Strategy’s (MSTR) perpetual preferred stock, STRC, is down 3% during Friday’s pre-market trading and now sits below $73 — roughly 27% below its $100 par value. Investors are focusing on June 30, a date that brings two important events.
The first is the ex-dividend date. Anyone who owns STRC shares before June 30 will receive the next dividend payment, while buyers on or after that date will not. June 30 also acts as the record date, meaning Strategy shareholders who qualify for the distribution will get STRC’s first semi-monthly dividend of $0.48 per share on July 15.
Does the ex-dividend matter much here?
Normally, a stock drops by roughly the amount of its dividend when it goes ex-dividend. For STRC, a $0.48 adjustment on a $73 stock is less than 0.7%. That seems small, especially when STRC has been falling 2-3% a day. So the ex-dividend date probably won’t be a huge catalyst for further downside.
The bigger event is Strategy’s monthly dividend rate reset. STRC is a perpetual preferred stock — no maturity date, and its dividend rate can be reset periodically by the company.
Dividend rate expectations
Strategy has kept the dividend rate at 11.50% for four months in a row, even though STRC trades well below par. The one-month volume weighted average price (VWAP) is $91.46, but shares are now at $73. That means the stock’s effective yield — the annual dividend relative to current market price — has climbed to roughly 15%.
That suggests investors are demanding a much higher return than the current rate offers. I think a modest increase to at least 12% or 12.50% is likely. But for STRC holders, a sustained recovery toward par probably depends more on Bitcoin than on a small dividend adjustment.
Broader context
MSTR common stock is trading around $85, more than 84% below its all-time high from November 2024. That’s putting further pressure on Strategy’s Bitcoin-leveraged capital structure. It’s a tough environment for preferred shareholders, and maybe the rate reset won’t change much unless the bigger crypto picture improves.
