The reaction of the financial market to announcements of changes in cash dividends The situation of the French financial market: For the period from 2010 to 2015.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to study the media content of the profit distribution policy to determine the impact of the announcement of change in the distribution of cash profits on the reaction of the French financial market. Using the event study method and the PANEL data methodology, conducted on a sample of 153 events for 39 companies listed in the CAC40 index for the period 2010 to 2015. The study concluded that the French market is reacting to dividend announcements. And reacts more with increases in distributions. There was no reaction to the reduction in distributions. This result is not consistent with the premise of media content. Moreover, our results suggest that when companies increase dividends when the market is performing badly, they signal or draw that they have no problems, but there is no evidence of asymmetric market responses up and down. Our results also show that the reduction has a stronger effect than the increase in distributions, that the movement of change is parallel to the cumulative extraordinary returns, and that the increase in distributions under the down market is stronger than the increase in distributions in the bullish market. The advertiser is the opposite.