The long-term performance following dividend initiations and resumptions revisited

Previous studies have documented that an announcement of dividend initiation and resumption is associated with an increase in stock price, while Boehme and Sorescu (J Finance 47:871–900, 2002) argue that the dividend anomaly only occurs by chance. However, their sample contains firms listed within 3 and/or 5 years of their respective initial public offering (IPO) dates, as well as regulated firms. We conjecture that the confounding effects of IPOs and regulated firms may interfere with the increase in stock prices due to dividend initiations and resumptions and bias their results. We thus reexamine the long-term stock performance following dividend initiations and resumptions by excluding newly IPO firms and regulated firms. We find no evidence that the non-robust positive price drifts for firms, which initiate or resume cash dividends, is due to the confounding effects of IPOs and regulated firms. Therefore the price drifts after dividend initiation and resumption announcements may be a sample-specific result of chance, even after controlling for possible sample selection biases.     

Stock price reactions to stock dividend announcements: A case from a sluggish economic period

The 2007 financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed resulted in a loss of confidence among investors, and regaining their full trust and confidence has been a challenge for companies. Although economic growth has been volatile throughout the postwar World War II period, recent growth (2008–2015) has been remarkably weaker than in the previous low-growth period (1974–1995). The 2006–2015 period is often characterized by sluggish economic growth. This study investigates stock price reactions to stock dividend announcements, 30 days before and after the announcement dates, of publicly traded companies in the period 2006–2012. We use an event study methodology for 460 events and daily stock price data for companies in the CRSP historical data set. The study shows a significant reaction in stock prices around the event date. On average, stock prices reacted positively to stock dividend announcements. However, compared to previous findings of abnormal returns (5.9%), results from this study show small abnormal returns (about 1.81%) attributable to stock dividend announcements that are cumulative of the announcement day and up to 3-day post-announcement days. Our estimates are even lower than the 2.01% stock price reaction obtained in the 1987–1996 period.     

On the differential market reaction to dividend initiations

The finance literature documents substantial positive stock price reaction to dividend initiations. Most dividend initiation studies focus on the average positive reaction; however, 40 percent of the firms that initiate dividends experience negative abnormal returns at announcement. This paper focuses on the apparent heterogeneity in the stock price reaction to dividend initiation. I find that the observed negative market reaction reflects the market’s economic assessment of the impact of the event on these firms, and that it is not caused by anticipation or confounding events. The result is also supported by the fact that the market reaction to dividend initiation for these firms is negatively related to initial dividend yield. Both the positive and negative observed reactions are consistent with conventional arguments regarding the information content of dividends, and their role in mitigating agency problems.     

Earnings management and expected dividend increases around seasoned share issues: evidence from Finland

This paper provides evidence that firms issuing new shares at higher discounts and hence with larger expected dividend increases, use their opportunities for earnings management in such a way that, by the year of a share issue, they report larger earnings in excess of current dividends than firms that issue shares at lower discounts or that do not issue shares at all. These excess earnings are useful to successful issuing firms in that they reinforce the buffer of retained earnings available for future dividend payments, thereby conveying credible information about the firm's ability to meet the expected dividend increase implied by the issue announcement. The empirical findings are consistent with this argument.     

Using ex-day returns to separate the tax and information effects of dividend changes

In this paper, the information content of dividends is tested by examining the abnormal return on the announcement date. To address the potentially confounding effects of the tax penalty, the abnormal exdividend day return is used to separate stocks for which dividends impose a tax penalty on marginal investors from stocks for which dividends provide a tax benefit to marginal investors. This separation uncovers results that support the information content hypothesis; dividend increases result in positive abnormal announcement day returns even for stocks whose marginal investors are averse to dividends.     

Are Corporate Tax Reductions Real Benefits under Imputation Systems?

Imputation systems integrate corporate and shareholder personal income taxes to alleviate double taxation of dividend income. In this study, we empirically examine whether a corporate tax rate reduction under an imputation tax system benefits shareholders. Using Taiwan as a setting, our analyses indicate that decreasing the corporate tax rate is associated with an increase in dividend payout ratio and foreign investment. Moreover, the increase in dividend payout ratio is even greater for firms that have a higher increase in foreign ownership. Additionally, the market reacts positively to an announcement of a tax rate reduction; specifically, positive stock price reactions are stronger for firms that experienced a greater increase in foreign ownership in response to the tax rate reduction, for firms with greater liquidity constraints and more growth opportunities before the tax rate reduction, and for firms with a bigger decrease in effective tax rates after the tax rate reduction. Overall, we provide evidence that a tax rate reduction is associated with economic impacts and that foreign shareholders appear to be the main beneficiaries of a tax rate reduction under an imputation tax system.     

Capital Market Reactions to Accounting Earnings Announcements in an International Context

This study examines the association of four factors with U.S. securities market reactions to annual earnings announcements by non-U.S. multinational corporations and by a control sample of U.S. firms. The four factors examined are firm size, the magnitude of earnings change, timeliness, and the presence or absence of a concurrent dividend announcement. The non-U.S. corporations are from five countries - Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, and United Kingdom. Results for the group of non-U.S. firms indicate that firm size and timeliness are significant explanatory variables. For the control sample of U.S. firms, only size is significant.     

How Important are Earnings Announcements as an Information Source?

In a competitive information market, a single information source can only dominate other sources individually, not collectively. We explore whether earnings announcements constitute such a dominant source using Ball and Shivakumar's (2008) [How much new information is there in earnings?, Journal of Accounting Research, 2008, 46(5), pp. 975–1016] R ² metric: the proportion of the variation in annual returns explained by the four quarterly earnings announcement returns. We find that the earnings announcement days' R ² is 11% – higher than the corresponding R ² of days with dividend announcements, management forecasts, preannouncements, and 10-K and 10-Q filings and their amendments, and comparable to that of the four days with the largest realised absolute returns in a year. Additional analysis reveals that earnings announcements convey extreme bad news as often as management forecasts and preannouncements; for any other type of news, earnings announcements are much more frequent. We conclude that earnings announcements are an important source of new information in the equity market.     

上市公司超能力派现信号效应实证研究

上市公司超能力派现已引起了广泛的关注,然而这一现象可能导致的市场反应却不为人们所了解。作者以深、沪两市2005年实行超能力派现上市公司为研究对象,根据股利公告日前后股价的变动资料,采取累计超额收益率进行实证研究,以此来分析市场对超能力派现的反应。实证研究结果表明,超能力派现对公司的股价具有负的信号传递作用。     

Peer effect on dividends and return comovement

This study investigates the stock return comovement of dividend-paying and nonpaying firms induced by peer effects of dividend payout policies. We consider peer effect as a channel that links a firm’s dividend initiation to firms that did not change dividend status. Dividend initiation attracts investors to the industry and puts pressure on peer firms to change their dividend policy, which leads to return comovement between nonpaying peers and paying firms. Using matched peer firms that resemble dividend initiators, we find that return comovement can be induced through an indirect channel without changes in style or category. Excess return comovement for firms without dividends is observed with dividend payers of the market and their industries through peer influence.     

上市公司业绩与股利分配方式关系研究——基于沪市100家上市公司的分析

上市公司股利政策是其财务政策的核心内容之一,本文以沪市100家上市公司为例,着重探讨上市公司的业绩状况和股利分配方式之间的关系。研究表明,上市公司的股利分配方式与其业绩状况存在着显著关系,提高上市公司的盈利能力是规范其股利分配行为的基础。     

真实盈余管理与现金股利政策——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文利用2007～2011年7402个沪深A股上市公司样本,实证检验了上市公司真实盈余管理与现金股利政策间的关系,研究发现,真实盈余管理与现金股利分配倾向及现金股利分配力度间存在显著负相关关系,即真实盈余管理程度越高的上市公司,现金股利分配倾向就越低,而且分配的每股现金股利值也越低。进一步研究发现,真实盈余管理与现金股利政策间的负相关关系主要是由正向真实盈余管理的上市公司造成的。     

Largest shareholder and dividend policy around the world

This paper examines the interaction between the largest shareholder and dividend policy in a sample of 8,279 listed firms drawn from 37 countries. We find that firms are more likely to pay dividends when profitability is high, debt is low, investment opportunities are limited or when the largest shareholder is not an insider. Further, the magnitude of dividend payout tends to be smaller when the largest shareholder is either an insider or a financial institution. It is also apparent that largest shareholding and dividend payout are related and that, consistent with the extant literature, legal system does matter in dividend policy decisions.     

Corporate cash holdings and dividend payments: evidence from simultaneous analysis

This study explores the simultaneous relationship between corporate cash holdings and dividend policy using a large sample of around 400 non‐financial firms for the period from 1991 to 2008. The results show that cash holdings are affected by dividends, leverage, growth, size, risk, profitability, and working capital ratio. Dividend policy is affected by cash, leverage, growth, size, risk, and profit. When controlling for simultaneity, dividend payments do not appear to significantly affect cash holdings, nor do cash holdings affect dividend policy. The empirical analysis suggests that simultaneity is crucial in analyzing corporate cash holdings and dividend policy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

我国上市公司现金股利政策异象研究——基于股权分置改革前后的比较分析

以2001-2011年A股上市公司为研究样本,分别对股改前后我国上市公司现金股利分配决策进行了比较研究。结果发现:股改后我国上市公司普遍不分配现象得到缓解,但派现水平仍然偏低;异常派现现象普遍存在,且较为严重;仍然存在普遍"群聚"现象;现金股利支付率有所降低;现金股利的连续性不强;现金股利的行业特征渐趋明显。     

Currency magnitude and cognitive biases: Evidence of dividend rounding in Latin America

In this article, we contribute to a branch of literature that examines cognitive biases that influence corporate decision making. We examine whether Latin American firms round their dividend distributions based on a managerial heaping heuristic. Heaping is a bias to round numbers even though precise results are desired. Our study focuses on dividends in four Latin American markets with starkly different currency magnitudes. We hypothesize and report that currency magnitude significantly influences the characteristics of rounding observed in the dividend data. From 1990 through 2018, we report that 57% of Colombian dividends are heaped to a one decimal place or less of the local currency. The proportions are 49% for Chilean dividends, but only 11% for Mexican dividends and 2% for Brazilian dividends respectively. Consistent with the prior literature, we also report that the likelihood of heaping of dividends in each country is significantly related to both dividend size, and to the level of information uncertainty faced by firm management.     

Optimal Money Burning: Theory and Application to Corporate Dividends

We explore signaling behavior in settings with a discriminating activity and several costly nondiscriminating ("money-burning") activities. Existing theory provides no basis for selecting one method of burning money over another. When senders have better information about activity costs than receivers, each sender's indifference is resolved, the taxation of a money-burning signal is potentially Pareto-improving, and the use of the taxed activity becomes more widespread as the tax rate rises. We apply this theory to dividend signaling. Its central testable implication—that an increase in the dividend tax increases the likelihood of dividend payout—is verified empirically.     

上市公司股利分配动因、影响因素及财务风险分析

本文对上市公司的股利分配动因、分配形式进行了综述性研究,并分析了我国上市公司分配的特定内部影响因素和现状,并深入分析了我国上市公司股利分配带来的财务风险问题。     

Market reaction to equity offer reasons: What information do managers reveal?

Prior studies have had limited success explaining the negative market reaction to common stock announcements using firm and offer specific variables. We employ apiecewise linear model to test the relationship between announcement returns and firm and offer specific variables by specific offer reason as stated by management. We find evidence that managers are signalling the quality of the new investment when issuing equity for the offer-motive capital expenditures; this is support for the announcement of the equity issue being a signal of wasteful investment. We also find that the announcement of equity issues signals overvaluation when the equity offer is for general purposes.     

Revisiting managerial perspectives on dividend policy

We survey managers of Nasdaq firms that consistently pay cash dividends to determine their views about dividend policy, the relationship between dividend policy and value, and four common explanations for paying dividends. The evidence shows that managers stress the importance of maintaining dividend continuity and widely agree that changes in dividends affect firm value. Managers give the strongest support to a signaling explanation for paying dividends, weak to little support for the tax-preference and agency cost explanations, and no support to the bird-in-the-hand explanation. The study provides new evidence about how managers view dividend life cycles and residual dividend policy. The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions, and Maheshan Fernando and Sumeet Chawla for providing research assistance.