公司獲利性及成長機會對停發現金股利決策的影響

Abstract

本文旨在研究台灣公司之獲利性、成長機會與停發現金股利機率的關係。我們從公司生命週期理論推測，停發現金股利的機率應該跟公司的獲利性以及成長機會有關，因為獲利性低而且成長機會高的公司比較可能因為沒有多餘現金發放而發生停發現金股利，但本文以台灣 2001-2014 年全體公司為樣本的研究結果卻發現獲利性和成長機會越高都會使停發現金股利的機率下降，於是又我們嘗試以資訊不對稱解釋成長機會與停發現金股利機率的關係，終於發現成長機會高的公司是由於資訊不對稱嚴重造成訊號效果明顯，為了避免因為訊號效果對股價造成太大的負面影響，因此反而會避免發生停發現金股利。

The purpose of this paper is to find the relationship between profitability, growth opportunity and cash dividend omissions at the companies in Taiwan. From life-cycle theory, we predict that the probability of cash dividend omission should be related to firm’s profitability and growth opportunities because a company that has low profitability and high growth opportunities may not have enough cash left in hand to distribute and has to omit cash dividends. However, our findings based on the companies in Taiwan from 2001 to 2014 shows that the companies with higher growth opportunities, just like high profitability, had lower rate on cash dividend omissions. In order to explain the relationship between growth opportunities and probability on cash dividend omissions, we tried to use information asymmetry as explanation, and finally found that it is because firms with higher growth opportunity have severer information asymmetry and thus signaling effect is profound, and to avoid huge stock price drop caused by signaling, these firms choose avoid cash dividend omissions.