台灣上市公司現金股利與庫藏股政策之探討

Abstract

股票購回與支付現金股利都是公司分配超額現金給股東的方式，不同的是股票購回的實施比現金股利的分配更具有彈性，正如股利平滑政策所言，若非必要公司不會隨意變動股利的支付內容，而公司卻可視情況隨時調整股票購回計畫。本研究在探討當公司採取不同的分配形式將現金分配給股東時，該現金分配之決定因素與決策行為有何差異。而研究後發現，公司對庫藏股買回與支付現金股利的選擇，取決於不同獲利結構的公司型態。當公司有較多的營業現金流量時，比較可能增加現金股利，相對當非營業現金流量較高時，較可能增加買回庫藏股。此現象顯示現金股利為穩定性營業現金流量的支付方式，而庫藏股為暫時性非營業現金流量的支付方式。同時，相對於選擇支付現金股利的公司而言，公司股價表現不佳與公司價值低估，亦是公司選擇實施庫藏股的原因。且本研究利用巢狀羅吉特模型也發現公司在進行決策時，首先對是否要採取現金分配做選擇，若公司決定要進行現金分配後，才對現金分配之形式進行選擇。

The stock repurchase and the cash dividend payment are the ways that firms distribute excess cash to shareholders. The difference between them is that the implementation of stock repurchase is more flexible comparing to that of cash dividend payment. According to dividend smoothing policy, firms won't change the dividend frequently if no necessary; however, firms can adjust stock repurchase program any time if they wish. This research explores the difference between the determinants of cash payout policy and policy-making behavior when they use different forms to distribute cash to shareholders. In this research, we found the choices between stock repurchase and cash dividend payment of firms depend on the magnitude in operating and non-operating cash flows. When firms have more operating cash flows, they are more likely to increase the cash dividend; when firms have more non-operating cash flows, they are more likely to increase to buy back the shares. This phenomenon demonstrates cash dividends are paid when operating cash flows are stable and stock repurchase is adopted when temporary non-operating cash flows are higher. Meanwhile, firm that paid cash dividend, the underperformance on stock price and firm’s value are also the reasons why the firms choose to repurchase the stock. By using nested logit model, we found that firms make cash payout policy in two stages. First, they make a decision whether to distribute the surplus cash flows. If the firms decide to adopt the cash distribution, they will make further decision as which the form of the cash distribution is adopted.