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Dividend Policy and Institutional Holdings: Evidence from Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Thao Nguyen

    (Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3083, Australia)

  • Hui Li

    (Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3083, Australia)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between dividend payout and institutional ownership for all Australian listed firms in the period between 2001 and 2015. In our univariate tests, we find that institutional investors, in general, prefer dividend-paying firms more than non-paying firms, and for the dividend-paying firms in our sample, institutional investors hold more shares in the firms who pay higher dividends. We further explore the causality between dividend payout and institutional ownership in our multivariate tests with our panel data. The results show an insignificant effect of institutional ownership (dividend payout) on the future dividend payout (institutional ownership) while controlling for firms’ fundamentals, that a higher dividend yield does not attract more institutional investors and that there is no catering to Australian institutional investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Thao Nguyen & Hui Li, 2020. "Dividend Policy and Institutional Holdings: Evidence from Australia," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:8:y:2020:i:1:p:12-:d:327857
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    References listed on IDEAS

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