The effect of a change in capital structure on the risk and return of common stockholders is investigated. Also, the information content of dividends when a firm goes for new outside financing is examined. Data used in the study are collected from the Moody's Bond Survey, the Prentice Hall's Capital Adjustments, the Wall Street Journal Index, and the Center for Research in Security Prices Tape. The study uses an event study methodology. The risk (beta) of common stock before an issuance of debt securities is compared with the risk after the issue. The stock market reaction to the issuance of new debt securities is measured using after-the-event risk. The information content of dividend announcement before a new debt issue is compared to that of after the issue. The findings show that debt issue reduces stock holders' risk if the issuer is a dividend paying company. Also, debt securities issued through an exchange offer increase stockholders' wealth. Finally, issuance of new debt does not affect the information content of dividends.

This thesis is an investigation into the relationship that exists between macroeconomic variables and the pricing of common stock under trending market conditions. By introducing a dichotomous independent variable as a way of distinguishing between periods of rising and falling thereby attaching an additional expected premium to each of five accepted sources of macroeconomic risk for participation in ‘Bear’ markets. 228 observations of the fourteen industry sub-groupings of former TSE 300 were examined separately. The ultimate results were obtained using the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) as the model to obtain factor exposures. The results show that there is no significant relationship between market trend and the pricing of common stock when the APT is applied. The final recommendation is that more research is needed.