Financial Performance and Earnings Per Share of Consumer Goods Manufacturing Companies Quoted in Nigeria

Abstract

Positive and continuous growth in Earnings per Share (EPS) has always been the desire of every investor, especially equity investors, and in measuring it, Financial Performance (FP) has been viewed to have a great impact on EPS, thus the aim is to examine the impact if any and to what extent that financial performance has on EPS. The adopted research design for this study was Ex-post facto with the objective of examining the effect of FP on EPS of Consumer Goods Manufacturing Companies (CGMC) Quoted in Nigeria. The population used for this study comprises 12 CGMC quoted on the Nigeria Exchange Group (NGX) as of April 30, 2021, while the size of the sample was purposely selected. The audited annual reports provided the data used for the companies that were sampled for the given period of 11 years (2009 – 2019). The data relied on the fact that the financial statements statutory audit in the annual report has been audited, guaranteeing its validity and reliability. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The outcome of the test showed that the effect of ROA on EPS is positive and significant but ROE, on the other hand, has an insignificantly negative effect on the EPS of CGMC Quoted in Nigeria with a probability outcome of 0.0015 and 0.9487 respectively. The results of the test attest to these and are as follows: R 2 = 0.077411, Adj.R 2 = 0.063107 and F-Statistics = 5.411958, and P-value of 0.005534. The Study concluded that FP has both positively significant and negatively insignificant effects on the EPS of CGMC Quoted in Nigeria. The recommendation of this study is that equity investors and financial analysts should look beyond FP in taking their investment decisions.