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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 21 No. 2 1988

Earnings information conveyed by dividend initiations and omissions

Paul M. Healy1; Krishna G. Palepu2,1

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2 Harvard University

Abstract

Firms that initiate dividend payments have positive earnings changes both before and after the dividend policy change, while those omitting dividend payments have negative earnings changes. Subsequent earnings changes are positively related to the dividend announcement return, and stock price reactions at subsequent earnings announcements are smaller than usual, suggesting that these earnings changes are partially anticipated at the dividend announcement. The results indicate that investors interpret announcements of dividend initiations and omissions as managers' forecasts of future earnings changes.

DOI
10.1016/0304-405x(88)90059-1
Volume
21
Issue
2
Pages
149-175
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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