The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price is under pressure again on Friday.
At the time of writing, the banking giant's shares are down 2.5% to $22.63.
This latest decline means the Westpac share price is now down 12% this week.
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Why is the Westpac share price dropping again?
Fortunately for shareholders, today's weakness in the Westpac share price has nothing to do with its performance or any new broker notes. Rather, it has everything to do with its dividend.
This morning, the shares of Australia's oldest bank are trading ex-dividend for its recently announced final dividend.
When a share trades ex-dividend it means that it is trading without the rights to an upcoming dividend. Those rights are now with the seller and therefore the share price falls to reflect the fact that new buyers of a particular share won't be receiving the dividend.
After all, you wouldn't pay full price for a carton of eggs if there were one egg missing. In this case, it is the Westpac dividend that is missing from the purchase.
The Westpac dividend
When Westpac released its full year results on Monday, the banking giant's board declared a fully franked final dividend of 60 cents per share. This brought its full year dividend for FY 2021 to 118 cents per share or $2.2 billion in total.
Eligible Westpac shareholders can now look forward to receiving this final dividend in time for some late Christmas shopping. The bank intends to make the dividend payment on 21 December.
Despite recent weakness in the Westpac share price, it is still beating the market this year. Since the start of the year, the bank's shares have risen a solid 16%.
