Managerial Ownership and Firm Value of Selected Nigeria Listed Manufacturing Companies: Does Dividend Payment Policy Really Mediate?

Shareholders play a vital role in an organization through parting with their funds which determines the continuity and survival of the organization. As a result of this, regular payment of dividends as at when due to different shareholders is a concerned of every stakeholder in an organization. Therefore, this study examined the mediating effect of dividend payment policy on the relationship between managerial ownership and firm value of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. This study focused on ten manufacturing firms that are listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) from 2010 to 2019 using panel pool technique and Hausman’s test. The findings from this study established that there was a partial mediation of managerial ownership, dividend payout and leverage ratio on firm value. In addition, managerial ownership (20.8%) had an inverse and significant effect on firm value; while, dividend payout ratio and leverage ratio had a direct and significant effect on it with each contributing 15.2% and 3.8% to it respectively. On mediation, the finding discovered that dividend payout through managerial ownership indirectly contributed 33.1% to managerial ownership. The study concluded that managerial ownership and dividend payment policy partly contributed to firm value with dividend payment policy playing an indirect role through increase in managerial ownership. Therefore, recommended that organizations should endeavor to review their dividend payment policy and ensure that dividend accrue to the firms’ coffer are pay as at when due. Also, managers of listed firms are strongly advised to take more of long-term loan on intending capital projects.