The Role of Firm-Specific Variables in Explaining Heterogeneous Stock Market Reactions to Dividend Announcements

The finance literature reports mixed results about the stock market reaction to dividend announcements. This study has tried to figure out that the heterogeneous stock market reaction to dividend announcements might be attributed to several firm-specific financial and non-financial factors. In this vein, this study investigates the role of family ownership, firm size, leverage, and dividend yield in explaining the stock market reaction to dividend announcements. Using a sample of 206 dividend announcements of 136 firms listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period of 2008 to 2012, results of both the univariate tests and the regression analysis show stock market reaction to dividend announcements varies significantly across different groups of firms. Specifically, our results show that family ownership, firm size, leverage, and dividend yield play a significant role in affecting the stock market reaction to dividend announcements