Chapter 16
Distributions to
Shareholders: Dividends &
Share Repurchases
Investor Preferences on Dividends
Signaling Effects
Residual Dividend Model
Dividend Reinvestment Plans
Stock Repurchases
Stock Dividends and Stock Splits
16-1
What is dividend policy?
The decision to pay out earnings versus
retaining and reinvesting them.
Dividend policy includes
High or low dividend payout?
Stable or irregular dividends?
How frequent to pay dividends?
Announce the policy?
16-2
Dividend Irrelevance Theory
Investors are indifferent between dividends
and retention-generated capital gains.
Investors can create their own dividend
policy
If they want cash, they can sell stock.
If they don’t want cash, they can use dividends
to buy stock.
Proposed by Modigliani and Miller and based
on unrealistic assumptions (no taxes or
brokerage costs), hence may not be true.
Need an empirical test.
16-3
Why Investors Might Prefer
Dividends
May think dividends are less risky than
potential future capital gains.
If so, investors would value high-payout
firms more highly, i.e., a high payout
would result in a high P0.
16-4
Why Investors Might Prefer Capital
Gains
May want to avoid transactions costs
Maximum tax rate is the same as on
dividends, but …
Taxes on dividends are due in the year
they are received, while taxes on capital
gains are due whenever the stock is sold.
If an investor holds a stock until his/her
death, beneficiaries can use the date of
the death as the cost basis and escape all
previously accrued capital gains.
16-5
What’s the information content,
or signaling, hypothesis?
Investors view dividend increases as
signals of management’s view of the
future.
Since managers hate to cut dividends,
they won’t raise dividends unless they
think the raise is sustainable.
However, a stock price increase at time
of a dividend increase could reflect
higher expectations for future EPS, not a
desire for dividends.
16-6
What’s the clientele effect?
Different groups of investors, or
clienteles, prefer different dividend
policies.
Firm’s past dividend policy determines
its current clientele of investors.
Clientele effects impede changing
dividend policy. Taxes and brokerage
costs hurt investors who have to switch
companies.
16-7
The Residual Dividend
Model
Find the retained earnings needed for
the capital budget.
Pay out any leftover earnings (the
residual) as dividends.
This policy minimizes flotation and
equity signaling costs, hence minimizes
the WACC.
16-8
Residual Dividend Model
Target Total
Dividends Net Income equity capital
ratio budget
Capital budget ─ $800,000
Target capital structure ─ 40% debt,
60% equity
Forecasted net income ─ $600,000
How much of the forecasted net income
should be paid out as dividends?
16-9
Residual Dividend Model:
Calculating Dividends Paid
Calculate portion of capital budget to be
funded by equity.
Of the $800,000 capital budget,
0.6($800,000) = $480,000 will be funded with
equity.
Calculate excess or need for equity capital.
There will be $600,000 – $480,000 =
$120,000 left over to pay as dividends.
Calculate dividend payout ratio.
$120,000/$600,000 = 0.20 = 20%.
16-10
Residual Dividend Model: What if net
income drops to $400,000? Rises to
$800,000?
If NI = $400,000 …
Dividends = $400,000 – (0.6)($800,000) =
-$80,000.
Since the dividend results in a negative
number, the firm must use all of its net income
to fund its budget, and probably should issue
equity to maintain its target capital structure.
Payout = $0/$400,000 = 0%.
If NI = $800,000 …
Dividends = $800,000 – (0.6)($800,000) =
$320,000.
Payout = $320,000/$800,000 = 40%.
16-11
How would a change in investment
opportunities affect dividends
under the residual policy?
Fewer good investments would lead to
smaller capital budget, hence to a
higher dividend payout.
More good investments would lead to a
lower dividend payout.
16-12
Comments on Residual Dividend
Policy
Advantage
Minimizes new stock issues and flotation costs.
Disadvantages
Results in variable dividends
Sends conflicting signals
Increases risk
Doesn’t appeal to any specific clientele.
Conclusion – Consider residual policy when
setting long-term target payout, but don’t
follow it rigidly from year to year.
16-13
What’s a dividend reinvestment
plan (DRIP)?
Shareholders can automatically reinvest
their dividends in shares of the
company’s common stock. Get more
stock than cash.
There are two types of plans:
Open market
New stock
16-14
Open Market Purchase Plan
Dollars to be reinvested are turned over
to trustee, who buys shares on the open
market.
Brokerage costs are reduced by volume
purchases.
Convenient, easy way to invest, thus
useful for investors.
16-15
New Stock Plan
Firm issues new stock to DRIP enrollees
(usually at a discount from the market
price), keeps money and uses it to buy
assets.
Firms that need new equity capital use
new stock plans.
Firms with no need for new equity
capital use open market purchase plans.
Most NYSE listed companies have a
DRIP. Useful for investors.
16-16
Setting Dividend Policy
Forecast capital needs over a planning
horizon, often 5 years.
Set a target capital structure.
Estimate annual equity needs.
Set target payout based on the residual
model.
Generally, some dividend growth rate
emerges. Maintain target growth rate if
possible, varying capital structure
somewhat if necessary.
16-17
Stock Repurchases
Buying own stock back from
stockholders
Reasons for repurchases:
As an alternative to distributing cash as
dividends.
To dispose of one-time cash from an asset
sale.
To make a large capital structure change.
16-18
Advantages of Repurchases
Stockholders can tender or not.
Helps avoid setting a high dividend that
cannot be maintained.
Repurchased stock can be used in
takeovers or resold to raise cash as needed.
Income received is capital gains rather than
higher-taxed dividends.
Stockholders may take as a positive
signal─management thinks stock is
undervalued.
16-19
Disadvantages of
Repurchases
May be viewed as a negative signal (firm
has poor investment opportunities).
IRS could impose penalties if
repurchases were primarily to avoid
taxes on dividends.
Selling stockholders may not be well
informed, hence be treated unfairly.
Firm may have to bid up price to
complete purchase, thus paying too
much for its own stock.
16-20
Stock Dividends vs. Stock
Splits
Stock dividend: Firm issues new shares
in lieu of paying a cash dividend. If
10%, get 10 shares for each 100 shares
owned.
Stock split: Firm increases the number
of shares outstanding, say 2:1. Sends
shareholders more shares.
16-21
Stock Dividends vs. Stock
Splits
Both stock dividends and stock splits
increase the number of shares
outstanding, so “the pie is divided into
smaller pieces.”
Unless the stock dividend or split conveys
information, or is accompanied by another
event like higher dividends, the stock price
falls so as to keep each investor’s wealth
unchanged.
But splits/stock dividends may get us to an
“optimal price range.”
16-22
When and why should a firm
consider splitting its stock?
There’s a widespread belief that the
optimal price range for stocks is $20 to
$80. Stock splits can be used to keep
the price in this optimal range.
Stock splits generally occur when
management is confident, so are
interpreted as positive signals.
On average, stocks tend to outperform
the market in the year following a split.
16-23
