EFFECTS OF ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION AND DIVIDEND POLICY ON MARKET VALUATION OF QUOTED FOOD AND BEVERAGES FIRMS IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effects of asymmetric information and dividend policy on the market valuation of quoted food and beverage firms in Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design and employed a quantitative longitudinal panel approach to capture both cross-sectional and time-series variations among the sampled firms. Secondary data were obtained from the audited annual reports of quoted food and beverage firms over the study period. Tobin's Q (TBQ) was used as the proxy for market valuation, while asymmetric information was measured using Information Opacity (IFO) and Insider Information Advantage (IIA), and dividend policy was proxied by Dividend Payout Policy (DPP) and Dividend Stability and Smoothing (DSS). Fixed Effects (FE), Random Effects (RE) and Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) estimation techniques were employed, with the Hausman specification test used to select the most appropriate model. The Hausman test favoured the Fixed Effects model. The regression results revealed that information opacity exerted a negative and statistically significant effect on Tobin's Q (β = -0.274467, p = 0.0017), while insider information advantage had a positive and significant effect on market valuation (β = 0.177314, p = 0.0311). Dividend payout policy also exhibited a positive and significant influence on Tobin's Q (β = 0.024927, p = 0.0001). However, dividend stability and smoothing had a negative but not significant effect on market valuation (β = -0.019489, p = 0.1608). The model was statistically significant (F = 50.26396, p < 0.001) and explained approximately 92.63% of the variation in market valuation (Adjusted R² = 0.9079). The study concludes that greater corporate transparency and sustainable dividend payout policies enhance the market valuation of quoted food and beverage firms in Nigeria. The study recommends that corporate managers should strengthen disclosure quality and adopt dividend payout policies that are consistent with firms' financial performance in order to improve investor confidence and maximise firm value.