Corporate issuers: dividend and share repurchasing policies
公司发行人：股息和股票回购政策
A corporate issuer is a business seeking capital by issuing securities—stocks and bonds among other things. The sources cover several facets of corporate issuers, including cost of capital, corporate restructuring, dividend and share repurchase policies, and ESG issues in investment research.
公司发行人是指通过发行股票和债券等证券寻求资本的企业。资料来源涵盖公司发行人的多个方面，包括资本成本、公司重组、股息和股票回购政策，以及投资研究中的环境、社会和公司治理问题。
Examining Dividends and Share Repurchases
审查股息和股票回购
Corporate issuers give their dividend and share repurchase strategies a lot of thought.
公司发行人在制定股息和股票回购战略时都会深思熟虑。
Usually stemming from its revenues, dividends are payments paid by a company to its owners.
股息通常来源于收入，是公司支付给所有者的款项。
Share repurchases—also known as stock buybacks—occur when a corporation purchases back-offits of its own shares from the market.
股票回购又称股票回购，是指公司从市场上回购自己的股票。
The financial ratios of the company and shareholder wealth can be much changed by these acts.
公司的财务比率和股东财富会因为这些行为而发生很大变化。
Dividend Types and Effects
股息类型和影响
Cash dividends lower retained earnings, therefore lowering the value of the company's assets and the market value of stock. They also lower the cash ratio and current ratio, and raise the debt-to---equity ratio and debt-to---asset ratio, so increasing financial leverage ratios.
现金股利会降低留存收益，从而降低公司资产价值和股票市值。现金股利还会降低现金比率和流动比率，提高资产负债率和债务比率，从而增加财务杠杆比率。
● Stock dividends entail extra shares being given to owners. They have no bearing on corporate total market value or shareholder wealth. A 3% stock dividend example shows that the ownership value stays the same even while the number of outstanding shares and the stock price change.
股票股利意味着向所有者派发额外的股票。股票股利与公司总市值或股东财富无关。3% 的股票分红例子表明，即使流通股数量和股票价格发生变化，所有权价值也不会改变。
Stock splits raise the outstanding share count without influencing shareholder wealth or the overall market value. In a two-for- one stock split, for instance, each share owned by a shareholder results in an extra share, therefore doubling their share count while halfing the stock price.
股票分割会增加流通股数量，但不会影响股东财富或整体市场价值。例如，在 "二选一 "的股票分割中，股东每拥有一股股票，就会多出一股股票，因此股东的股票数量增加了一倍，而股票价格却降低了一半。
Dividend Policy Ideas 股利政策构想
Several hypotheses try to clarify the link between corporate value and dividend policy:
有几种假设试图阐明公司价值与股利政策之间的联系：
● Dividend Irrelevancy Theory contends that in a perfect capital market dividend policy is irrelevant. Regarding their effect on firm value, dividends and share repurchases are not different under the Modigliani-Miller (MM) assumptions.
股利无关性理论认为，在一个完美的资本市场中，股利政策无关紧要。在莫迪利亚尼-米勒（MM）假设下，股利和股票回购对公司价值的影响并无不同。
● Bird-in--- Hand Theory holds that since dividends are more certain than capital gains, investors want them. The Tax Argument acknowledges that different tax systems handle dividends and capital gains differently. Higher dividend paying enterprises should thus have higher valuations under this theory. For instance, in certain nations dividends are taxed more highly than capital gains. Signalling Theory argues that dividend fluctuations might tell investors about the future of the business in line with the particular tax regime in place. A dividend rise, for instance, can indicate management's faith in future earnings expansion.
鸟在手理论认为，由于股息比资本利得更确定，投资者希望获得股息。税收论证承认，不同的税收制度对股息和资本利得的处理方式不同。因此，根据这一理论，高分红企业的估值应该更高。例如，在某些国家，股息税比资本利得税更高。 信号理论认为，股息波动可能会告诉投资者有关企业未来的信息，这与现行的特定税制是一致的。例如，股息增加可表明管理层对未来盈利扩张的信心。
● Agency Cost Theory holds that dividends can help to reduce managers' conflicts of interest with regard to owners. Paying dividends limits the free financial flow managers have access to, which could limit their capacity to fund unworthy initiatives.
代理成本理论认为，分红有助于减少管理者与所有者之间的利益冲突。支付股利限制了管理者可获得的自由资金流，这可能会限制他们为不值得的举措提供资金的能力。
Factors influencing dividend policy
影响股利政策的因素
Dividend policy of a firm can be influenced by several elements, including:
公司的股利政策可能受到几个因素的影响，包括
Companies with more profitable investment possibilities are less likely to pay significant dividends since they would rather save earnings to support expansion.
投资盈利能力较强的公司不太可能大量分红，因为它们更愿意将盈利用于支持扩张。
● Financial Flexibility: Businesses could choose to keep a low dividend payment ratio in order to save financial flexibility and prevent future external capital raising necessity.
财务灵活性：企业可以选择保持较低的股利支付率，以保持财务灵活性，避免将来需要对外筹集资金。
● Flotation Costs: Companies may find it more costly to borrow money outside from the expenses related to issuing fresh shares. This can cause businesses to choose keeping earnings above paying dividends.
浮动成本：公司可能会发现，除了与发行新股相关的费用外，借贷成本更高。这可能导致企业选择保留盈利而不是支付股息。
Legal and contractual limitations: Legal limits on a company's capacity to pay dividends include debt covenants and the impairment of capital rule.
法律和合同限制：对公司支付股息能力的法律限制包括债务契约和资本减值规则。
● Tax Issues: Dividend and capital gains tax treatment can influence investor preferences and, hence, dividend policy of a corporation.
税务问题：股息和资本利得税待遇会影响投资者的偏好，从而影响公司的股息政策。
Analyses Dividend Sustainability
股利可持续性分析
Examining a company's dividend policy calls for considering its sustainability as well. Dividend Payout Ratio: The percentage of earnings distributed as dividends is a fundamental indicator used in dividend sustainability research.
研究一家公司的股利政策，还需要考虑其可持续性。股利支付率：作为股息分配的收益百分比是股息可持续性研究中使用的一个基本指标。
● Coverage Ratio: Count of times earnings cover dividends.
覆盖率：收益支付股息的次数。
● FCFE Coverage Ratio: The number of times FCFE covers dividends and share repurchases; the cash flow accessible to equity holders following all expenses and investments made.
FCFE 覆盖率：FCFE 覆盖率：FCFE 支付股息和股票回购的次数；扣除所有费用和投资后，股东可获得的现金流。
Declining earnings coverage ratio or FCFE coverage ratio could indicate that the dividend of the company is become less sustainable. Generally speaking, funding stock repurchases with debt is not a long-term sustainable approach. Dividends are another matter entirely.
盈利覆盖率或 FCFE 覆盖率的下降可能表明公司股息的可持续性越来越差。一般来说，用债务为股票回购提供资金并不是一种长期可持续的方法。股息则完全是另一回事。