Abstract:
The study purpose was to examine the factors that influence the dividend pay-out policy
of twelve (12) listed companies at DSE using panel data analysis for the period of eleven
years (2010 to 2020) and purposive sampling strategy was used. The data used was
extracted from secondary statistics in annual financial reports of the companies within
the period of study. The data was analysed using Stata version 15, Ordinary Least
Squares (OLS) regression model was used to determine the coefficients. The study
found that growth opportunities variable had negative influence on dividend pay-out
ratio while liquidity and industry had positive influence on dividend policy while
profitability proxied by return on equity had positive relation with dividend pay-out ratio
but statistically insignificant. The study concludes that dividend policy is vital to enable
shareholders to maximize their wealth and managers should avoid paying dividend
beyond their net incomes which is not sustainable in long-term. The study recommends
that the management team needs to strive for higher liquidity, higher asset growth and
ultimately maintain high liquid firms to cater for shareholder’s goal of wealth
maximization in the form of higher dividend pay-outs
