IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finmar/v36y2017icp40-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutional trading before dividend reduction announcements

Author

Listed:
  • Henry, Darren
  • Nguyen, Lily
  • Pham, Viet Hung

Abstract

Using a large proprietary database of transaction-level institutional trades for the 1997–2011 period, we find that institutional investors are net sellers in dividend reduction firms during the two quarters prior to the announcements. They also trade more intensively in firms that do not prepare the market for dividend cuts or that have greater information asymmetry. Trading by both pension plan sponsors and money managers affects the market's reaction to the dividend reduction announcements. Finally, all institutional investors earn significant profits by trading in the two quarters prior to the announcements, and money managers outperform pension plan sponsors.

Suggested Citation

  • Henry, Darren & Nguyen, Lily & Pham, Viet Hung, 2017. "Institutional trading before dividend reduction announcements," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 40-55.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:36:y:2017:i:c:p:40-55
    DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2017.07.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386418116301173
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.finmar.2017.07.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2001. "Disappearing Dividends: Changing Firm Characteristics Or Lower Propensity To Pay?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 14(1), pages 67-79, March.
    2. Henk Berkman & Michael D. McKenzie, 2012. "Earnings Announcements: Good News for Institutional Investors and Short Sellers," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 91-113, February.
    3. Lewellen, Jonathan, 2011. "Institutional investors and the limits of arbitrage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 62-80, October.
    4. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Hu, Gang & Huang, Jiekun, 2015. "Institutional Investors and the Information Production Theory of Stock Splits," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 413-445, June.
    5. Jensen, Gerald R. & Lundstrum, Leonard L. & Miller, Robert E., 2010. "What do dividend reductions signal?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 736-747, December.
    6. Lie, Erik, 2005. "Operating performance following dividend decreases and omissions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 27-53, December.
    7. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    8. Diamond, Douglas W, 1985. "Optimal Release of Information by Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1071-1094, September.
    9. Alan D. Crane & Sébastien Michenaud & James P. Weston, 2016. "Editor's Choice The Effect of Institutional Ownership on Payout Policy: Evidence from Index Thresholds," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(6), pages 1377-1408.
    10. Armitage, Seth, 1995. "Event Study Methods and Evidence on Their Performance," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 25-52, March.
    11. Denis, David J., 2011. "Financial flexibility and corporate liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 667-674, June.
    12. Amihud, Yakov & Li, Kefei, 2006. "The Declining Information Content of Dividend Announcements and the Effects of Institutional Holdings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 637-660, September.
    13. Ofer, Aharon R & Thakor, Anjan V, 1987. "A Theory of Stock Price Responses to Alternative Corporate Cash Disbursement Methods: Stock Repurchases and Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 365-394, June.
    14. Andres, Christian & Betzer, André & Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc, 2009. "Dividend policy of German firms: A panel data analysis of partial adjustment models," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 175-187, March.
    15. Maffett, Mark, 2012. "Financial reporting opacity and informed trading by international institutional investors," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 201-220.
    16. Hendershott, Terrence & Livdan, Dmitry & Schürhoff, Norman, 2015. "Are institutions informed about news?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 249-287.
    17. Fama, Eugene F, et al, 1969. "The Adjustment of Stock Prices to New Information," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-21, February.
    18. Laurence Booth & Bin Chang, 2011. "Information Asymmetry, Dividend Status, And Seo Announcement‐Day Returns," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 34(1), pages 155-177, March.
    19. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Gang Hu & Jiekun Huang, 2010. "The Role of Institutional Investors in Initial Public Offerings," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(12), pages 4496-4540, December.
    20. Andy Puckett & Xuemin (Sterling) Yan, 2011. "The Interim Trading Skills of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 601-633, April.
    21. Franklin Allen & Antonio E. Bernardo & Ivo Welch, 2000. "A Theory of Dividends Based on Tax Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2499-2536, December.
    22. Aharony, Joseph & Dotan, Amihud, 1994. "Regular Dividend Announcements and Future Unexpected Earnings: An Empirical Analysis," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 29(1), pages 125-151, February.
    23. Fuller, Kathleen P., 2003. "The impact of informed trading on dividend signaling: a theoretical and empirical examination," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 385-407, September.
    24. Verrecchia, Robert E, 1982. "Information Acquisition in a Noisy Rational Expectations Economy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1415-1430, November.
    25. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & He, Shan & Hu, Gang, 2009. "The role of institutional investors in seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 384-411, December.
    26. Ilan Guttman & Ohad Kadan & Eugene Kandel, 2010. "Dividend Stickiness and Strategic Pooling," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(12), pages 4455-4495, December.
    27. Amin, Abu S. & Dutta, Shantanu & Saadi, Samir & Vora, Premal P., 2015. "Institutional shareholding and information content of dividend surprises: Re-examining the dynamics in dividend-reappearance era," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 152-170.
    28. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1980. "Measuring security price performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 205-258, September.
    29. Yaniv Grinstein & Roni Michaely, 2005. "Institutional Holdings and Payout Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1389-1426, June.
    30. Michaely, Roni & Thaler, Richard H & Womack, Kent L, 1995. "Price Reactions to Dividend Initiations and Omissions: Overreaction or Drift?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 573-608, June.
    31. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Tian, Xuan, 2014. "Communicating Private Information to the Equity Market Before a Dividend Cut: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(5-6), pages 1167-1199, December.
    32. Dierkens, Nathalie, 1991. "Information Asymmetry and Equity Issues," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 181-199, June.
    33. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Tian, Xuan, 2012. "“Preparing†the Equity Market for Adverse Corporate Events: A Theoretical Analysis of Firms Cutting Dividends," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(5), pages 933-972, October.
    34. John, Kose & Williams, Joseph, 1985. "Dividends, Dilution, and Taxes: A Signalling Equilibrium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1053-1070, September.
    35. Sudipto Bhattacharya, 1979. "Imperfect Information, Dividend Policy, and "The Bird in the Hand" Fallacy," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 259-270, Spring.
    36. Balachandran, Balasingham & Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar & Theobald, Michael & Vidanapathirana, Berty, 2012. "Dividend reductions, the timing of dividend payments and information content," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 1232-1247.
    37. Ranjan D'Mello & Oranee Tawatnuntachai & Devrim Yaman, 2003. "Does the Sequence of Seasoned Equity Offerings Matter?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 32(4), Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Davis, Frederick & Khadivar, Hamed & Walker, Thomas J., 2021. "Institutional trading in firms rumored to be takeover targets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Hu, Gang & Jo, Koren M. & Wang, Yi Alex & Xie, Jing, 2018. "Institutional trading and Abel Noser data," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 143-167.
    3. Ebenezer Asem & Vishaal Baulkaran & Pawan Jain & Mark Sunderman, 2022. "Are institutional investors informed? The case of dividend changes for REITS and Industrial Firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1685-1707, May.
    4. Muhammad Nadeem & Ernest Gyapong & Ammad Ahmed, 2020. "Board gender diversity and environmental, social, and economic value creation: Does family ownership matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1268-1284, March.
    5. Ping Wei & Xiaodan Mao & Xiaohong Chen, 2020. "Institutional investors' attention to environmental information, trading strategies, and market impacts: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 566-591, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ebenezer Asem & Vishaal Baulkaran & Pawan Jain & Mark Sunderman, 2022. "Are institutional investors informed? The case of dividend changes for REITS and Industrial Firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1685-1707, May.
    2. Amin, Abu S. & Dutta, Shantanu & Saadi, Samir & Vora, Premal P., 2015. "Institutional shareholding and information content of dividend surprises: Re-examining the dynamics in dividend-reappearance era," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 152-170.
    3. Ping Wei & Xiaodan Mao & Xiaohong Chen, 2020. "Institutional investors' attention to environmental information, trading strategies, and market impacts: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 566-591, February.
    4. Booth, Laurence & Zhou, Jun, 2017. "Dividend policy: A selective review of results from around the world," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Uddin, Mohammad Riaz, 2022. "Do intangibles matter for corporate policies? Evidence from organization capital and corporate payout choices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    6. Carlos Martins, 2007. "Consistency of Dividend Signalling and Future Maturity Level:Evidence from UK Data," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 40, Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro.
    7. Szomko Natalia, 2015. "Investor Reaction to Information on Final Dividend Payouts on the Warsaw Stock Exchange – an Event Study Analysis," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 45(1), pages 127-146, March.
    8. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September.
    9. Abdullah AlGhazali & Khamis Hamed Al-Yahyaee & Richard Fairchild & Yilmaz Guney, 2024. "What do dividend changes reveal? Theory and evidence from a unique environment," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 499-552, February.
    10. Szládek, Dániel, 2024. "Osztalékfizetés helyett részvény-visszavásárlás?. A részvény-visszavásárlások népszerűségének lehetséges okai [Share repurchases instead of dividend payments?. The evolution of payout policies and ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 154-175.
    11. Renneboog, Luc & Szilagyi, Peter G., 2020. "How relevant is dividend policy under low shareholder protection?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Hussein Abedi Shamsabadi & Byung-Seong Min & Richard Chung, 2016. "Corporate governance and dividend strategy: lessons from Australia," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 583-610, October.
    13. Roni Michaely & Stefano Rossi & Michael Weber & Michael Weber, 2017. "The Information Content of Dividends: Safer Profits, Not Higher Profits," CESifo Working Paper Series 6751, CESifo.
    14. H.Kent Baker & Gary E. Powell & E.Theodore Veit, 2002. "Revisiting the dividend puzzle," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 241-261.
    15. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    16. Lee, Bong Soo & Mauck, Nathan, 2016. "Dividend initiations, increases and idiosyncratic volatility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 47-60.
    17. Blau, Benjamin M. & Fuller, Kathleen P., 2008. "Flexibility and dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 133-152, April.
    18. Chacko Jacob & Jijo Lukose P.J., 2018. "Institutional Ownership and Dividend Payout in Emerging Markets: Evidence from India," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 17(1_suppl), pages 54-82, April.
    19. Kartal Demirg ne, 2015. "Determinants of Target Dividend Payout Ratio: A Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag Analysis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 418-426.
    20. Davis, Frederick & Khadivar, Hamed & Walker, Thomas J., 2021. "Institutional trading in firms rumored to be takeover targets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dividend reduction announcements; Institutional trading;

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G29 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Other
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:36:y:2017:i:c:p:40-55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/finmar .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.