Market Reaction to Dividend Announcement: Evidence from Turkish Stock Market.
This study investigates market reactions to cash dividend announcements by analyzing abnormal returns around the declaration date in Borsa Istanbul. The study applies a panel regression method to a data set including 902 announcement made by 118 companies during the period from 2003 to 2015. It is found that there is a significant, negative relationship between cash dividends per share and abnormal returns following the announcement of dividends. Thus, the results support the tax-clientele effect hypothesis. When a given company announces cash dividends, shareholders start to sell their holdings in order to avoid more taxation in the future; therefore, market prices decrease. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is no statistically significant information leakage prior to the announcement date, and it seems that the inefficiency of the market decreases over time as prices adapt to new information more quickly.
Although it is still a puzzle as to whether or not dividends affect a firms ' worth or share prices, many capital market regulatory bodies accept that dividends has an effect on stock price. Three major theories attempt to explain the relationship between the dividend changes and firms' share prices: The information signaling theory, the free cash flow hypothesis and the dividend clientele effect hypothesis.
There are limited studies on this relationship within emerging markets such as Turkey. The few studies carried out in Turkey have not used recent data or advanced methodology, and generally, they have not used exact declaration dates. This study utilizes more recent data covering the period from 2003 to 2015 including 902 events of 118 companies listed on Borsa Istanbul. Market reactions to announcements of cash dividends are examined by analyzing the relationship between dividend per share and cumulative abnormal returns around the declaration date. In order to determine this relationship, we performed two-way fixed effect panel regression analysis.
We have found that there is a significant, negative relationship between dividend per share and abnormal returns following the announcement showing that market reacts negatively to dividend announcement. The results support the tax-clientele effect hypothesis. This is most likely due to the fact that the capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than dividend yields in Turkey. When companies announce cash dividends, shareholders start selling their holdings in order to avoid more taxation in the future. Furthermore, it is found that there is no significant information leakage prior to declaration dates.
It would be beneficial for future studies to focus on determinants of dividend payouts in Turkey.