The Theory and Practice of the Policy of Dividend Payments in Public Companies

The basic aim of the article, composed of two parts, is to present the main goals of dividend policy and the results of empirical research showing the practices of its payments by the companies noted at the Stock Exchange in Warsaw. The so established aim of the elaboration is connected with the need of a fuller presentation in the first part of the elaboration of the concept and meaning of the dividend, the place of dividend benefits in the profits of the shareholders, the cost of the dividend as well as the forms and models of dividend payment policy. Although quite often mentioned in the literature these questions are not uniformly understood and interpreted. The lack of wider and fuller results of empirical research on the implemented dividend payment policy by the Polish companies noted at the Stock Exchange in Warsaw and the meaning of this problem for practice are an essential premise for filling in this gap. This scientific intention can be found in the second part of the elaboration entitled: "The influence of operational and investment activity on dividend payment" and containing the results of analysis of the correlation occurring between the results of operational activity and dividend payment and the investments and debt of the enterprise and dividend payment by the public companies noted on the basic market. The presented results of regression analysis by means of Spearman's correlation coefficient have the character of dynamic and space-sectoral research. The basic foundation of the considerations are the assumptions about the need to broaden the semantic scope of dividend policy, to enrich the evaluation of the dividend benefits of the shareholders and about the interaction of many various factors upon dividend payment policy in the Polish companies. The assumption about the need to broaden the meaning of dividend policy results from the necessity of exposing sui generis its two-flow character. It is generally speaking an expenditure on account of financial activity and also a determined income from the investment activity of the enterprise. The justification of recognition of the factors shaping dividend payment policy in the Polish companies is reflected in the need to analyze the models and variables of this policy and their connections with the financial strategies of the enterprise.