IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v17y2024i4p162-d1376803.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Alignment of Financial Signaling and Stock Return Synchronicity

Author

Listed:
  • Tarek Eldomiaty

    (School of Business, The American University in Cairo, AUC Avenue, P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt)

  • Islam Azzam

    (School of Business, The American University in Cairo, AUC Avenue, P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt)

  • Karim Tarek Hamed Afifi

    (College of Management & Technology, The Arab Academy for Science and Technology, Cairo P.O. Box 2033, Egypt)

  • Mohamed Hashim Rashwan

    (Business Administration, Economics and Political Science, The British University in Egypt, P.O. Box 43, Cairo 11837, Egypt)

Abstract

Financial signaling and stock return synchronicity may not be at crossroads. This paper optimizes the signaling effect of firms’ financial indicators on stock return synchronicity. The ultimate objective is to align firms’ financial signaling and stock return synchronicity, which implies a benefit of hedging against fluctuations in the stock market index. The data cover quarterly periods from June 1992 to March 2022 for the non-financial firms listed in the DJIA30 and NASDAQ100. This paper examines the observed return synchronicity as the dependent variable. The independent variables are classified into six groups namely, Solvency (or Liquidity) ratios, Assets Efficiency ratios, Expense Control ratios, Debt (or Leverage) ratios, Profitability ratios, and Dividend ratios. The analysis is conducted on two different groups. The first group examines the observed firms’ financials that affect observed stock return synchronicity. The second group examines optimal firms’ financials that help optimize stock return synchronicity. The final results show that (a) current stock return synchronicity is affected positively by cash ratio, and negatively by receivables and historical growth of earnings; (b) optimal stock return synchronicity can be elevated using significant financial indicators namely, Inventory/Current Assets, Net Working Capital/Total Assets, Net worth/Fixed Assets, and Sales Annual Growth; (c) agency conflicts between managers and shareholders can be mitigated by the aforementioned financial indicators, which do not include debt financing being the common source of agency conflicts; and (d) dividends are still insignificant to stock return synchronization.

Suggested Citation

  • Tarek Eldomiaty & Islam Azzam & Karim Tarek Hamed Afifi & Mohamed Hashim Rashwan, 2024. "An Alignment of Financial Signaling and Stock Return Synchronicity," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:162-:d:1376803
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/4/162/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/4/162/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jensen, Michael C, 1969. "Risk, The Pricing of Capital Assets, and the Evaluation of Investment Portfolios," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(2), pages 167-247, April.
    2. John, Kose & Narayanan, Ranga, 1997. "Market Manipulation and the Role of Insider Trading Regulations," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(2), pages 217-247, April.
    3. Stephen A. Ross, 1977. "The Determination of Financial Structure: The Incentive-Signalling Approach," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(1), pages 23-40, Spring.
    4. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1970. "Marginal Stockholder Tax Rates and the Clientele Effect," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(1), pages 68-74, February.
    5. Tarek I. Eldomiaty, 2004. "Signaling Corporate Market Value in Transition Economies: Perspectives from Egypt," Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 52-70, June.
    6. Hutton, Amy P. & Marcus, Alan J. & Tehranian, Hassan, 2009. "Opaque financial reports, R2, and crash risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 67-86, October.
    7. Jang Youn Cho, 1994. "Determinants Of Earnings‐Price Ratios: A Reexamination," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(2), pages 105-120, March.
    8. Marsh, Paul, 1982. "The Choice between Equity and Debt: An Empirical Study," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(1), pages 121-144, March.
    9. Shanken, Jay & Zhou, Guofu, 2007. "Estimating and testing beta pricing models: Alternative methods and their performance in simulations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 40-86, April.
    10. Ambarish, Ramasastry & John, Kose & Williams, Joseph, 1987. "Efficient Signalling with Dividends and Investments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 321-343, June.
    11. John, Kose & Williams, Joseph, 1985. "Dividends, Dilution, and Taxes: A Signalling Equilibrium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1053-1070, September.
    12. Antonios Antoniou & Yilmaz Guney & Krishna Paudyal, 2006. "The Determinants of Debt Maturity Structure: Evidence from France, Germany and the UK," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(2), pages 161-194, March.
    13. Baker, H. Kent & Singleton, J. Clay & Veit, E. Theodore, 2011. "Survey Research in Corporate Finance: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195340372.
    14. Dickey, David A & Fuller, Wayne A, 1981. "Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 1057-1072, June.
    15. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    16. Flannery, Mark J. & Rangan, Kasturi P., 2006. "Partial adjustment toward target capital structures," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 469-506, March.
    17. Vilasuso, Jon & Minkler, Alanson, 2001. "Agency costs, asset specificity, and the capital structure of the firm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 55-69, January.
    18. Arkadev Chatterjea & Joseph A. Cherian & Robert A. Jarrow, 1993. "Market Manipulation and Corporate Finance: A New Perspective," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 22(2), Summer.
    19. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    20. Kodongo, Odongo & Mokoaleli-Mokoteli, Thabang & Maina, Leonard, 2014. "Capital structure, profitability and firm value: panel evidence of listed firms in Kenya," MPRA Paper 57116, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2002. "Market Timing and Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 1-32, February.
    22. Li JIN & Stewart C. MYERS, 2004. "R2 Around the World: New Theory and New Tests," FAME Research Paper Series rp158, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.
    23. Sunil Sapra, 2005. ""A regression error specification test (RESET) for generalized linear models"," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(1), pages 1-6.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kuo, Nan-Ting & Lee, Cheng-Few, 2013. "Effects of dividend tax and signaling on firm valuation: Evidence from taxable stock dividend announcements," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 157-180.
    2. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    3. Benjamin Kleidt & Eckhard Scharmer & Dirk Schiereck, 2009. "Desinvestitionen von Aktienpaketen — Eine Analyse von Exchangeable Bonds," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 61(7), pages 738-780, November.
    4. Kuzucu, Narman, 2015. "A survey of managerial perspective on corporate dividend policy: evidence from Turkish listed firms," MPRA Paper 69801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Stanislas T. M. D. C. Agossadou, 2024. "Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Capital [L'impôt sur les sociétés (IS) et le capital]," Post-Print hal-04509016, HAL.
    6. Frankfurter, George M. & Wood, Bob Jr., 2002. "Dividend policy theories and their empirical tests," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 111-138.
    7. Hussein Abedi Shamsabadi & Byung-Seong Min & Richard Chung, 2016. "Corporate governance and dividend strategy: lessons from Australia," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 583-610, October.
    8. Nestor Bruno & Marcelo Pedro Dabos & Fernando Andrés Grozs, 2021. "Determinantes de la estructura de capital: un survey con énfasis en Latinoamérica," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4444, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    9. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Carina Selander & Magnus Wikstrom, 2009. "Taxation, Dividend Payments and Ex-Day Price-Changes," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 13(1-2), pages 135-154, March-Jun.
    10. Andres, Christian & Cumming, Douglas & Karabiber, Timur & Schweizer, Denis, 2014. "Do markets anticipate capital structure decisions? — Feedback effects in equity liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 133-156.
    11. Mustaruddin Mustaruddin & Aristya Dinata & Wendy Wendy & Anwar Azazi, 2017. "Asymmetric Information and Capital Structure: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia Stock Exchange," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(6), pages 8-15.
    12. du Jardin, Philippe & Séverin, Eric, 2011. "Dividend policy," MPRA Paper 44382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Antonczyk, Ron Christian & Salzmann, Astrid Juliane, 2014. "Overconfidence and optimism: The effect of national culture on capital structure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 132-151.
    14. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    15. ElBannan, Mona A., 2017. "Stock market liquidity, family ownership, and capital structure choices in an emerging country," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 201-231.
    16. Lee, Bong Soo & Mauck, Nathan, 2016. "Dividend initiations, increases and idiosyncratic volatility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 47-60.
    17. Batabyal, Sourav & Robinson, Richard, 2017. "Capital change and stability when dividends convey signals," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 158-167.
    18. Li, Larry & Islam, Silvia Z., 2019. "Firm and industry specific determinants of capital structure: Evidence from the Australian market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 425-437.
    19. Guoming Lai & Wenqiang Xiao, 2018. "Inventory Decisions and Signals of Demand Uncertainty to Investors," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 113-129, February.
    20. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Patterns in Payout Policy and Payout Channel Choice of UK Firms in the 1990s," Discussion Paper 2005-002, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:162-:d:1376803. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.