Abstract:
The issue of dividend policy is a very important one in the current business environment 
and also one of the most complex aspects in finance. This Present study is an attempt to 
investigate the relationship between dividend policy and financial performance of 20 
companies listed on S & P index in Sri Lanka. This study considered dividend policy as the 
independent variable which measured by dividend payout. Return on Assets (ROA), Return 
on Equity (ROE) which is criterion of financial performance accounting is used in this 
research. In this research study used for Firm size as control Variables. This research 
focused on secondary data collection method which information drawn from 20 listed 
companies S & P index
relationship 
between dividend policy and financial performance. The regression analysis is used to 
identify the impact of dividend policy on financial performance. The results of this study 
reveal that DP has significant positively correlated(r=562, p<0.01) with ROA and 
insignificant positively correlated with ROE (r=165, p>0.05). Further the DP has a 
significant impact (39.1%) on ROA and insignificantly impact (13%) on ROE of 20 
companies listed on S & P index in Sri Lanka. It can be conclude that dividend policy is very 
important one in the fast growing business world and the manager should carefully design 
the dividend policy that will enhance firm's overall financial health over a given period of 
time.
Keywords: Dividend policy, Financial performance, Dividend payout, Return on assets, 
Return on equity, S & PIndex
on during the period of 5years from 2011 to 2015. The descriptive 
statistics are used and Pearson's correlation coefficient is used to identify the relationship 
between dividend policy and financial performance. The regression analysis is used to 
identify the impact of dividend policy on financial performance. The results of this study 
reveal that DP has significant positively correlated(r=562, p<0.01) with ROA and 
insignificant positively correlated with ROE (r=165, p>0.05). Further the DP has a 
significant impact (39.1%) on ROA and insignificantly impact (13%) on ROE of 20 
companies listed on S & P index in Sri Lanka. It can be conclude that dividend policy is very 
important one in the fast growing business world and the manager should carefully design 
the dividend policy that will enhance firm's overall financial health over a given period of 
time.