The relationship between dividend policy and investment is a controversial area and the relationship between these two may differ depending on the company's priorities. The study examines this more closely by studying dividend policy's impact on investment and how it differs depending on the company?s market capitalization. The study is based on companies listed on the OMX Stockholm within the segments Large Cap and Small Cap, during the period between 2003-2012. Secondary data was obtained from each company's annual reports where relevant data was used to operationalized into measurable variables.

Common wisdom dictates that because payment of dividends decreases funds available for investment, a high payout ratio is to be associated with low earnings growth. This notion has been challenged in recent years by empirical research that has found a positive relationship between payout ratio and future earnings growth, both on the aggregated market level and the company level in different countries. This study investigated the aforementioned relationship on the Swedish market by statistically analyzing future earnings growth as a function of payout ratio on a large sample of publicly listed companies over the period 1980 to 2011. The results are in line with those found in previous research and indicate that companies with high dividend payout ratio tend to experience strong future earnings growth. The results are robust to the presence of mean reversion, the use of an alternative accounting measure of earnings, non-symmetrical earnings growth cycles and alternative practices for dealing with outliers..

Följande uppsats undersöker hur svensk utbetalningspolitik har utvecklats under åren 1992-2012. Urvalet består av de företag som under våren 2014 var noterade på Stockholmsbörsens ?Large?, ?Mid? eller ?Small Cap? lista. Återköpens andel av den totala utbetalningsandelen visar sig inte vara lika hög som andra internationella studier har visat. Det är istället utdelningarna som utgör merparten av de totala utbetalningarna.

Uppsatsen undersöker om det finns ett samband mellan företags aktieutdelningar och investeringsverksamhet. Urvalet för studien är de 30 största företagen noterade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm för perioden 2000-2012. Företagen har valts med hänsyn till börsvärde i syfte att utröna eventuella skillnader för företagsstorlek samt branschtillhörighet. Studien finner negativa signifikanta samband mellan utdelningsandelen och investeringsverksamheten för studiens små företag samt för företag inom industrisektorn..

Background: A debated subject in today?s society is CEO compensation. Companies which give the CEO compensation mean that it motivates them to maximize the company?s return. The compensations are based on various types of variables, such as financial measures and financial ratio.

At Rottneros pulp mill mechanical pulp is bleached with hydrogen peroxide. The changes of bleaching chemicals that are used for different grades are taken from bleaching tables; however these tables are old and need to be updated. The purpose of this thesis was to be the basis of new documentation.In this thesis three pulps where studied with the aim to find the optimal bleaching chemical changes (total NaOH/VP-quote) for each pulp. The pulps were taken from the filter before the bleaching tower and the pulps were bleached in the lab. The most important pulp property in this study was the brightness and how that was influenced by the chemical dosages.

The effect of total dietary fat on the blood lipid profile: a reviewFat consumption has increased in Sweden in the 21th century, probably due to the advancement of the diet low car high fat (LCHF). Also, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of premature death in Sweden. Various blood lipids are used to evaluate the cardiovascular disease risk; total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides among others. High levels of total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides and low levels of HDL are believed to increase the risk. The purpose of this review was to examine the effects of high-fat-diet on blood lipids, cholesterol, LDL, HDL the ratio between LDL/HDL and triglycerides through a systematic review.

Many studies have pointed out that generosity depends on different things like gender, age and nationality. We wanted to see if predetermined factors like genetics also had an effect on the intention of generosity. There is a ratio between the index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) that is determined by the levels of testosterone in the amniotic fluid and that have had some significant effect on personality attributes like musical and leadership skills. We wanted to see if that ratio had any effect on the intention of generosity. We experimentally examined a group of priest student and two groups of young handball players and let the groups answer a survey that included a sort of dictator game and we photo copied their hands to get their 2D:4D-ratio.

Intellektuellt kapital anses av ma?nga vara en av de sto?rsta drivande faktorerna till fo?retags framga?ng och i litteraturen va?rderas den ofta som skillnaden mellan ett fo?retags marknadsva?rde och dess bokfo?rda va?rde. Market-to-book ratio a?r det relativa ma?ttet som beskriver denna skillnad och go?r det mo?jligt att ja?mfo?ra detta va?rde med andra fo?retag. Ma?let med denna uppsats a?r att underso?ka hur fo?retag redogo?r fo?r sitt intellektuella kapital och utreda hur detta reflekteras i fo?retags market-to-book ratio.

This paper analyzes the auditor choices for a sample of 300 predominantly small Swedish firms, all located in Umeå. Our hypothesis was based on the complexity of a firm, the need of external financing, leverage, and the need of extra consultance from the auditfirm. Our definition of auditor quality is based on prior studies, and is frequently used by authors in this area. The assumption is based on that the auditor quality increases with the size of the auditfirm and the degree of the auditor. The auditor quality is therefor depending on the choice between an auditor from the group ?Big 5? or not, and the choice of an auditor with an higher degree.

Magnesium is an essential mineral that is important for several physiologic and biochemical processes in the body. Deficiency of magnesium is mainly associated with grass tetany, but can also appear in cows during the indoor period. Since long it is known that potassium has a negative effect on the absorption of magnesium. Due to the fact that potassium fertilisation leads to a higher potassium content in forage, it is of interest to study interactions of potassium on the magnesium balance in dairy cows. There are few studies about magnesium feeding to dairy cows in Sweden and the purpose of this study was to investigate how much magnesium and from which feed-sources dairy cows in Sweden get their magnesium. Data was collected from seven farms in the northern part of Uppland and from seven farms in Skaraborg in Sweden.

In this report a new gear concept is evaluated using the magnetic finite element method (FEM)software MagNet and Ansys as well as the mechanical FEM software Abaqus. The gear conceptis evaluated in terms of maximum torque capability, torsional stiffness, gear ratio and efficiency.ABB Corporate Research has proposed a new gear concept which should be less expensive thangearboxes used today. The new concept is called aMagnetic Harmonic Traction Drive and usesthe principles of a harmonic drive gear to achieve a high reduction ratio. The gear conceptreplaces the wave generator used in traditional harmonic drives with magnets and uses tractioninstead of gear teeth to transfer the torque. The main components in the gearbox are the magnets,the flexspline, the magnetic portion and the circular spline.

The heuristic methods used by the anti-trojan application TrojanHunter have been evaluated. The evaluation shows that the heuristic scan engine of TrojanHunter has a very good detection ratio and that the detection ratio can be even further improved by implementing the suggested improvements, the most important of which is a white list to avoid misidentifying files that are known not to be trojans..

The following essay investigates emission rights accounting. Presently there are several methods through which emission rights can be accounted for by companies. The rights can for instance be valued at fair value or nominal value and as marketable securities or intangible assets; due to a lack of consensus or clear standards companies use these or other accounting methods to value their rights. This essay investigates whether there is a relationship between the company?s choice of accounting method, the key ratio number of owned emission rights/total assets, the accounting firm used and the yearly result as a sign of earnings management.Through a quantitative study based on questioners and numbers from the annual reports three hypothesis are tested.

How debt affects companies is an issue that has received much attention. The fact that researchers disagree can make it hard for companies to choose a financingpolicy that maximizes the value of the firm and its return on equity. In a world with investors that are seeking to maximize profits the value of the firm can be affected differently by different economic conditions. The intention of this study is to answer these issues with quantitive methods, with focus on year 2010 and 2009, where the value of the firm is defined as P/E and P/B ratio. The outcome showed that liabilities only affected return on equity significant in one of four cases, and liabilites didn?t affect the value of companies significantly in any of these.