Does Corporate Liquidity Affect Dividend Policy? : A Quantitative Study on Public European Firms

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the relationship between corporate liquidity and dividend policy. The corporate liquidity is measured by proven liquidity ratios and the dividend policy is divided into cash dividends and share repurchases. In order to examine the possible relationship between corporate liquidity and dividend policy, public European firms are examined. Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the UK are selected based on the similarities in the regulation and market structure in the countries. The thesis aims at furthering the knowledge on the role played by corporate liquidity for dividend policy. In our ambition to investigate the before-mentioned relationship we use a panel data set over five years extracted from Datastream. Any newfound evidence on the subject can help investors, creditors, and other stakeholders in evaluating firms based on their liquidity.  We used a deductive quantitative method to analyse the chosen relationship. The study concluded a significant relationship between corporate liquidity and dividend, although negative as opposed to our expectations. With regards to share repurchase, no significant effect was found from corporate liquidity. Free cash flow on the other hand appears to have a positive effect on the amount of share repurchases carried through. We discuss mentioned relationships and attribute them to the mature firms in this sample and the liquidity levels of mature firms.The theories supporting these findings are Agency Theory, Pecking Order Theory, Shareholder Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Liquidity Preference Theory.