Sustainable Growth Rate, Optimal Growth Rate, and Optimal Payout Ratio: A Joint Optimization Approach Hong-Yi Chen Rutgers University E-mail:
[email protected] Manak C. Gupta Temple University E-mail:
[email protected] Alice C. Lee* State Street Corp., Boston, MA, USA E-mail:
[email protected] Cheng-Few Lee Rutgers University E-mail:
[email protected] March 2011 * Disclaimer: Views and opinions presented in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of State Street Corporation, which is not associated in any way with this publication and accepts no liability for its contents. Sustainable Growth Rate, Optimal Growth Rate, and Optimal Payout Ratio: A Joint Optimization Approach Abstract Based upon flexibility dividend hypothesis DeAngelo and DeAngelo (2006), Blua Fuller (2008), and Lee et al. (2011) have reexamined issues of dividend policy. However, they do not investigate the joint determination of growth rate and payout ratio. The main purposes of this paper are (1) to extend Higgins’ (1977, 1981, and 2008) sustainable growth by allowing new equity issue, and (2) to derive a dynamic model which jointly optimizes growth rate and payout ratio. By allowing growth rate and number of shares outstanding simultaneously change over time, we optimize the firm value to obtain the optimal growth rate and the steady state growth rate in terms of a logistic equation. We show that the steady state growth rate can be used as the bench mark for mean reverting process of the optimal growth rate. Using comparative statics analysis, we analyze how the optimal growth rate can be affected by the time horizon, the degree of market perfection, the rate of return on equity, and the initial growth rate.