, maintained by a transfer agent it hires. The holder of record, also called the registered holder, is whatever name sits on that register. It is the only name the company recognizes when it pays a dividend or counts a vote.

Buy 100 shares through a broker and your name does not go on that register. The register shows Cede & Co, a nominee partnership of the Depository Trust Company (DTC), the central securities depository for the US market. DTC holds the underlying certificates and moves ownership between its participants as book entries. Your broker is one of those participants. Your broker's own records then show how much of its DTC position belongs to you.

The chain runs from the issuer's register, to Cede & Co, to your broker, to your account. You sit at the end of it as the beneficial owner: you carry the economic interest and the right to instruct the vote, while another name is on the register. Holding this way is called holding in street name, and it is the default at every US retail brokerage.

Street name vs holder of record, side by side

Held in street name:

• The issuer's register names Cede & Co. Your broker's records name you.
• Dividends arrive in your brokerage account rather than from the company.
• Proxy material reaches you through your broker as a voting instruction form.
• Shares in a margin account can be lent out by the broker.
• Sales settle inside DTC without the issuer's register changing at all.

Registered directly, the transfer agent is your counterparty instead. Dividends come by check or ACH, or straight into an issuer-sponsored dividend reinvestment plan. Proxy material comes as a proxy card with your name on it. No broker sits in the middle and no margin agreement exists, so nothing can be lent.

Correction: US stocks settle T+1, not T+2

Most street name explainers still describe a T+2 settlement cycle, and many still say the record date falls two business days after the ex-dividend date. As of this update, dated August 13, 2026, that is out of date. The US standard settlement cycle for stocks moved from T+2 to T+1 on May 28, 2024. A trade you place today settles the next business day. Our T+1 settlement guide walks through the mechanics.

The correction matters here specifically. A record date is settled at the depository level: the company asks who was on the books at the close of that day, and the answer comes from DTC participant positions, which update as trades settle. Under T+2 a buyer had to trade two business days ahead of the record date to be settled in time, which put the ex-dividend date one business day earlier than the record date. Under T+1 the two dates coincide. The panel below counts every US cash dividend by month.

SELECT
    toString(toStartOfMonth(ex_date))                     AS month,
    formatDateTime(toStartOfMonth(ex_date), '%b %Y')      AS month_label,
    round(100 * countIf(rec_date = ex_date) / count(), 1) AS same_day_pct,
    round(100 * countIf(rec_date > ex_date) / count(), 1) AS record_after_ex_pct,
    count()                                               AS dividend_count
FROM
(
    SELECT
        any(ex_dividend_date) AS ex_date,
        any(record_date)      AS rec_date
    FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
    WHERE ex_dividend_date >= '2023-06-01'
      AND ex_dividend_date <  today()
      AND cash_amount > 0
      AND currency = 'USD'
      AND record_date >= ex_dividend_date
      AND dateDiff('day', ex_dividend_date, record_date) <= 10
      AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
    GROUP BY id
)
GROUP BY month, month_label
ORDER BY month

In Jun 2023, 100% of cash dividends carried a record date later than the ex-dividend date and 0% shared the same day. By Aug 2026 the same-day share stood at 100%. The crossover in the middle of the chart sits alongside the May 2024 changeover. For how the two dates get chosen in the first place, see record date vs ex-dividend date and who sets the ex-dividend date.

One household name shows the same shift without any averaging.

SELECT
    toString(ex_dividend_date)                          AS date,
    formatDateTime(ex_dividend_date, '%b %e, %Y')       AS ex_date_label,
    max(dateDiff('day', ex_dividend_date, record_date)) AS days_ex_to_record,
    round(toFloat64(max(cash_amount)), 4)               AS dividend_per_share
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ticker = 'KO'
  AND ex_dividend_date >= '2023-01-01'
  AND ex_dividend_date <  today()
  AND cash_amount > 0
  AND record_date >= ex_dividend_date
GROUP BY ex_dividend_date
ORDER BY ex_dividend_date

Coca-Cola kept a steady quarterly cadence across this stretch. The gap between its ex-dividend date and its record date, in calendar days, measured 1 on Mar 16, 2023 and 0 on Jun 15, 2026. The cadence stayed put while the settlement cycle underneath it moved.

How do dividends and proxy votes reach a beneficial owner?

The issuer pays the whole dividend to the holder of record, Cede & Co, on the pay date. DTC allocates the cash to participants in proportion to their settled positions. Each broker then credits its own customers. Nobody inside the company ever sees your name, and no cash moves toward you until that last step.

The stretch between record date and pay date is where all of that happens. The panel below measures it for eight large dividend payers since June 2024.

SELECT
    sym                        AS ticker,
    round(avg(days_to_pay), 1) AS days_record_to_pay,
    count()                    AS payments
FROM
(
    SELECT
        any(ticker)                                 AS sym,
        max(dateDiff('day', record_date, pay_date)) AS days_to_pay
    FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
    WHERE ticker IN ('AAPL', 'MSFT', 'KO', 'JNJ', 'PG', 'XOM', 'CVX', 'CSCO')
      AND ex_dividend_date >= '2024-06-01'
      AND ex_dividend_date <  today()
      AND cash_amount > 0
      AND pay_date > record_date
      AND dateDiff('day', record_date, pay_date) <= 90
    GROUP BY id
)
GROUP BY sym
ORDER BY days_record_to_pay DESC

The longest average wait in the group ran 26 days, at XOM, against 3 days at AAPL. Both figures are the issuer's choice of calendar. Your broker posts the cash on or about the pay date, once DTC has allocated it.

Voting runs the same rails in reverse. Cede & Co executes an omnibus proxy passing voting power to the DTC participants holding positions on the record date, the issuer's proxy material is distributed to brokers, and your broker sends you a voting instruction form. You are instructing your broker how to vote shares registered in another name. Two points follow. On routine items a broker may vote uninstructed shares, and on contested items it may not. And the issuer learns your identity only if you are a non-objecting beneficial owner, a status you set in your account preferences.

Can a broker lend shares held in street name?

Yes, within the limits of your account agreement. Shares carried in a margin account can be lent by the broker, usually to a short seller who needs to deliver stock. Your position on the broker's books does not change while the loan is open. Two things about the share do. A dividend arrives as a substitute payment in lieu, taxed as ordinary income rather than as a qualified dividend, and the vote travels with whoever holds the share on the record date.

A cash account works differently. Fully paid shares are not available for the broker to lend unless you opt into a program for it, and fully paid securities lending pays you part of the borrow fee when you do.

Reported short interest is the visible footprint of all that borrowing.

SELECT
    ticker,
    round(argMax(days_to_cover, settlement_date), 2)        AS cover_days,
    round(argMax(short_interest, settlement_date) / 1e6, 1) AS short_interest_millions,
    formatDateTime(max(settlement_date), '%b %e, %Y')       AS as_of_label
FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest
WHERE settlement_date >= today() - 120
  AND ticker IN ('AAPL', 'MSFT', 'NVDA', 'KO', 'JNJ', 'CSCO', 'PG', 'XOM')
GROUP BY ticker
ORDER BY cover_days DESC

As of Jul 31, 2026, CSCO carried the highest days to cover in the group at 3.28, on 66.2 million shares of reported short interest. Days to cover states short interest as a multiple of average daily volume. Every borrowed share in that count started as a long position sitting in street name somewhere.

What is direct registration, and what changes?

Direct registration, or DRS, is the alternative. It records shares on the issuer's register in your own name, in book-entry form at the transfer agent. No paper certificate is printed and no broker is involved. You become the holder of record.

What changes:

• Dividends come from the transfer agent to your bank account, or into the issuer's own reinvestment plan.
• You receive a proxy card and vote your shares directly.
• No broker holds the position, so it cannot be lent or pledged as margin collateral.
• Selling takes an extra step. You transfer the shares to a broker first, which usually takes several business days, or use the transfer agent's sale facility, which typically batches orders and does not accept a limit price.
• A broker's failure cannot trap the position in an insolvency estate. SIPC coverage no longer applies either, since no broker is in the picture.

Brokers commonly charge a fee to move shares out of street name, and moving them back takes days rather than minutes. The purchase itself still clears through DTC on the T+1 cycle. Registration happens afterward.

FAQ

Who is the holder of record for shares held in a brokerage account?

Cede & Co, the nominee of the Depository Trust Company, is the name on the issuer's register. Your broker holds a position on DTC's books, and your broker's records show you as the beneficial owner of part of that position.

Does holding stock in street name change my dividend?

The cash amount is the same. It reaches you through your broker rather than from the company, and it posts on or about the pay date. A share out on loan pays a substitute payment instead, which is taxed as ordinary income.

Can I vote shares held in street name?

Yes. Your broker sends a voting instruction form ahead of the meeting and votes according to your instructions. A share that was out on loan on the record date is voted by whoever held it that day.

Is US stock settlement T+2 or T+1?

T+1. The standard cycle for US stocks changed from T+2 to T+1 on May 28, 2024. Any explainer still describing a two business day gap between the ex-dividend date and the record date was written before that change.

What is the difference between DRS and street name?

DRS registers shares in your own name on the issuer's books at the transfer agent, which makes you the holder of record. Street name leaves Cede & Co on the register and keeps the record of your ownership on your broker's books.

Every panel here ships with the SQL that produced it. Open one to see exactly how the count was made. To trace a specific company's record and pay dates yourself, ask the question in plain English on the Strasmore terminal.