Dividend Policy Controverses

Dividend theory shares with capital structure theories the attribute of area of high controversy. Financial literature discusses whether there is an interdependency of dividends and share price, i.e. value of the firm. The main views may be defined with three theories of dividend policy. However, unambiguous solutions are still lacking. Literature on dividends highlights several concepts that may be important in defining the dividend policy. Dividend policy aims to define payout ratio, sort of dividend and way of maintaining dividend stability, since stability of dividend is found to be of interest in practice. Managers, namely, prefer stability of dividend policy and the amount of dividends taking in account the signalling effect. If stability of dividends is preferred by investors it follows that stable dividend policy will lead to minimization of cost of capital and maximization of share price.