Historical dividend/cap gain data is incorrect. Dividends are accounted for but cap gains are not. This distorts the adjusted price.
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Anonymous commented
I just noticed this today (6/20). When I updated my data for funds that recently paid dividends, the older adjusted close prices changed by a factor of 3X.
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Bill A Symington commented
I also have an issue with the way "adjusted closing prices" are being calculated for mutual funds. Until I read the other comments posted here, I assumed that my problem was simply due to a data loading error - not that it was something Yahoo had done on purpose. My issue is with the historical data for Fidelity Freedom 2025 Fund (FFTWX), and is described further below.
On May 14, FFTWX declared a dividend ($0.002 per share), a short term capital gain ($0.004 per share), and a long term capital gain ($0.601 per share). The total payment was $0.607 per share. Normally, Yahoo Finance historical data lists the total payment as a “dividend” and uses the total payment to calculate adjusted closing prices for dates prior to the payment. For the May 14 payment, whoever loaded the data apparently loaded only the actual dividend – not the total payment. This makes all the adjusted closing prices calculated prior to May 14, 2021 incorrect.
If this is being done on purpose, the previous procedure needs to reinstituted. If it's simply a data loading error (as I originally assumed), it needs to be corrected.
Thanks.
- Bill Symington
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Michael Loudiana commented
I have the same problem with mutual fund adjusted close values. Prior to January 2021, mutual funds were adjusted for capital gains and dividends. Some time in January 2021, Yahoo stopped adjusting for capital gains. Yahoo claims they are using CRSP documentation and the documentation says "Split events always include stock splits, stock dividends, and other distributions" Capital gain distributions (which are "other distributions") should be included so adjusted close reflects total return.
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Harold Williams commented
This problem started sometime in 2021. Prior to that adjusted price data was correct.