Australian companies pay dividends semi-annually with smaller “interim” payments and larger “final” payments. Interim dividends are declared and paid within a less full information environment than final dividends. We analyze the interactions between the timing of dividends and their...

We find that informed trading in the option market prior to dividend initiation is negatively related to announcement period price reactions. This relation is more prevalent among firms with abnormal trading in call options, higher stock price runup, and higher option liquidity. We also find...

We examine the operating performance subsequent to dividend initiations by comparing firms with similar pre-event operating performance and growth opportunities. We find strong (weak) evidence of information content for dividends initiated by firms subsequent (prior) to the 2003 tax cut in the...