Casey

Not the case here but I can see how that would look identical.

The aggregator had the ex-date a week off from the company page. That was it.

Also check whether the payout ratio is quoted on adjusted earnings. A company that has adjusted out the same charge every year for a decade is not adjusting, it is hiding a cost.

It also keeps the record keeping simpler than manual reinvestment, which matters more than people expect in a taxable account.

Only if you actually do it, every quarter, for twenty years, without flinching. Most people do not, and the drag from idle cash eats the theoretical edge.

With fractional shares and no commissions, reinvest automatically and stop thinking about it. The rebalancing benefit of manual deployment is real but small at this size, and the failure mode of manual is that cash sits uninvested for months because you were busy. What I would do instead: DRIP the dividends, and point your 400 monthly contribution at whichever holding is most underweight. You get the rebalancing effect from new money without touching the dividends at all.

Learned this the hard way after moving accounts. My new broker had a basis that was simply wrong and it took months to sort out.

And the withholding rate depends on treaty paperwork your broker may or may not have filed for you. Worth checking once rather than assuming.