A Test of the Free Cash Flow Hypothesis: The Impact of Increased Institutional Holdings on Firm Characteristics

Author(s):  
Sigitas Karpavicius ◽  
Fan Yu
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fajri

The aim of this research is to provide empirical evidence on the impact of good corporate governance, free cash flow, and leverage ratio on earnings management. Good corporate governance is measured by audit committee’s size, the proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership. Discretionary accrual is the proxy of earning management. This research used 28 consumer goods companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2018. Data were analyzed using panel data with random effect model. Based on the result of analysis concluded that all components of good corporate governance (audit committee’s size, the proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership), have no significant effect on earnings management, on other hand leverage ratio has a negative effect and no significant on earning management, and free cash flow has a positve and no significant effect on earnings management


In Financial Systems, the impact of Free Cash Flow (FCF) on the performance of a company has been in the center of academic discourse in recent years. Several studies have tried to ascertain the nature and magnitude of the relationship between free cash flow and firm profitability with conflicting results coming from different scholars. The main objective of this research work was to examine the impact of FCF on the profitability of quoted manufacturing firms in the Nigerian and Ghana stock exchanges. Data were pooled from twenty (20) different companies (ten each from Nigeria and Ghana) for a period of six years (2012 – 2017). A panel data estimation model was used to measure the impact of FCF and other performance metrics on the Return on Assets (ROA), which is our chosen profitability measure. The results show a positive but insignificant relationship between FCF and ROA both for Ghana and Nigerian manufacturing firms. Also, sales growth showed a positive impact on profitability of both countries while leverage negatively impacted on profitability. with Ghana being significant at 5%. The implication of the findings of the study is that it makes no business sense for companies to keep piling up excess funds beyond that which is needed for transactional purposes. The similarity between the results from Ghana and Nigeria in most of the variables shows that the findings of this study can be generalized to other countries. Based on the findings of the study, we recommend that the management of companies should strive to keep only the minimum needed free cash flow while the rest should be invested in other projects with positive net present value


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apedzan Emmanuel Kighir ◽  
Normah Haji Omar ◽  
Norhayati Mohamed

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate and find out the impact of cash flow on changes in dividend payout decisions among non-financial firms quoted at Bursa Malaysia as compared to earnings. There has been renewed debate in recent finance and accounting literature concerning the key determinants of changes in dividends payout policy decisions in some jurisdictions. The conclusion in some is that firms base their dividend decisions on cash flows rather than published earnings. Design/methodology/approach – The research made use of panel data from 1999 to 2012 at Bursa Malaysia, using generalized method of moments as the main method of analysis. Findings – The research finds that Malaysia non-financial firms consider current earnings more important than current cash flow while making dividends payout decisions, and prior year cash flows are considered more important in dividends decisions than prior year earnings. We also found support for Jensen (1986) in Malaysia on agency theory, that managers of firms pay dividends from free cash flow to reduce agency conflicts. Practical implications – The research concludes that Malaysian non-financial firms use current earnings and less of current cash flow in making changes in dividends policy. The policy implication is that current earnings are dividends smoothing agents, and the more they are considered in dividends payout decisions, the less of dividends smoothing. Social implications – If dividends smoothing is encouraged, it could lead to dividends-based earnings management. Originality/value – The research is our novel contribution of assisting investors and government in making informed decisions regarding dividends policy in Malaysia.


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (03) ◽  
pp. 563-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Syan Chen ◽  
Kuei-Chin Fu

This paper measures unexpected dividend changes in testing the free cash flow and information/signaling hypotheses using the Bar–Yosef/Sarig method. The empirical findings reveal the following: (i) The association between announcement period abnormal returns and the cash level is significantly positive for low q firms; (ii) The positive association between announcement period, abnormal returns, and the cash level is stronger in low q than in high q firms for most regressions; (iii) Low q firms reduce their capital and research and development (R&D) expenditures during the four fiscal years following dividend increase announcements. Our results are consistent with the free cash flow hypothesis.


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