Bad data - Incorrect Price Adjustment for Cash Dividend?

Alpaca Market Data
1

The adjusted price for TPG after the dividend ex-date of 2026-02-19 seems wrong.

Querying the raw historical bars I get:

"TPG": [
    { "c": 46.90, "h": 50.08, "l": 46.83,  "n": 54229, "o": 49.16, "t": "2026-02-17T05:00:00Z", "v": 4716935,  "vw": 47.489336 },
    { "c": 47.94, "h": 48.36, "l": 46.75,  "n": 34124, "o": 47.15, "t": "2026-02-18T05:00:00Z", "v": 2942139,  "vw": 47.889388 },
    { "c": 44.58, "h": 46.27, "l": 43.045, "n": 74945, "o": 46.14, "t": "2026-02-19T05:00:00Z", "v": 7317796,  "vw": 43.921166 },
    { "c": 44.51, "h": 44.87, "l": 43.175, "n": 92240, "o": 44.23, "t": "2026-02-20T05:00:00Z", "v": 11964032, "vw": 44.380751 }
]

And from the corporate actions query:

"cash_dividends": [
  {
    "cusip": "872657101",
    "ex_date": "2026-02-19",
    "foreign": false,
    "id": "ae3c1f14-83db-47b2-a556-438627099d2d",
    "payable_date": "2026-03-05",
    "process_date": "2026-03-05",
    "rate": 0.61,
    "record_date": "2026-02-19",
    "special": false,
    "symbol": "TPG"
  }
]

Finally the adjusted historical bars:

"TPG": [
    { "c": 46.27, "h": 49.4,  "l": 46.2,   "n": 54229, "o": 48.5,  "t": "2026-02-17T05:00:00Z", "v": 4716935,  "vw": 46.85 },
    { "c": 47.29, "h": 47.71, "l": 46.12,  "n": 34124, "o": 46.51, "t": "2026-02-18T05:00:00Z", "v": 2942139,  "vw": 47.24 },
    { "c": 44.58, "h": 46.27, "l": 43.045, "n": 74945, "o": 46.14, "t": "2026-02-19T05:00:00Z", "v": 7317796,  "vw": 43.921166 },
    { "c": 44.51, "h": 44.87, "l": 43.175, "n": 92240, "o": 44.23, "t": "2026-02-20T05:00:00Z", "v": 11964032, "vw": 44.380751 }
]

The closing price on 2026-02-18 went from 47.94 to 47.29 - which would indicate a 0.65 dividend. With the 0.61 (correct) dividend shouldn’t it be 47.33?

Cross checking other sources - they have 47.33 as expected. Yahoo as one example:

image
image1720×382 48 KB

What am I getting wrong? Help appreciated.

2

Hi @bursa.fibula :waving_hand:

Thank you so much for reporting this issue. The difference you noted comes from the fact that Alpaca uses the closing price on the ex-date ($44.58) to calculate the adjustment factor. This might be incorrect. We’re going to discuss this internally and get back to you shortly.

3

Hi @bursa.fibula :waving_hand:

Thanks again for reporting this issue. After researching it and discussing it internally we decided that you’re right and we needed to update our cash dividend adjustment calculation to use the closing price before the ex-date ($47.94 in this case). After doing so our API now returns the data you expected:

$ curl -s -H "APCA-API-KEY-ID: ${APCA_API_KEY_ID}" -H "APCA-API-SECRET-KEY: ${APCA_API_SECRET_KEY}" "${APCA_API_DATA_URL}/v2/stocks/bars?symbols=TPG&start=2026-02-18&limit=1&timeframe=1Day&adjustment=dividend" | jq .
{
  "bars": {
    "TPG": [
      {
        "c": 47.33,
        "h": 47.74,
        "l": 46.16,
        "n": 34124,
        "o": 46.55,
        "t": "2026-02-18T05:00:00Z",
        "v": 2942139,
        "vw": 47.28
      }
    ]
  },
  "next_page_token": "VFBHfER8MTc3MTQ3NzIwMDAwMDAwMDAwMA=="
}
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