Narrow Results

We use financial data on poorly performing firms in Hong Kong to examine the motives behind paying out cash dividends when they suffer an earnings decline. We test three hypotheses behind the cash dividend policy: the maturity hypothesis, the free cash flow hypothesis, and the self-interest hypothesis of directors (i.e., the cash channeling hypothesis of directors). The findings are largely consistent with the maturity hypothesis and the free cash flow hypothesis but do not support the cash channeling hypothesis, confirming good market transparency and governance of the Hong Kong market.

China GEM has injected new vitality into the development of China’s capital market since its official establishment in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2009. However, due to the short development time of the GEM market and the fact that most of the listed companies in the GEM are high-tech enterprises and high-growth companies, their share profit distribution shows certain particularity. Therefore, this paper aims to study the dividend distribution policies that affect GEM-listed companies to further enrich the theoretical results of dividend policy and promote the development of GEM-listed companies. Based on reviewing the literature on the influencing factors of dividend policy at home and abroad, this paper selects 2,145 sample data from 2018 to 2021, uses SPSS 26.0 statistical software as a tool, adopts empirical research methods, and then studies the factors affecting the dividend policy of GEM listed companies in China, and puts forward relevant suggestions according to the analysis results, aiming to further improve the dividend distribution of GEM listed companies and optimize the allocation of resources.

This paper analyzes the cash dividend policies of 76 listed companies in China’s construction industry based on financial data obtained in 2014. The data distribution is analyzed using SAS 9.2 software and factors which influence cash dividend policies are identified. The analytical results demonstrate that that the asset-liability ratio, net assets returns ratio, net assets per share, earnings per share and net operating cash flow per share influence cash dividend policies, but the quick ratio and the growth rate of total assets do not effect cash dividend. The asset-liability ratio is negatively correlated to cash dividend, while net assets returns ratio, net assets per share, earnings per share, and net operating cash flow per share are positively correlated to cash dividend per share; but net assets returns ratio does not have any significant correlation with cash dividend per share. The findings provide empirical evidence for further research on cash dividends.