The impact of dividends, cash flow, and earnings on equity valuation of listed firms in Nigeria

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study investigates the influence of dividends, cash flow, and earnings on equity valuation within publicly traded companies in Nigeria from 2019 to 2023, a timeframe characterized by macroeconomic volatility, currency devaluation, and regulatory changes. Utilising panel data from 22 enterprises across various industries and employing fixed effects regression models, this study aims to determine which financial determinants have the most substantial impact on equity valuation. The research results provide evidence of earnings having a significant positive relationship with equity valuation and a strong correlational figure (coefficient = 3.52, p < 0.01). This proves that they are one of the major factors affecting valuation. On the other hand, free cash flow and dividend payments had a negative but statistically finite impact (p > 0.05), indicating that the impact on the investor’s valuation decision is weakened during times of economic uncertainty. Moreover, equity value also positively depends on firm size. Additionally, the value of R-squared, 0.98 in the fixed effects model, shows a high level of dependability of the analysis conducted. Based on these findings, the study suggests that to improve market valuation, Nigerian firms should focus on long-term, sustainable earnings growth and strategic reinvestment, rather than dividend payments. These results provide important insight for policymakers, business leaders, and investors who struggle with emerging market valuation in countries like Nigeria.

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    • Table 1. Model specification
    • Table 2. Descriptive statistics
    • Table 3. Correlation analysis
    • Table 4. Regression analysis: Panel OLS (fixed effect)
    • Table 5. Regression analysis: Panel OLS (random effect)
    • Table 6. Hausman test (correlated random effects – Hausman test)
    • Table 7. Hypotheses testing
    • Table A1. Summary of selected samples of companies
    • Conceptualization
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Uwuigbe Olubukunola, Osman Issah, Alex Adegboye
    • Data curation
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Uwuigbe Olubukunola, Alex Adegboye
    • Formal Analysis
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Damilola Eluyela, Alex Adegboye
    • Funding acquisition
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Damilola Eluyela
    • Methodology
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Osman Issah
    • Resources
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Damilola Eluyela, Osman Issah
    • Writing – original draft
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Uwuigbe Olubukunola, Damilola Eluyela, Osman Issah, Alex Adegboye, Saidu Musa
    • Writing – review & editing
      Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Uwuigbe Olubukunola, Damilola Eluyela, Osman Issah, Alex Adegboye, Saidu Musa
    • Software
      Uwuigbe Olubukunola, Damilola Eluyela
    • Visualization
      Alex Adegboye, Saidu Musa
    • Supervision
      Saidu Musa