Hey Richard.
First off, I'd like to thank you for your recent 5 star review! We really appreciate it. However, if you could, could you go in and remove the tickers? We like to keep the stocks we highlight at Premium inside of Premium haha. Not a huge deal though!
Now, in terms of the dividend. There isn't really a "time limit" to how long you have to hold a dividend stock. You need to be a holder of the stock BEFORE the ex dividend date.
I highlight before, as a lot of investors think they can buy the stock on the ex-dividend date and still receive it. This is not the case.
So, a company will announce a record date for a dividend. What this means, is that all the shareholders on record as of that date will be the ones who get the dividend. Many beginner investors think that you simply need to buy on that day.
However, in the background, transactions actually take two full days to process. So, your brokerage typically announces an ex dividend date, which will be a day before the record date. This is the date that the company goes "ex" dividend up until the dividend is paid.
An easy example. Say a company announces a dividend record date of this Wednesday, November 25th. You want to receive the dividend.
Record Date - November 25th 2020
Ex-Dividend Date - November 24th 2020
Last day you can buy to receive the dividend - November 23rd 2020.
If you bought on the 25th, 24th, or any day past that up until the dividend is paid, the seller of the shares will get the dividend, not you.
Does that answer the question?