What Is a Special Dividend? (With Examples)

A special dividend is a one-time cash payment a company makes to shareholders outside its regular dividend schedule. In market data it carries a payment frequency of zero, meaning no set cadence: it is not the quarterly or monthly check income investors plan around, but a stand-alone distribution a board declares once and may never repeat. A special dividend can be many times the size of a regular payout, and on the ex-dividend date it lowers the share price the same way any dividend does.

The most recent well-known example landed on July 13, 2026, when National Beverage (FIZZ) went ex on a $3.25 special dividend. It is a company that pays no regular dividend at all, only occasional large specials.

What is a special dividend?

A regular dividend follows a fixed rhythm: most US payers send a check every quarter, some every month, and a smaller number annually or semi-annually. A special dividend breaks that rhythm. A board typically declares one after a one-off event: a large asset sale, an unusually profitable stretch, a recapitalization, or a decision to hand back excess cash before a tax-rate change. The payment is flagged as non-recurring, and it comes with no promise of a repeat.

Special dividends are a real but minority slice of the dividend calendar. The panel below sorts every 2026 US dividend by its scheduled cadence.

SELECT
    multiIf(frequency = 0, 'Special (one-time)',
            frequency = 1, 'Annual',
            frequency = 2, 'Semi-annual',
            frequency = 4, 'Quarterly',
            frequency = 12, 'Monthly', 'Other') AS schedule,
    count() AS payments
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ex_dividend_date BETWEEN '2026-01-01' AND '2026-07-13'
  AND frequency IN (0, 1, 2, 4, 12)
GROUP BY frequency
ORDER BY frequency

Through July 13, 2026, US companies made 1189 special one-time payments, against 9121 quarterly and 10733 monthly ones. Regular quarterly and monthly dividends dominate the count; the one-time special is the exception a shareholder might see once in years of holding a name.

Which companies pay special dividends?

The canonical special-dividend payer is Costco (COST), which every few years returns a large slug of cash in a single distribution on top of its ordinary quarterly dividend. The panel gathers the biggest specials from a set of recognizable payers over the past decade-plus.

SELECT
    concat(ticker, ' ', toString(toYear(ex_dividend_date))) AS payer_year,
    toYear(ex_dividend_date) AS year,
    round(cash_amount, 2) AS special_dividend_usd
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE frequency = 0
  AND cash_amount >= 1
  AND ticker IN ('COST', 'FIZZ', 'CME', 'LYB', 'LVS', 'EBAY', 'MPC', 'WSM', 'BBY', 'HRB')
  AND ex_dividend_date >= '2012-01-01'
ORDER BY special_dividend_usd DESC, payer_year ASC
LIMIT 12

The largest here is Costco's $15 special in 2023, one of a series that also included $10 in 2020 and $7 in 2012. CME Group has made a variable special almost every December, and National Beverage shows up repeatedly. The common thread is a cash-rich balance sheet and a board that prefers a one-time return over locking in a higher recurring payout.

National Beverage's serial specials

National Beverage is the purest case: no regular dividend, just an occasional large check. Its ex-dividend history since 2016 traces the pattern.

SELECT
    toString(ex_dividend_date) AS date,
    round(cash_amount, 2) AS special_dividend_usd
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ticker = 'FIZZ'
  AND frequency = 0
  AND ex_dividend_date >= '2016-01-01'
ORDER BY ex_dividend_date

Across 7 special dividends since 2016, the payouts ranged from $1.5 to a $6 distribution in 2020, with the latest $3.25 going ex on 2026-07-13. There is no ladder to extrapolate: the timing and the size are a board decision each time, which is exactly what a frequency of zero encodes.

What happens to the stock on the ex-date?

A special dividend follows the same ownership rule as any other. Own the stock before the ex-dividend date and the special is yours; buy on the ex-date and it is not. And like any dividend, the special comes out of the share price: on the ex-date the stock opens lower by roughly the special amount. The cash simply moves from inside the company to the shareholder's account. For a large special, that one-day step down can exceed a full year of the stock's regular dividend yield at once.

Do special dividends affect options?

Here the special dividend parts ways with the ordinary kind. Regular cash dividends do not change the terms of listed options, so an in-the-money call holder who wants the payout has to exercise before the ex-date to own the shares of record. A special dividend is treated differently: the Options Clearing Corporation generally adjusts the terms of listed options for a special or non-recurring cash distribution, reducing the strike price by the special amount on the ex-date. The adjustment keeps an option holder whole across a distribution that the regular-dividend rules were never built for.

FAQ

What is a special dividend?

A special dividend is a one-time cash payment made outside a company's regular dividend schedule, flagged with a payment frequency of zero. It is usually much larger than a regular dividend and carries no commitment to be repeated.

Do you have to hold the stock to get a special dividend?

Yes, under the same rule as any dividend: you must own the shares before the ex-dividend date. Buy on or after the ex-date and the special goes to the seller, not to you.

Does the stock price drop after a special dividend?

It does, on the ex-date. The stock opens lower by approximately the special dividend amount, since the cash paid out is cash the company no longer holds. A large special can knock a visible percentage off the share price in a single morning.

Why does Costco pay special dividends?

Costco has periodically returned surplus cash to shareholders through one-time specials rather than raising its regular quarterly payout. Its specials have ranged from $7 to $15 in the panel above, declared in years the board chose to distribute extra cash.

Are special dividends the same as regular dividends for options?

No. Ordinary dividends do not adjust option strike prices, but a special or non-recurring cash dividend generally triggers an Options Clearing Corporation adjustment that lowers the strike by the special amount. That difference is why special dividends matter to option holders in a way ordinary ones do not.

Every panel above is a stored, inspectable query. Open the SQL under any chart to audit it, or screen the full US dividend calendar on the Strasmore terminal.