Impulse of Dividend Payment Decision: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Industry in Bangladesh

Abstract

The dividend is the reward of shareholders of an organization in exchange for time and risk. For maximizing shareholder’s wealth, optimum dividend payout ratio is essential. The prime objective of this paper is to identify impulse of dividend payment decision of listed pharmaceutical companies in Dhaka Stock Exchange of Bangladesh. Dividend payment decision is the dependent variable and profitability, firm’s size, financial leverage, growth, and agency costs are taken as explanatory variables in this study. Collected secondary data are analyzed by econometrics software Eviews 8 through least square method. Formulated multiple regression models show value of R-square (R2) is 0.604817. R-square (R2) value indicates explanatory variables explain 60.48% variation of the dependent variable. The study also reveals that profitability and agency cost positively influence the dividend payment decision and firm’s size, financial leverage, growth negatively impact on the dividend payment decision of selected pharmaceutical companies. Among explanatory variables, profitability is not statistically significant at 5% significant level whereas firm’s size, financial leverage, growth and agency cost are found statistically significant at 5% significant level. So this paper finds that listed pharmaceutical companies in Dhaka Stock Exchange must consider firm’s size, financial leverage, growth and agency cost in their dividend payment decision.