CHAPTER 14 Distributions to Shareholders: Dividends and Share Repurchases
Successful companies earn income. That income can be reinvested in operating
assets, used to retire debt, or distributed to stockholders. If the decision is made to
distribute income to stockholders, three key issues arise: (1) How much should
be distributed? (2) Should the distribution be in the form of dividends, or should the
cash be passed on to shareholders by buying back stock? (3) How stable should the
distribution be? That is, should the funds paid out from year to year be stable and
dependable, which stockholders like; or should they be varied depending on the
! rms’ cash " ows and investment requirements, which managers tend to like? Those
three issues are the primary focus of this chapter; and by the time you complete it,
you should be able to:
• (^) Explain why some investors like the! rm to pay more dividends while other inves-
tors prefer reinvestment and the resulting capital gains.
• (^) Discuss the various trade-o# s that companies face when trying to establish their
optimal dividend policy.
• (^) Di# erentiate between stock splits and stock dividends.
• (^) List the advantages and disadvantages of stock repurchases vis-à-vis dividends
from both investors’ and companies’ perspectives.
14-1 DIVIDENDS VERSUS CAPITAL GAINS:
WHAT DO INVESTORS PREFER?
When deciding how much cash to distribute,! nancial managers must keep in
mind that the! rm’s objective is to maximize shareholder value. Consequently, the
target payout ratio—de! ned as the percentage of net income to be paid out as cash
dividends—should be based in large part on investors’ preferences for dividends
versus capital gains: Do investors prefer to receive dividends; or would they rather
have the! rm plow the cash back into the business, which presumably will pro-
duce capital gains? This preference can be considered in terms of the constant
growth stock valuation model.
Pˆ 0!
D 1
_____r
s^ " g
Target Payout Ratio
The target percentage of
net income paid out as
cash dividends.
Target Payout Ratio
The target percentage of
net income paid out as
cash dividends.
cash hoard had grown to more than $60 billion. At that
point, the company took some larger steps to return cash to
its shareholders. Once again, the regular quarterly dividend
was doubled to 32 cents a share. More dramatically, Micro-
soft announced plans to pay a one-time special dividend of
$3 a share. In addition, it announced plans to repurchase up
to $30 billion worth of stock in the open market. All told, this
meant that $62.62 billion would be provided to its
shareholders.
Microsoft continued to generate a great deal of cash,
and its reported cash holdings in March 2008 were around
$25 billion. But the company’s aggressive use of dividends
and share repurchases to return cash to shareholders in
recent years represents an important shift in policy. When
managers decide how and when to distribute cash to share-
holders, they face a fundamental question: Could we earn
more on the available cash if we kept it in the firm and used
it to invest in new projects, or would shareholders earn
more if they received the cash and invested it in alternative
investments with the same risk? If the company could earn
more, it would make sense to retain the cash. However, if
investors could earn more, the company would increase
shareholder value paying out more dividends and/or repur-
chasing more shares.
P U T T I N G T H I N G S I N P E R S P E C T I V E