MEASUR？NG THE EFFECT OF D？V？DEND PAYMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS ON STOCK PR？CES: AN APPL？CAT？ON ？N STOCK EXCHANGE ？STANBUL

The dividend payments of the companies are one of the most important factors affecting the firm values. Because of the fact that investors value stocks of companies which makes stable payment dividends. For this reason, when it is announced that a firm will pay dividends may mean that investors will demand that company shares / firm's stocks, which means that the price of that company shares / stocks will increase. On the other hand, the efficient market hypothesis argues that an excess rate of return will be achieved with the help of publicly available firm information in a 'semi-strong form effective' market, meaning that even an important announcement such as dividend payment will not have an impact on the value of the firm's stocks. The aim of this study is to reveal how the announcements of the firms to distribute dividends will have an impact on the rates of return for the relevant firm by way of the Event Study method. The research has been done on companies traded in the Istanbul Stock Exchange in the cement sector, which made the announcement of the payment of dividends in 2016. As a result of the research, it was determined that dividend payment announcements affected the share prices of the related firms