Abstract

Recently, we observe an increasing number of firms declaring monthly dividends. Although dividend policy itself has been in the focus of corporate finance literature, changes in dividend payment frequency are not given much attention. The objective of this paper is to investigate the significance of dividend payment frequency changes. This paper specifically analyzed cash dividends and sought to study the potential effect of dividend payment frequency change announcements on the returns of stocks. Meanwhile, this paper serves as an important way of understanding corporate policy decision. To examine the subject, we implement a standard event study of dividend payment frequency changes to detect the market reactions through measuring the abnormal returns occurred during the announcement period. The study found a rising trend in stock returns during frequency increase announcements and vice versa. It therefore reveals that a change in dividend payment frequency is relevant that are perceived as newsworthy in the market, supporting that signaling effect apply equally well to the dividend frequency changes. Further multivariate analysis reveals that the correlation between event period abnormal returns and frequency change remain significant after controlling for other unconditional firm characteristics.
Key Words: Cash dividends, payment frequency, abnormal returns