Download or read book Stock Market Reactions to Dividend Announcements written by Christoph Schleicher and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates the effects of dividend announcements on stock prices and trading volume in the Austrian stock market. Abnormal returns are established as the difference between actual returns and expected returns generated by the Market Model. We use the model of expected dividends such that any change in the announced dividend-stream is unanticipated. Our results provide evidence that announced dividend changes bring new information to the market and that stock prices move in the same direction as dividends. In addition, we find that stock prices react rather quickly to the new information. We also report an increase in stock return volatility in the cases of announced constant dividends and dividend decreases, indicating a heterogeneous interpretation of the signal at the individual level. Finally we find that trading volume on average shows a significant increase around the announcement date, supporting the hypothesis that dividend changes in either direction induce investors to revise their portfolios.