IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/amerec/v56y2011i1p89-103.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Changing Nature of Corporate Distributions and Its Implications for Investors

Author

Listed:
  • Susana Yu

Abstract

Because cash dividends no longer appear to be a complete measure of corporate distributions, tests of dividend irrelevance based on cash dividends may not be well specified. We compare the performance of long/short investment strategies based on portfolios of high, low-, and zero-payout firms and on each of three measures of corporate distributions. The strategy with the highest risk-adjusted returns is long in high-payout/short in low-payout stocks formed on the basis of the most comprehensive measure of payout, including dividend yield, and net share repurchases. We show that corporate profitability and investment opportunities are significantly associated with firms' payout policies, and this helps explain the relatively strong performance of the zero-payout stocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Susana Yu, 2011. "The Changing Nature of Corporate Distributions and Its Implications for Investors," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 56(1), pages 89-103, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:56:y:2011:i:1:p:89-103
    DOI: 10.1177/056943451105600111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/056943451105600111
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/056943451105600111?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. 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. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely, 2002. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and the Substitution Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1649-1684, August.
    3. Jacob Boudoukh & Roni Michaely & Matthew Richardson & Michael R. Roberts, 2007. "On the Importance of Measuring Payout Yield: Implications for Empirical Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 877-915, April.
    4. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:651-680 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Lakonishok, Josef & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1994. "Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1541-1578, December.
    6. David L. Ikenberry & Theo Vermaelen, 1996. "The Option to Repurchase Stock," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 25(4), Winter.
    7. Brandon Julio & David L. Ikenberry, 2004. "Reappearing Dividends," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 16(4), pages 89-100.
    8. Ikenberry, David & Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1995. "Market underreaction to open market share repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 181-208.
    9. Merton H. Miller & Franco Modigliani, 1961. "Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34, pages 411-411.
    10. Baker, H. Kent & Powell, Gary E. & Veit, E. Theodore, 2003. "Why companies use open-market repurchases: A managerial perspective," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 483-504.
    11. H. Kent Baker & Patricia L. Gallagher & Karen E. Morgan, 1981. "Management'S View Of Stock Repurchase Programs," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 4(3), pages 233-247, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Paul Tanyi & David B. Smith & Xiaoyan Cheng, 2021. "Does firm payout policy affect shareholders’ dissatisfaction with directors?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 279-320, July.
    2. 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.
    3. Schmid, Thomas & Ampenberger, Markus & Kaserer, Christoph & Achleitner, Ann-Kristin, 2010. "Controlling shareholders and payout policy: do founding families have a special 'taste for dividends'?," CEFS Working Paper Series 2010-01, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
    4. Brawn, Derek A. & Šević, Aleksandar, 2018. "“Firm size matters: Industry sector, firm age and volatility do too in determining which publicly-listed US firms pay a dividend”," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 132-152.
    5. Kulchania, Manoj, 2013. "Catering driven substitution in corporate payouts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 180-195.
    6. von Eije, Henk & Megginson, William L., 2008. "Dividends and share repurchases in the European Union," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 347-374, August.
    7. Renneboog, Luc & Trojanowski, Grzegorz, 2011. "Patterns in payout policy and payout channel choice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1477-1490, June.
    8. Reddy, Kotapati Srinivasa & Nangia, Vinay Kumar & Agrawal, Rajat, 2013. "Share repurchases, signaling effect and implications for corporate governance: Evidence from India," MPRA Paper 60147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Brawn, Derek & Sevǐc, Aleksandar, 2015. "Net payout return: An alternative to the traditional returns approach based on dividends and share repurchases," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 66-73.
    10. Grey, Colette & Flynn, Antoinette & Donnelly, Ray, 2020. "Management compensation contracts and distribution policies in the US technology sector," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. Anolick, Nina & Batten, Jonathan A. & Kinateder, Harald & Wagner, Niklas, 2021. "Time for gift giving: Abnormal share repurchase returns and uncertainty," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Nekat, Kai & Nippel, Peter, 2007. "The impact of a firm's payout policy on stock prices and shareholders' wealth in an inefficient market," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 619, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    13. Warwick Anderson & Wen Kang, 2018. "The Relative Announcement Effects of Ordinary Dividends, Special Dividends and Share Buybacks in New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 18/02, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    14. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Patterns in Payout Policy and Payout Channel Choice of UK Firms in the 1990s," Other publications TiSEM bf59de69-bfcd-462e-a933-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Christine Brown & John Handley & James O'Day, 2015. "The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(1), pages 37-62, March.
    16. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Patterns in Payout Policy and Payout Channel Choice of UK Firms in the 1990s," Discussion Paper 2005-002, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    17. Wang, Li-Hsun & Lin, Chu-Hsiung & Fung, Hung-Gay & Chen, Hsien-Ming, 2013. "An analysis of stock repurchase in Taiwan," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 497-513.
    18. Benjamin Avanzi & Vincent Tu & Bernard Wong, 2016. "A Note on Realistic Dividends in Actuarial Surplus Models," Risks, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-9, October.
    19. Dong, Ming & Robinson, Chris & Veld, Chris, 2005. "Why individual investors want dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 121-158, December.
    20. Jennifer Blouin & Jana Raedy & Douglas Shackelford, 2010. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and Tax Clienteles: Evidence from the 2003 Reductions in Shareholder Taxes," NBER Working Papers 16129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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:sae:amerec:v:56:y:2011:i:1:p:89-103. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/aex .

    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.