The present article tends to study the dividend behavior of NSE an d BSE firm s over the last five years. Dividend decision being one of the most important financial management decisions should be studied to fin d out whether the firm is moving towards its goal of
maximizing shareholders wealth. The article studies the dividend trend o f the selected firms for the period 2001 -2005 and finds out target payout ratio for them for the year2006. Further the study uses regression analysis to establish the relationship between dividend paid an d profitability, growth an d size. It fin d s out a positive relationship of dividend paid with profitability while a negative relationship with growth an d size. In short the research has been an attempt to discover the most important factor that drives the Indian firm s towards dividend payment.