The impact of financial leverage to profitability - The study of non-financial companies listed in HOSE
Abstract
This study was conducted in order to identify the effect of financial leverage
on profitability of non – financial firms listed on HOSE during the period of five years
from 2009. The population, hence, consisted of totally 253 non – financial firms listed on
HOSE during the survey period. The sample was randomly selected from the population,
which contained 100 non – financial enterprises. This study would not focus on any
specific sector of economy, the sample, as a result, would be the representation of non –
financial firms in each economic sector. The sample, hence, would be supposed to have
500 observations in total. However, due to some non – available elements in financial
statement of some firms, the total observations would be reduced to 484. Besides, the
panel data with fixed model would be used with the regression and correlation analysis to
determine the nature and the strength of the relationship between the independent and
dependent variables. Basing on the analysis, the study found the existence of a
statistically significant impact of financial leverage on profitability. In which, the
profitability would be measured by both ROA, and ROE, which was considered as the
dependent variables in the regression model. The financial leverage would serve as the
independent variables, which used DER, LTD, STD, ICR as proxies to measure. Besides,
this study also specified the relationship between the size and profitability of the firms,
which was considered to be a significant correlation. Moreover, the study concluded that
the independent variables would be able to explain 70.32%, and 51.21% of variation of
dependent variables, which are ROA, and ROE, respectively. Finally, some
recommendation was made basing on the empirical results of the study as well as
highlighted some of the limitations encountered