The dividend payout policy is one of the most debated topics within corporate finance and some academics have called the company’s dividend payout policy an unsolved puzzle. Even though an extensive amount of research regarding dividends has been conducted, there is no uniform answer to the question: what are the determinants of the companies’ dividend payout ratios? We therefore decided to conduct a study regarding the determinants of the companies’ dividend payout ratios on large and medium cap on Stockholm stock exchange. The purpose of the study is to determine if there is a relationship between a number of company selected factors and the companies’ dividend payout ratios. A second purpose is to determine whether there are any differences between large and medium caps regarding the impact of the company selected factors. We therefore reviewed previous studies and dividend theories in order to conclude which factors that potentially could have an impact on the companies’ dividend payout ratios. Based on the literature, we decided to test the relationship between the dividend payout ratio and six company selected factors: free cash flow, growth, leverage, profit, risk and size. The data used in the research are secondary data collected during a time period of five years, between 2006 and 2010. The study follows a quantitative research method with a deductive approach and we have based the study on four dividend theories: the dividend irrelevance theory, the bird in hand theory, the signaling theory and the agency theory. In order to determine whether there is a relationship between the companies selected factors and the dividend payout ratio we conducted both an Ordinary least square (OLS) and a Tobit regression. Multicollinearity tests were also conducted in order to ascertain that no multicollinearity affected the results of the study. The results indicate that some of the company selected factors have an impact on the companies’ dividend payout ratios and there are some differences between large and medium caps. The dividend payout ratios of large caps have a significant relationship to free cash flow, growth and risk. While the dividend payout ratios of medium caps have a significant relationship to free cash flow, leverage, risk and size.

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjamos Lietuvos elektros inžinerinių paslaugų sektoriaus įmonių verslo vertės valdymo problemos ir plėtros aktualijos. Atlikta išsami mokslinės literatūros analizė, numatytos inovacijų, rizikos valdymo panaudojimo galimybės teoriniu aspektu, nagrinėjami įmonių susijungimai ir įsigijimai: analizuojama sandorių samprata, pateiktos šių sandorių rūšys ir skirtumai, išskirtos pagrindinės sandorių priežastys, taip pat aprašyti susijungimų ir įsigijimų proceso etapai ir išanalizuoti pagrindiniai įmonių ir sandorio vertinimo metodai, bei pasiūlyti konkretūs sprendimai šio sektoriaus įmonių veiklos tobulinimui, įtakosiantys jų veiklos efektyvumą, teikiamų paslaugų kokybę ir konkurencingumą. Išnagrinėta verslo strategijų, rizikos valdymo, inovacijų reikšmė ir aktualumas įmonės veikloje. Išnagrinėjus teorinius bei praktinius verslo vertės valdymo įmonėje aspektus, parengiau rekomenduotiną vadybinių procesų ryšių ir tarpusavio sąveikos schemą. Atlikta sisteminė organizacijos esamos padėties analizė, praktinis įmonės įvertinimas. Apskaičiuota įmonės vertė ir tikėtina sinergijos nauda, įmonėms susijungiant. Darbo pabaigoje pateiktos išvados ir pasiūlymai. / This master theses analyses business value management problems in the enterprises in the sector of electrical engineering services enterprises in Lithuania. The author has performed a thorough scientific literature on the topic analysis and took it as the background for the identification of risk and innovation processes and determination of possibilities to use it in sector enterprises` business value management activities. This paper analyses processes of mergers and acquisitions, concept, types, differences and reasons of transactions. The author has analyzed the steps of merging enterprises process as well as the methods of transaction valuation and prepared a set of proposed decisions for the development of the activities of electrical engineering services sector enterprises that could enhance activity efficiency, services` quality and competitiveness as well. Strong emphasis has been put on the business strategies, risk and innovation management of the enterprises` activities. The author having analyzed theoretical and practical business value management aspects prepared a scheme of interaction of managerial processes, performed systematic analyses of the enterprise including activity valuation while estimating synergy benefit from the merging process of two enterprises and at the end presented conclusions and recommendations.

This paper has studied the relationship between free cash flow & debt with profitability of the Nordic Nasdaq large cap for the period of 2012-1017. Population of the study consists of 223 Nordic companies listed in Nasdaq. From this population a sample of 100 companies from different sectors have been chosen by random sampling, but the sample does not include financial institutions because the way these kinds of institutions are financing differ from companies in other sectors. Data has been collected from Eikon program which provides financial information about the listed companies around the world based on the company's audited financial statements. validity and reliability of the data have been checked to make sure the data are not wrong. In this study, free cash flow, debt to equity ratio & debt ratio are considered as independent variables and profitability of the firm has been considered as dependent variable. In addition, diversity of the companies based on the countries they are established in is considered as dummy variable. Profitability of the firms have been measured by return on asset. The research philosophy is positivism and the research approach is deductive. Based on a quantitative research in which secondary data has been analyzed by running the Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis. Result of the study revealed that; free cash flow has a positive effect on profitability of the Nordic Nasdaq large cap. In addition, the result of study showed that; debt ratio has negative effect on profitability of the targeted firms. But, the result showed that; the debt to equity ratio does not affect profitability of the firms. The result of running dummy variable revealed that; companies in Finland have 2,3 % lower return on assets compared with the companies located in Denmark. Also, the companies established in Sweden have a 2,3 % lower return on assets compared with Denmark.

My paper engages in investment decision of company, shows the connection with microeconomic and macroeconomic area, that is important to be respected in this kind of decision. The paper makes a survey about the methods of investment project evaluation and simultaneously deals with criterions, which are respected by these methods. With using of concrete methods of valuation ilustrates how to proceed.

The aim of this thesis is to determine the objectified value of company Mlékárna Hlinsko, a.s. for its owners. The Master`s thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part describes necessary theoretical basis on which is the practical part based. The practical part includes basic information of the company that is being evaluated, analysis of the dairy market, financial analysis, value generators analysis, financial plan, and finally the valuation itself. The research is based on real data that are publicly available. As a valuation method was chosen method based on discounted cash flow (Free Cash Flow to the Firm). Value as at 31 12. 2014 was calculated at 995,755 thousand CZK. At the end the calculated objectified value is compared with book value of equity.

This research is aimed to discover and test the potential influencing factors on stock buybacks for Chinese listed companies. 11 new influencing factors hypotheses are developed based on several prevailing hypotheses, such as the information signaling hypothesis, the free cash flow hypothesis, the optimal leverage hypothesis and the takeover deterrence hypothesis. The research will test 11 factors that potentially influence listed companies to buy back stocks. The regression and independent variables will be adjusted. The testing sample is from all the companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange that had stock buyback transactions in 2019. Suggestions will be given according to the regression result regarding the potential influencing factors on stock buybacks for Chinese listed companies in 2019. Due to different influencing factors on stock buybacks, different operating methods may have different effects to achieve different goals. Therefore, the determinants of buyback methods in practice will be discussed. The advantages and disadvantages will be discussed from different perspectives, which can be very useful suggestions in stock buyback practice. / Business Administration/Finance

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to develop the arguments for reporting directly on a company's cash flows in its published financial statements. Specifically, the Free Cash Flow (FCF) model of economist Joel Stern is analyzed and critiqued as a basis for a revised reporting scheme.

There are multiple ways to analyze stock companies. One way is using fundamental analysis, which means one is analyzing the company’s business key figures, such as revenue, net income and more. The key figures that were chosen to be analyzed in this report were: revenue, net income, free cash f low, return on invested capital and debt-to-equity ratio. In this thesis, machine learning was implemented to evaluate if it is possible to automate fundamental research of companies and to be able to produce a portfolio that would outperform the Swedish stock index. The data set used for both training and testing the classifiers contained the company’s basic information, 10 years of fundamental history and stock price history from the past 10 years. The companies examined were every stock listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq First North, Spotlight Market, Nordic Growth Market and PepMarket. The data that was gathered stretches from 2012 to 2021 which were split up into f ive-year periods and made up the training and testing period. The training data contained fundamental history from every company from these five-year periods. The classifier’s results from the testing period were used to create the portfolios during the holding period 2021-2022 to benchmark against the Swedish stock index. The results indicate that it is indeed possible to create portfolios using machine learning that will outperform the market over a year of holding the stocks. / Det finns många olika sätt att analysera aktieföretag. Ett sätt är att använda fundamental analys, vilket innebär att man analyserar företagets nyckeltal, såsom omsättning, årets resultat, etc. Nyckeltalen som har valts att analyseras i denna studie var: omsättning, årets resultat, fritt kassaflöde, avkastning på investerat kapital samt skuldsättningsgrad. I denna avhandling har maskininlärning implementerats för att undersöka om det är möjligt att automatisera fundamental forskning av företag och skapa en portfölj som ger bättre avkastning än svenska aktieindex. Data som används för både träning och testning av klassificerare innehöll företagens grundläggande information, 10 år av fundamental historik samt aktiekurs historik för dem senaste 10 åren. Företagen som undersöktes var varje aktie listad på Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq First North, Spotlight Market, Nordic Growth Market och PepMarket. Data som har samlats sträcker sig från 2012 till 2021 och var uppdelade i femårsperioder till träning och testning. Träningsdata innehöll fundamental historik från varje företag från dessa femårsperioder. Resultaten från klassificerare från testning perioden användes för att skapa portföljer under 20212022 som jämfördes med svenska aktieindex. Resultaten från detta indikerar att det är möjligt att skapa portföljer med hjälp av maskininlärningsmetoder som kan ge bättre avkastning än svenska aktieindex över en innehavsperiod på ett år.

This thesis examines the stock market price variations associated with physical asset expenditure announcements in Australia. With the exception of the study of Chen and Ho (1997) in Singapore, most capital expenditure studies in other markets investigate the announcement effects associated with changes in budgeted capital expenditures. The fact that there is almost never any firm level capital budget announcement in Australia presents a unique opportunity to examine individual physical asset expenditure announcements. ¶ Three primary hypotheses pertaining to growth opportunities, free cash flow theory, and the capital market monitoring argument are developed and tested. These arguments are formulated to explain the abnormal return variations associated with physical asset expenditure announcements. The growth opportunities hypothesis posits that the abnormal returns at physical asset expenditure announcements are positively related to a firm's growth opportunities. Both free cash flow theory and capital market monitoring hypothesis postulate that the abnormal returns at physical asset expenditure announcements are negatively related to a firm's free cash flow, and cash flow respectively. Other control explanators are incorporated from the merger and takeovers literature. ¶ Event study methodology is used to examine the abnormal returns associated with physical asset expenditure announcements. Two sets of data, intraday and daily, are used to investigate the market reaction. Intraday returns are calculated on a time-weighted approach and two methods are used to calculate intraday abnormal returns. The first method defines abnormal returns as the difference between actual returns and market returns. The second method defines abnormal returns as the difference between market-adjusted returns and market-adjusted returns on a control portfolio. Daily abnormal returns are calculated using the market model. ¶ Both univariate and multivariate analyses provide strong support for the growth opportunities hypothesis. The results suggest the quality of firms' growth opportunities is the key variable determining the direction and magnitude of the abnormal returns at announcement. Support for the capital monitoring argument and the free cash flow theory is mixed, generally with a lack of support. The free cash flow variable is found to be significantly negatively related to abnormal returns, only when a finer dummy is used in the multivariate regression. All other control variables are found to be insignificant in explaining the stock market variations once the growth opportunities variable is included in the regression. ¶ This thesis makes the following contributions. First, this thesis presents the initial empirical evidence concerning physical asset expenditure announcements in Australia. Second, the thesis shows that the quality of a firm's growth opportunities is the key factor in determining the direction and magnitude of abnormal returns around physical asset expenditure announcements. These results also suggest that the equity market in Australia reacts to physical asset expenditure announcements which contain information pertaining to growth opportunities rather than the relative size of the physical asset expenditure transactions to firm value. Third, support for the capital monitoring argument and the free cash flow theory is not strong. Fourth, all other control variables are found to be insignificant in explaining the stock market variations once market to book ratio is included in the regression. Fifth, the results suggest that prior research which fails to segregate market to book ratio and free cash flow proxy into finer partitions may have possibly underestimated the market to book and the free cash flow effects.

本論文乃針對國營事業可支配現金流量的代理問題及可支配現金流量高低 對企業投資行為的影響加以探討。在研究方法上，由於受限於樣本家數， 對於可支配現金流量大小、投資種類及規模和企業特質等方面只能作敘述 性統計分析，而有關投資行為方面，則利用個案分析法及人員訪談方式得 到的資料，進行相關研究，研究結果經整理得到以下幾點： 1.以成長機 會和可支配現金流量兩構面將國營事業分群，可分成三個群體，其中台糖 公司、台肥公司及中石化公司為低成長機會且擁有高可支配現金流量，台 電公司、中油公司、中鋼公司為中度可支配現金流量群體，而中船公司、 台機公司、中華工程公司等三家則為低度可支配現金流量群體。2.高可支 配現金流量群體的國營事業，平均而言，其" 營業內他營業費用 "支出比 例較高，且管理費用增加的速度較快。3.國營事業可支配現金流量增加時 ，其" 營業內其他營業費用 "亦會增加。4.管理費用較低的國營事業，大 幅降低其可支配現金流量，可減少管理者的權衡性行為，因此 " 營業內 其他營業費用 "會下降。5.管理費用較高的國營事業，降低其可支配現金 流量，並無法降低其" 營業內其他營業費用 "。6.高可支配現金流量群體 的國營事業，平均而言，其總投資支出比例的增加速度較快。7.降低成長 型國營事業的可支配現金流量，不會抑制其總投資支出比例，該類型國營 事業會透過金融市場，籌措投資所需的資金。8.高可支配現金流量的國營 事業，其非計劃型投資支出增加率較快。9.高可支配現金流量群體的國營 事業投資時較會依賴內部資金，會保留較多的舉債能力，其負債比率會較 低，且會降低此一比率。10.高可支配現金流量群體的國營事業，風險迴 避程度較高，較會依賴短期負債，較不願舉長期負債。11.企業風險較低 的國營事業，較易產生高可支配現金流量。