IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v34y2007i3-4p574-604.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Differences Between Stock Splits and Stock Dividends: Evidence on the Retained Earnings Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • Ken L. Bechmann
  • Johannes Raaballe

Abstract

This paper investigates stock dividends and stock splits on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange (CSE), which is of interest because several of the more recent explanations for a stock market reaction can be ruled out. The main findings are that the announcement effect of stock dividends as well as stock splits is closely related to changes in a firm's payout policy, but that the relationship differs for the two types of events. A stock dividend implies an increase in nominal share capital and hence a decrease in retained earnings. Firms announcing stock dividends finance growth entirely by debt (explaining the need for an increase in nominal share capital) and retained earnings. Basically all firms announcing a stock dividend with a split factor of less than two can also afford to increase their total cash dividends permanently, at least proportionally to the increase in share capital, leading to a significant announcement effect of 4.23%. Firms announcing a stock dividend with a split factor of two or more also increase total cash dividends permanently, but less than proportionally to the increase in share capital. This leads to an insignificant announcement effect of 0.08%. These findings support a retained earnings/signaling hypothesis. For stock splits, no separate announcement effect was found when a firm's payout policy was controlled for. This lends support to the idea that a stock split per se is a cosmetic event on the CSE and is also consistent with the fact that making a stock split on the CSE is virtually cost free.

Suggested Citation

  • Ken L. Bechmann & Johannes Raaballe, 2007. "The Differences Between Stock Splits and Stock Dividends: Evidence on the Retained Earnings Hypothesis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3‐4), pages 574-604, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:34:y:2007:i:3-4:p:574-604
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02041.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02041.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02041.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grinblatt, Mark S. & Masulis, Ronald W. & Titman, Sheridan, 1984. "The valuation effects of stock splits and stock dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 461-490, December.
    2. Lakonishok, Josef & Lev, Baruch, 1987. "Stock Splits and Stock Dividends: Why, Who, and When," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 913-932, September.
    3. Hamish Anderson & Steven Cahan & Lawrence C. Rose, 2001. "Stock Dividend Announcement Effects in an Imputation Tax Environment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5‐6), pages 653-669, June.
    4. Han, Ki C., 1995. "The Effects of Reverse Splits on the Liquidity of the Stock," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 159-169, March.
    5. Hamish Anderson & Steven Cahan & Lawrence C. Rose, 2001. "Stock Dividend Announcement Effects in an Imputation Tax Environment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5‐6), pages 653-669, June.
    6. Angel, James J, 1997. "Tick Size, Share Prices, and Stock Splits," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 655-681, June.
    7. Desai, Anand S & Nimalendran, M & Venkataraman, S, 1998. "Changes in Trading Activity Following Stock Splits and Their Effect on Volatility and the Adverse-Information Component of the Bid-Ask Spread," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 159-183, Summer.
    8. McNichols, Maureen & Dravid, Ajay, 1990. "Stock Dividends, Stock Splits, and Signaling," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 857-879, July.
    9. Anand S. Desai & M. Nimalendran & S. Venkataraman, 1998. "Changes In Trading Activity Following Stock Splits And Their Effect On Volatility And The Adverse-Information Component Of The Bid-Ask Spread," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 159-183, June.
    10. Nayak, Subhankar & Prabhala, Nagpurnanand R, 2001. "Disentangling the Dividend Information in Splits: A Decomposition Using Conditional Event-Study Methods," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(4), pages 1083-1116.
    11. Rankine, Graeme & Stice, Earl K., 1997. "The Market Reaction to the Choice of Accounting Method for Stock Splits and Large Stock Dividends," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(2), pages 161-182, June.
    12. Paul Schultz, 2000. "Stock Splits, Tick Size, and Sponsorship," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 429-450, February.
    13. Carsten Hahn & Christian Wulff, 2002. "The Market Reaction To Stock Splits–Evidence From Germany," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 54(3), pages 270-297, July.
    14. Crawford, Dean & Franz, Diana R. & Lobo, Gerald J., 2005. "Signaling Managerial Optimism through Stock Dividends and Stock Splits: A Reexamination of the Retained Earnings Hypothesis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(3), pages 531-561, September.
    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. Feito-Ruiz, Isabel & Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2020. "Elective stock and scrip dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Ed-Dafali, Slimane & Patel, Ritesh & Iqbal, Najaf, 2023. "A bibliometric review of dividend policy literature," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Imen Ghadhab, 2023. "Bonding, signaling theory and dividend policy: Evidence from multinational firms," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 69-83, February.
    4. Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed, 2014. "Shareholder wealth effects of stock dividends in a unique environment," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 66-81.
    5. Khanal, Aditya R. & Mishra, Ashok K., 2017. "Stock price reactions to stock dividend announcements: A case from a sluggish economic period," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 338-345.
    6. Khamis H. Al-Yahyaee, 2014. "Frequency and Motives for Stock Dividends in a Unique Environment," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 14(2), pages 295-318, June.
    7. Leledakis, George N. & Papaioannou, George J. & Travlos, Nickolaos G. & Tsangarakis, Nickolaos V., 2009. "Stock splits in a neutral transaction cost environment: Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 12-25, February.
    8. Osama Abd ElKhalek El Ansary & Mervat Hussien El-Azab, 2017. "The Impact of Stock Dividends and Stock Splits on Shares’ Prices: Evidence from Egypt," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(4), pages 1-96, Novebmer.
    9. Andreas Charitou, 2007. "Discussion of The Differences Between Stock Splits and Stock Dividends: Evidence on the Retained Earnings Hypothesis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3‐4), pages 605-612, April.
    10. Cahit Adaoglu & Meziane Lasfer, 2011. "Why Do Companies Pay Stock Dividends? The Case of Bonus Distributions in an Inflationary Environment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5-6), pages 601-627, June.
    11. Mohammad Shahidul Islam & ATM Adnan, 2022. "Determinant Factors of Dividend Policy Using a Structural Equation Modeling Approach: A Study of the Banking Sector of Bangladesh," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 1, pages 49-58, March.

    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. Bechmann, Ken L. & Raaballe, Johannes, 2004. "The Differences Between Stock Splits and Stock Dividends," Working Papers 2004-1, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Finance.
    2. Cahit Adaoglu & Meziane Lasfer, 2011. "Why Do Companies Pay Stock Dividends? The Case of Bonus Distributions in an Inflationary Environment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5-6), pages 601-627, June.
    3. Al-Yahyaee, Khamis Hamed, 2014. "Shareholder wealth effects of stock dividends in a unique environment," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 66-81.
    4. Ravi Dhar & William Goetzmann & Ning Zhu & EFA Moscow, 2004. "The Impact of Clientele Changes: Evidence from Stock Splits," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm369, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Sep 2009.
    5. Ravi Dhar & William Goetzmann & Ning Zhu & EFA Moscow, 2004. "The Impact of Clientele Changes: Evidence from Stock Splits," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm369, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Sep 2009.
    6. Yagüe, José & Gómez-Sala, J. Carlos & Poveda-Fuentes, Francisco, 2009. "Stock split size, signaling and earnings management: Evidence from the Spanish market," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 31-47.
    7. Gow-Cheng Huang & Kartono Liano & Ming-Shiun Pan, 2015. "The effects of stock splits on stock liquidity," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 39(1), pages 119-135, January.
    8. Gow-Cheng Huang & Kartono Liano & Ming-Shiun Pan, 2011. "REIT Stock Splits and Liquidity Changes," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 527-547, November.
    9. Guo, Fang & Zhou, Kaiguo & Cai, Jinghan, 2008. "Stock splits, liquidity, and information asymmetry--An empirical study on Tokyo Stock Exchange," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 417-438, September.
    10. Huang, Gow-Cheng & Liano, Kartono & Pan, Ming-Shiun, 2009. "The information content of stock splits," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 557-567, September.
    11. Maretno A. Harjoto & Dongshin Kim & Indrarini Laksmana & Richard C. Walton, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility and stock split," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 575-600, August.
    12. Li, Fengfei & Lin, Ji-Chai & Lin, Tse-Chun & Shang, Longfei, 2023. "Behavioral bias, distorted stock prices, and stock splits," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. David Michayluk & Paul Kofman, 2001. "Market Structure and Stock Splits," Research Paper Series 62, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    14. Erik Devos & William B. Elliott & Richard S. Warr, 2018. "The Propensity to Split and CEO Compensation," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 105-129, March.
    15. Pavabutr, Pantisa & Sirodom, Kulpatra, 2010. "Stock splits in a retail dominant order driven market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 427-441, November.
    16. Kalotychou, Elena & Staikouras, Sotiris K. & Zagonov, Maxim, 2009. "The UK equity market around the ex-split date," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 534-549, July.
    17. Perez, M. Fabricio & Shkilko, Andriy & Sokolov, Konstantin, 2015. "Factor models for binary financial data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(S2), pages 177-188.
    18. Walker, Scott, 2021. "Post-split underreaction: The importance of prior split history," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Juan Carlos Gómez-Sala, 2001. "Rentabilidad y liquidez alrededor de la fecha de desdoblamiento de las acciones," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 25(1), pages 171-202, January.
    20. Khanal, Aditya R. & Mishra, Ashok K., 2017. "Stock price reactions to stock dividend announcements: A case from a sluggish economic period," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 338-345.

    More about this item

    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:bla:jbfnac:v:34:y:2007:i:3-4:p:574-604. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    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.