SCHD September 2026 Dividend: $0.2665/Share, Ex-Date & Pay Date

SCHD's September 2026 dividend is $0.2665 per share. Schwab declared it on September 22, 2026, with an ex-dividend date of September 23, 2026 and a payment date of September 28, 2026. It is up 5.5% from the Q2 2026 payment of $0.2525 and up 2.3% from Q3 2025's $0.2604.

This brings SCHD's trailing 12-month payout to $1.0541 per share — the sum of the last four quarterly payments. At recent prices around $33.40, that is a yield of roughly 3.2%.

One important note: unlike a single company's dividend, SCHD's payout is a pass-through — the fund collects the dividends its ~100 holdings pay and distributes them quarterly, so the amount moves around each quarter. The annual total, not any single payment, is the number to plan around.

Here are the four dates that matter for this payment, and what each one means for you:

The ex-dividend date is today, September 23. If you bought SCHD this morning after the market opened, you will not receive this payment — the seller gets it. If you owned shares at yesterday's close, the $0.2665 per share is yours and arrives on September 28.

Want a full calendar of what's going ex-dividend each week? See our ex-dividend stocks this week guide and the dividend income calendar.

The math is simple: shares owned × $0.2665 = your September payment. Here is what that looks like at common position sizes, plus what the trailing 12-month total of $1.0541 pays per year:

Working backward from an income goal is more useful. At the trailing 12-month payout of $1.0541 per share, collecting $1,000 per year requires about 949 shares — roughly $31,700 at recent prices around $33.40. For $500 per month ($6,000/year), that is about 5,693 shares, or roughly $190,000 invested.

Yes — and that is the whole point of SCHD. The fund has now raised its annual dividend for 14 consecutive years. Here is the 2026 quarterly record so far:

The honest read: quarterly payments bounce around — Q2 2026 actually fell 2.9% year over year before this quarter's rebound. That is normal for a pass-through ETF whose holdings declare on their own schedules. What matters is the long arc: SCHD's dividend has compounded at roughly 10-11% annually since 2012, and the trailing 12-month total of $1.0541 is essentially flat with 2025's $1.05.

The Q4 payment, typically declared in early December, is usually the largest of the year ($0.2782 last year). If that pattern holds, 2026 could still finish as another record annual total.

At recent prices around $33.40, the trailing 12-month payout of $1.0541 gives SCHD a yield of about 3.2%. The math: $1.0541 ÷ $33.40 = 3.16%.

Context matters. That 3.2% is roughly triple the S&P 500's ~1% yield, and it comes with a 0.06% expense ratio — about $6 per year on a $10,000 investment. Here is how SCHD's income profile compares to other popular income ETFs:

SCHD will not win a pure yield contest against covered-call funds like JEPI. Its edge is the combination: a 3%+ starting yield plus a decade-plus record of growing the payout. A 3.2% yield growing at 8-10% per year doubles your income roughly every 8 years without you adding a dollar.

For the full three-way breakdown, see our SCHD vs VYM vs DGRO comparison and the JEPI trailing 12-month yield guide.

SCHD does not pick stocks by gut feel. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which applies a strict quality filter before a company can get in:

• 10+ consecutive years of paying dividends — the first screen eliminates any company without a proven record
• Quality ranking — survivors are scored on cash flow relative to debt, return on equity, dividend yield, and five-year dividend growth
• Concentration guardrails — no single stock can exceed 4% of the index, and REITs are excluded entirely

The result is a ~100-stock portfolio tilted toward profitable value companies. Recent top holdings include names like Home Depot and Coca-Cola, with health care and consumer staples each carrying about a fifth of the fund. The portfolio's price-to-earnings ratio sits around 18 — reasonable for a quality-leaning fund.

At roughly $110 billion in assets and a 0.06% expense ratio, SCHD is one of the cheapest ways to own a diversified dividend-growth portfolio. You keep ~99.94% of the return the index generates, every year, automatically.

The ex-date is today, so for this payment the window has closed — you either owned SCHD at yesterday's close or you didn't. But the playbook is the same every quarter, and Q4's declaration arrives in early December:

1. Check your share count before the next ex-date. Your payment is shares × declared amount, full stop. Q4 2025 paid $0.2782 — the year's biggest — so the December payment is the one to position for.
2. Decide: cash or DRIP. Reinvesting compounds your share count every quarter; taking cash funds your lifestyle. There is no wrong answer, but pick intentionally — a defaulted cash payout in a taxable account is the most common "accidental" choice.
3. Know the tax treatment. SCHD's distributions have historically been mostly qualified dividends, taxed at the lower long-term capital gains rates (0%, 15%, or 20%) rather than ordinary income rates. Confirm the qualified percentage on your 1099 each year.
4. Track it automatically. Logging every quarterly payment by hand across multiple accounts is how income gets miscounted. DripWealth tracks each SCHD distribution, projects your annual income, and shows your yield on cost as the dividend grows.

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