This phenomenon, known as the dividend opt-out effect, is purely an accounting matter. As explained by XTB, when a stock reaches its ex-dividend date, the opening price is adjusted downward by an amount equivalent to the gross dividend, reflecting that buyers from that day forward are no longer entitled to that payment. With a payment of €0.15 on a previous share price that yielded a dividend yield of 3.8%, the correction observed in the charts is consistent with that discount. There is, therefore, no negative market sentiment regarding the stock.

Despite Telefónica’s weight in the Spanish index, the Ibex 35 manages to remain in positive territory: the index is trading around 19,098.66 points, up 0.35%, within an intraday range of 19,033.97 to 19,121.46 points, according to data from Investing.com. The index’s gain over the past twelve months exceeds 37%, placing it just shy of its 52-week high of 19,152 points.

Today’s payment is also a milestone with strategic implications for the operator’s shareholders. This is the final semi-annual dividend under the dual-payment scheme that Telefónica had maintained for years: two payments of €0.15 each, equivalent to €0.30 gross annually. In November 2025, the company announced a 50% cut in its dividend policy as part of its “Transform & Grow” strategic plan, aimed at cost savings and long-term value creation. From now on, Telefónica will make a single annual payment of €0.15, with the next one scheduled for June 2027.

To cover this second installment of the 2025 dividend, Telefónica will disburse approximately 850 million euros, according to Expansión. The operator will not be alone in this month’s dividend schedule: Ferrovial and Puig also have payments scheduled for the coming weeks, and the total of all these distributions could reach 1.5 billion euros before the end of June, according to Cinco Días.

Telefónica’s operating environment remains reasonably solid at this time. The company released its first-quarter 2026 results in mid-May, reporting a 0.4% increase in revenue, though it recorded an accounting loss of 411 million euros due to the impact of the sale of subsidiaries in Latin America. Excluding these extraordinary items, net income would have been positive at 482 million euros. Barclays analysts, in a report published on June 1, emphasized that “Telefónica’s results were better than expected, and the outlook for the rest of the year was encouraging, especially in Spain, where company management expects the slight acceleration in trends observed in the first quarter to continue.”

In terms of year-to-date stock performance, Telefónica shares have risen by around 8% so far in 2026, illustrating that today’s correction is a technical consequence of the payment schedule and not a sign of structural weakness in the stock.

Market attention will focus on the actual dividend payment on June 18, when investors who held positions prior to that date will see the payment reflected in their accounts. In the longer term, the true test of the new compensation policy will come in June 2027, when Telefónica makes its first annual lump-sum payment under the new model. The progress of the “Transform & Grow” plan and the quarterly results released between now and then will be the key factors in determining whether the dividend cut is offset by improved cash flow and stock price performance.