Session 8: Corporate Finance Reading 29: Dividends and Dividend Policy
LOS m: Differentiate among the schools of thought on dividends (dividend irrelevance, dividend preference, and tax aversion) and discuss their implications for shareholder value and the price-to-earnings ratio.
The bird-in-the-hand argument is based on the assumption that:
A) |
investors value expected capital gains more highly than expected dividends because of the lower tax rate on capital gains. | |
B) |
investors are indifferent between dividends and capital gains. | |
C) |
investors view dividends as being less risky than expected capital gains. | |
The Gordon/Lintner argument is called the bird-in-the-hand theory. Myron Gordon and John Lintner, argue that ks decreases as the dividend payout increases. Why? Because investors are less certain of receiving future capital gains from the reinvested retained earnings than they are of receiving current certain dividend payments. Gordon/Lintner argue that investors value a dollar of expected dividends more highly than a dollar of expected capital gains because the dividend yield component (D1/Po) is less risky than the growth component (g) in the total expected return equation:
ks =D1/Po + g. |