Maintaining consistency with our historic dividend policy (1) 84.1 1.

2*** *** 81
.5 94.1**
(2) Stability of future earnings (c) 71.9 0.9 75.2 58.8
(3) Asustainable change in earnings (b) 67.1 0.8*** 69.2 58.8
(4) Attracting institutional investors to purchase our stock (o) 52.5 0.3*** 51.
9 54.5
(5) The influence of our institutional shareholders (i) 52.4 0.4*** 53.8 47.1
(6) The availability of good investment opportunities for our firm to pursue (h)
47.6 0.2** *** 48.9 42.4
(7) Attracting retail investors to purchase our stock (n) 44.5 0.2* *** 40.0 61.
8***
(8) Merger and acquisition strategy (j) 40.5 0.1 *** 38.8 47.1
(9) The dividend policies of competitors or other companies in our industry (e)
38.3 0.2* *** 36.1 47.1
(10) Market price of our stock (if our stock is a good investment, relative to i
ts
true value) (q)
34.8 0.0 *** 33.8 38.2
(11) Attracting institutional investors because they monitor management
decisions (p)
33.1 0.1 32.3 36.4
(12) Having extra cash or liquid assets, relative to our desired cashholdings (d
) 30.3 0.2** *** 31.3 26.5
(13) Personal taxes our stockholders pay when receiving dividends (g) 21.1 0.5***
24.2 8.8
(14) The possibility that paying dividends indicates we are running low on
profitable investments (m)
17.8 0.6*** *** 19.4 11.8
(15) Paying out to reduce cash, thereby disciplining our firm to make efficient
decisions (f)
13.2 0.9*** ** 14.3 8.8
(16) Flotation costs to issuing additional equity (k) 9.3 0.8*** *** 9.4 8.8*
(17) Atemporary change in earnings (a) 8.4 1.1*** *** 8.3 8.8