How do dividends affect options' theoretical value?

I understand how increasing/decreasing dividends affect a call value for an option, but I'm kind of confused about why higher dividends increase puts while decreasing dividends decrease put values?

10 Comments
 

When dividends are paid out usually stock value will fall, thus the put value increases. It driven from the idea that when the stock price gets closer to the strike price the option value increases, so when the stock price drops the value of the put increases.

 

It also has to do with the fact of how an option price is derived. With a call option, the holder of the option will loose out on the dividend by not holding the stock so therefore the present value of the dividend is subtracted from the option price. And for the put, its like what 'non-target' said.

Yours truly, The Young Investor
 

What I don't understand is how you can state that you understand the impact of dividends on call value but not on put value. It's just the same: a change in expected dividends impact the forward price of the stock. The difference between the forward price and the strike price is the basis on which you build the option value.

 
Best Response

First of all, if something affects calls, then it MUST also affect puts because of put-call parity. This is a no arbitrage condition that must always hold.

Beyond that, think about what is actually going on with both a call and a put.

A call option gives the buyer long exposure to the upside return on the stock, but does not allow you to enjoy the return from dividends. For reasons we won't go into here, that concept is calculated as the risk free rate minus the dividend yield. If dividends are higher, you are losing out on receiving more FCFs of the company, so too bad for you and you'd want to pay accordingly less for the option.

The put is just the opposite, the writer of the put has long exposure to the stock but only on the downside. So the higher the dividends, the more he loses, because he's not getting more and more of the FCF of the stock he "owns." So, he needs to be paid a higher price to be compensated for this.

 

Put and call strikes generally ignore dividend payments, unless the OCC rules otherwise. As a result, all the option or call holder cares about is the stock price on the day of the expiry.

Let's say that you own puts on The Illini Widget Company (IWC) at $55 that expire in August. The current stock price is $63. Looks like you're out of the money, and unless the price moves, your IWC puts will expire worthless.

Tonight, one of IWC's major factories burns down. It's insured and IWC decides that rather than to rebuild, they will just make a dividend payment of $15/share from the insurance proceeds that goes ex-div July 30th. The market for IWC is pretty boring meantime and the stock price hovers around $60-65. On July 30th, IWC's $15/share dividend goes ex-dive and the stock price is now $49. Your put now has an intrinsic value of $6/share whereas it had a $0 intrinsic value before the dividend.

I've shown you what happens in an extreme situation, but it works in smaller situations, too.

One other way to think about it is that for most black scholes purposes, we treat the dividend as a percentage rather than a dollar amount and reinvest the dividend in the stock. In other words, it's a return on the stock in the same way that interest is a return on dollars. This counteracts the interest rate. High interest rates make puts cheaper, because the guy selling you the put is shorting the stock and getting more interest on the proceeds to invest to maturity; likewise, high dividends make it more expensive for him to short the stock because he is required to pay "interest" or dividends to the stock lender he's borrowing from the short.

 

Ratione nihil et sed pariatur. Excepturi et et a sed tempora enim quaerat officia. Repellat praesentium dolorum enim voluptas nobis quod sint repellat. Sint repellendus fugiat earum reiciendis dolore id ducimus. Laudantium voluptatem suscipit error unde ex hic. Qui vel repellendus praesentium reprehenderit laboriosam ipsam. Excepturi nisi voluptatem praesentium cum corrupti et fugit.

Sunt magni voluptates sint tempore est pariatur dolor quidem. Neque et ipsam saepe est dolore. Occaecati culpa quia veritatis unde et atque ipsum. Minus ipsa aut ab fugit quia quo eaque.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (48) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”