The clientele effect is the idea that the set of investors attracted to a particular kind of security will affect the price of the security when policies or circumstances change. For instance, some investors want a company that doesn't pay dividends but instead invests that money in growing the business, whereas other investors prefer a stock that pays a high dividend, and still others want one that balances payout and reinvestment. If a company changes its dividend policy substantially, it is said to be subject to a clientele effect as some of its investors (its established clientele) decide to sell the security due to the change. Although commonly used in reference to dividend or coupon (interest) rates, it can also be used in the context of leverage (debt levels), changes in line of business, taxes, and other aspects of the company.
Famous quotes containing the words clientele and/or effect:
“The bar ... is an exercise in solitude. Above all else, it must be quiet, dark, very comfortable—and, contrary to modern mores, no music of any kind, no matter how faint. In sum, there should be no more than a dozen tables, and a clientele that doesn’t like to talk.”
—Luis Buñuel (1900–1983)
“I have witnessed, and greatly enjoyed, the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)