RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIVIDEND PAYOUT RATIO AND SHARE PRICE MOVEMENT OF LISTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN GHANA

ABSTRACT

Dividends are payments made to the shareholders (owners) out of firms‟ earnings. Numerous academics, adopting either a behavioural or empirical approach, have provided rationales to address the issue of why companies pay dividends and whether the market response to the announcements can be predicted. However, these endeavours have failed to achieve unanimity on either issue. Moreover, most of these studies have been conducted in countries with developed markets; relatively little research has been conducted in the emerging stock markets of Africa, such as Ghana. The study examines whether share price influences dividend payout ratio of listed manufacturing companies in Ghana. The analyses are performed using data derived from the financial statements of listed manufacturing firms on the Ghana stock Exchange from 2001-2009. Ordinary Least Squares model is used to estimate the regression equation. Surprisingly this study has established that dividend payout ratio, size and profitability significantly affect the share price movement of manufacturing firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. The main value of this study is the identification of relationship between dividend payout ratio and share price of manufacturing firms listed on the Ghana Stock exchange.