S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) shares are down 0.16% to 9,087.7 points on Friday.

Earnings season is well underway, and ASX companies are preparing to pay out millions in dividends to investors soon.

Next week, a bunch of ASX shares will go ex-dividend.

That means they will commence trading without the upcoming dividend attached from a specified date.

If you're interested in buying any of these ASX shares and picking up that next payment, you'll need to do it before the 'ex-div' date.

Of course, here at The Fool we do not recommend buying ASX shares just to get the next dividend payment.

Our market experts say the decision to buy should be more thoughtful than that, and based on fundamental analysis.

It's important to know that a stock's share price will typically fall on the ex-dividend date.

That's simply because the dividend is no longer attached, which makes the stock less valuable.

Here are a number of ASX shares going ex-dividend next week, and how much these companies intend to pay to investors and when.

8 ASX shares about to go ex-dividend

Are dividends lower than usual?

If you're getting the feeling that dividend yields are lower than usual, your instincts are right.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is one of the highest-yielding share markets in the world, with long-run average annual dividends of 4% to 4.5% per annum.

As we reported earlier today, this has changed.

Betashares says the trailing cash dividend yield of the ASX 200 has dropped to 3.34% per year.

This is largely because the miners are paying lower dividend yields due to weakened commodity prices.

Additionally, the banks are paying lower dividend yields following strong share price growth between late 2023 and 2025.

Betashares senior investment strategist, Cameron Gleeson, says:

Australia's reputation as a high dividend-market rests heavily on the shoulders of the big banks and miners.

Recently, this dependence has started to threaten the sustainability of the overall market dividend yield.

Over the last two years, dividends at an index level have been falling as the earnings yield has taken a hit.