Ownership Structure and Payout Ratio: Empirical Evidence of Tehran Stock Exchange

The aim of this paper is to identify and analyses the influence of shareholder ownership identity on payout ratio for a panel of Iran firms from 2002 to 2008. We found that there is a significant positive correlation between institutional ownership and payout ratio. The relation between payout ratio and individual ownership is negative. The most finding of the study indicates that Iranian companies with highly concentrated ownership distribute more dividends. We show that there is a significantly positive correlation between the institutional ownership and the payout ratio. The relation between payout ratio and individual ownership is negative and the ownership concentration measured by the five largest shareholders affects positively on payout ratio.