The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation

The relevance of the dividend decision has been a contentious issue in corporate finance research, partly due to contradictory views reported in existing literature. When faced with the dividend decision, management should understand its impact on shareholder value maximisation. This paper investiga...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pierre Erasmus
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AOSIS 2013-04-01
Series:Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/274
_version_ 1818350714930331648
author Pierre Erasmus
author_facet Pierre Erasmus
author_sort Pierre Erasmus
collection DOAJ
description The relevance of the dividend decision has been a contentious issue in corporate finance research, partly due to contradictory views reported in existing literature. When faced with the dividend decision, management should understand its impact on shareholder value maximisation. This paper investigates the influence of the dividend decision on share returns for a sample of firms listed on the JSE from 1990 to 2010. Firms are allocated to portfolios based on dividend yield and dividend stability, and risk-adjusted abnormal returns for these portfolios are estimated. Results indicate that share returns were influenced not only by dividend payments levels, but also by the stability of these payments over time. The nature of a firm’s dividend decision could therefore have an effect on its share return. Although these results contribute to understanding the dividend characteristics that are relevant to investors, future research should investigate different types of dividend policies in order to assess specific investor preferences.
first_indexed 2024-12-13T18:26:15Z
format Article
id doaj.art-4bd0beb10d2c4683bdd518852c904e74
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1995-7076
2312-2803
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-13T18:26:15Z
publishDate 2013-04-01
publisher AOSIS
record_format Article
series Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences
spelling doaj.art-4bd0beb10d2c4683bdd518852c904e742022-12-21T23:35:36ZengAOSISJournal of Economic and Financial Sciences1995-70762312-28032013-04-0161133210.4102/jef.v6i1.274213The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulationPierre Erasmus0Department of Business Management, Stellenbosch UniversityThe relevance of the dividend decision has been a contentious issue in corporate finance research, partly due to contradictory views reported in existing literature. When faced with the dividend decision, management should understand its impact on shareholder value maximisation. This paper investigates the influence of the dividend decision on share returns for a sample of firms listed on the JSE from 1990 to 2010. Firms are allocated to portfolios based on dividend yield and dividend stability, and risk-adjusted abnormal returns for these portfolios are estimated. Results indicate that share returns were influenced not only by dividend payments levels, but also by the stability of these payments over time. The nature of a firm’s dividend decision could therefore have an effect on its share return. Although these results contribute to understanding the dividend characteristics that are relevant to investors, future research should investigate different types of dividend policies in order to assess specific investor preferences.https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/274dividendsdividend yielddividend stabilitydividend policyshare returnsvalue theory
spellingShingle Pierre Erasmus
The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation
Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences
dividends
dividend yield
dividend stability
dividend policy
share returns
value theory
title The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation
title_full The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation
title_fullStr The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation
title_full_unstemmed The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation
title_short The influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns: Implications for dividend policy formulation
title_sort influence of dividend yield and dividend stability on share returns implications for dividend policy formulation
topic dividends
dividend yield
dividend stability
dividend policy
share returns
value theory
url https://jefjournal.org.za/index.php/jef/article/view/274
work_keys_str_mv AT pierreerasmus theinfluenceofdividendyieldanddividendstabilityonsharereturnsimplicationsfordividendpolicyformulation
AT pierreerasmus influenceofdividendyieldanddividendstabilityonsharereturnsimplicationsfordividendpolicyformulation