Determinants of Dividend Payout of Agricultural Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange

Abstract

Dividend payout is very crucial for the shareholders as it signals the productivity of the company. The investors look at the shares before buying or selling them. The research assessed the determinants of dividend payout. The study pivotal area was Agricultural Firms listed at the NSE. The regressor variables were; profitability, firm size, leverage and business growth. The study used secondary data for the analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were crucial in building the findings. 14.5% of the variables were studied while 84.5% were not among the independent variable. The data was collected for a period of six years spanning from 2015 to 2020. The population of the study were all the agricultural firms listed at the NSE. The analytical model formulated demonstrated that a unitary change in profitability causes a decrease in dividend payout by 29.9% when all other factors are kept constant. A unit change in each of firm size, leverage or business growth causes a change in dividend payout by 6.7%, 15.1% and 45% respectively when other factors are kept constant.