The company sets the record date. Regulators set the ex-date. You must hold until the ex-date to get the dividend. This stock moves with the dividend attached until March 25th. The official ex-date.
This is not a regular dividend. It is more than 25% of the pps and special rules apply. This does not happen often and there is much confusion when it does. Below is a FINRA link describing how the ex-date works and why it will be different on this particular stock.
Dividends Or Distributions 25 Percent Or Greater Than Security Value The second method, under subparagraph (b)(2) of Rule 11140, provides that for dividends or distributions that are 25 percent or greater of the value of the subject security, the ex-date shall be the first business day following the payable date. For example, if an issuer has announced August 10 as the record date and August 31 as the payable date, then the ex-date will be September 1, the first business day after the payable date. In this example, September 1 is the day on or after which a buyer would purchase the security without the dividend and, therefore, the day on which the price of the stock is adjusted downward. In this example, a seller of the security on August 15, even though the holder of record to receive the dividend, would have to relinquish the dividend to the buyer. Indeed, because the value of the security on August 15 has not yet been adjusted downward to reflect the dividend distribution, the seller in this example would be unjustly enriched by keeping the dividend. The seller would have received the value of the dividend twice: first, as fully reflected in the unadjusted price of the stock on August 15; and secondly, as subsequently paid by the company to record date holders.
1.43 cash per share on 12-31-09 minus 1.10 cash dividend per share on 03-24-10 is an odd business move...
They are paying out enough cash in a dividend to have more or less retired most of the company's current accounts payable that was showing on 12-31-09...
Its hard to see paying out most of the cash to shareholders before retiring all company debt...LJ