none

No description available.

NONE

This dissertation investigates the sluggish adjustment process of dividend payment in the stock market. First, I focus on the individual stocks. A casual investigation of observed dividends for individual stocks shows dividend adjustments are sluggish and discrete; this is not consistent with the Lintner??s stylized fact (1956) in which dividend adjustments are assumed to change continuously. Thus, I examine three possible explanations to account for dividend stickiness and discreteness: menu-costs (i.e. a constant adjustment cost), decision-making delays, and dividend adjustment asymmetry. I reject Dixit??s menu-cost model as an appropriate specification for the sluggish adjustment process of dividends. The empirical results imply that decisionmaking delays and dividend adjustment asymmetry might be possible explanations for sticky and discrete dividends on selected individual stocks. Second, I focus on the aggregate stock market. I use a quadratic adjustment cost model to examine whether adjustment costs can explain the slow adjustment of aggregate dividends. The empirical results suggest that adjustment costs might be a significant factor explaining the slow dividend adjustment for S&P 500. The value of relative weigh cost is related to the specification of target dividend. If target dividendsare related to earnings, then the empirical results suggest that the adjustment costs are about forty-fold more important than the deviation cost between the actual dividend and the target level in determining the dynamic dividend adjustment process. If target dividends are specified as proportion to the stock prices, the adjustment costs are about fourteen-fold more important than the deviation cost between actual dividend and target level when managers determine the dividends.

This study examines the effect of ownership structure on dividend policy of 284 firms listed on the OMX Stockholm Exchange in Swedenfrom 2010-2015. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to investigate therelationship betweendifferentinvestor types and dividend policies of firms, measured as dividend yield and dividend payout ratio.Also, the study aims to predict dividend behaviours based on ownership structure which may be useful inthe future since ownership structures of listed Swedish firms havebeen changing over time, with an increased consolidation of ownership and a sharpincrease in institutional ownership. The sample consistsof 1046 observations and was gathered from Thomson Reuters’ Datastream and Eikon databases. This is the first study to examine the relationship between ownership structure and dividend policy in Sweden.The dividend policy is measured using two dependent variables; dividend payout ratio anddividend yield and a multiple regression has been used in orderto test the hypotheses whether any relationships exist between 17 different types of ownership structure used as independent variables, four additional control variables and dividend policy.The findings indicated significant positive relationships between institutional ownership and dividend yield and dividend payout, with one exception being private equity which exhibited a negative relationship with dividend yield. Furthermore, market capitalization, return on assets and price to book value are positively related to dividend payout while debt/equity ratio showed a negative relationship with dividend yield. The results contradict those of the most recent research conducted in Turkey (Al-Najjar & Kilincarsla, 2016) but adds supportin the debateto existing theories of dividends’ relevance to the value of firms developed by Gordon (1963), Lintner (1962) and Walter (1963). Limitations of the study include the geographical delimitation to Sweden which creates some constraints to wider generalization ofthe results to other geographical settings. Furthermore, the datacollected from Thomson Reuters Eikon hadmissing values, showed signs of heteroscedasticity and relevant investor variables such as family ownership were unavailable.

The main aim of this thesis is to analyze the behavior of stock price on ex-dividend day in London Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange and draw a conclusion about the market efficiency based. We collect 200 sample companies dividend, ex-dividend day and cum dividend day stock price to compare with NYSE composite index and FTSE 100 for London Stock Exchange.   To answer the research question and specific purpose of our thesis we developed five null hypothesis based on raw price ratio (RPR), market-adjusted price ratio (MAPR), raw price drop ratio (RPD), market-adjusted price drop ratio (MAPD) and market-adjusted abnormal return (MAAR). We used t-statistic to find the mean differences between observed values and standard values. We also show multiple regression analysis to show the relationship between ex-dividend day stock price and dividend, cum-dividend day stock price.   This thesis documented that same amount of stock price drop in 2008 New York Stock Exchange compare with dividend amount. In this case our null hypothesis accepted. On the other hand in London Stock Exchange shows higher drop of stock price than dividend amount in 2008 against the taxation rate rules of prior study. In 2007 both stock market shows the less drop of stock price than dividend amount. Therefore our null hypothesis rejected. We also documented that London Stock Exchange more volatile than New York Stock Exchange to consider the MAAR, tax rate and standard deviation. So we find significant evidence of market abnormal return which create an opportunity of market inefficiency and arbitrage opportunity for investors.   So, our thesis output shows mixed evidence for London Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.

This study is to examine the phenomenon of stock prices drop around the ex-dividend day in Taiwan. Investors purchasing the security before the ex-dividend date will receive the current dividend, whereas investors purchasing the security on or after this date will not receive the dividend. Consequently, the stock price should fall on the ex-dividend date. In a perfect market, the stock price is expected to fall by the amount of the dividend. I show that share prices do not fall by the full amount of dividend, on average. I focus on falling ratio of stock prices, along with stock return. I also study the factors which may influence stock price behavior and find that the drop of stock price is smaller than the amount of the dividend. That is, the stock price tends to rise on the ex-dividend day. The price drop ratio on the ex-dividend day is higher for firms with greater financial leverage, higher dividend pay out ratio and higher dividend yield. Finally, I also observe that stock return and trading volume increase around the ex-dividend day.

Yes / Dividend policy has been a puzzling question for many years. This study attempts to identify the key factors affecting it in the financial sector that have been neglected in the literature. Using panel data on 621 Group of Seven (G-7) banks and 68 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banks, five main factors namely, banks’ size, profitability, growth, leverage, and last year’s dividend were empirically tested regarding their impact on dividend payout ratios. In addition to comparing the two economies descriptively, the researchers employed panel data analysis using multiple regression with random effects. The findings revealed that the dividend payout ratio for the GCC countries is higher than G-7 countries in every year of the examined period (2010-2015). Furthermore, for both G-7 and GCC banks, profitability and last year dividend had a significant positive influence while banks’ leverage had a significant negative influence on the dividend payout. It was found also that banks’ size is an important dividend determinant in the G-7 countries only.

Trenden med stort fokus på utdelning bland investerare håller i sig år 2019 och storbolagen förväntas betala ut över 250 miljarder svenska kronor. Bolag undviker att sänka sin utdelning, oavsett om det går bra eller dåligt, för att inte ge signaler om negativa framtidsutsikter. Den aktuella studien undersöker om den svenska aktiemarknaden, i enlighet med signaleringsteorin, följer de signaler som bolagsledningen sänder ut genom sin utdelning. Studien är en eventstudie och har en kvantitativ ansats med ett eventfönster på 11 dagar och en estimeringsperiod på 120 dagar. Urvalet består av 89 bolag från Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap lista. Resultatet visar en signifikant abnormal avkastning vid sänkt utdelning i linje med signaleringsteorin. Vid oförändrad eller höjd utdelning återfinns ingen signifikant abnormal avkastning och därmed finns inget stöd för signaleringsteorin. Slutsatsen är att den svenska aktiemarknaden följer signaleringsteorin vid sänkt utdelning men inte vid höjd. / The trend with a strong focus on dividends among investors is continuing in 2019 and the major companies are expected to pay out over SEK 250 billion. Companies avoid reducing their dividends in order to prevent signals of negative prospects. The current study investigates whether the Swedish stock market, in accordance with the signaling theory, follows the signals that corporate management sends out through its dividend. This study is an event study and has a quantitative approach with an event window of 11 days and an estimation period of 120 days. The sample consists of 89 companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Large Cap list. The result show a significant abnormal return on reduced dividends in line with the signaling theory. With unchanged or increased dividends there is no significant abnormal return, hence there is no support for the signaling theory. The conclusion is that the Swedish stock market follows the signaling theory when the dividend is reduced, but not when increased.

This diploma thesis deals with analysis of the stock price behavior around ex-dividend day, focusing on the European capital market. The theoretic part is aimed at summarizing of hypotheses and effects affecting the amount of the stock price in comparison with an amount of dividend during last 50 years. In the practical part, there is firstly described a methodology of testing, later the 3 main hypotheses are determined, that are finally tested on a sample of 220 European companies listed on twelve stock exchanges, including the Prague stock exchange. The aim will be to determine the validity of hypotheses on the sample as a whole as well as on some selected stock exchanges in the period between 2006 and 2010, the influence of the payment of dividend on share price, but also the potential impact of financial crisis. Furthermore, the possibility of arbitrage opportunities will be evaluated, which could be incurred on some stock exchanges or individual shares, as well as stability, efficiency and predictability of individual capital markets.