Capital structure is a mixture of the financing options a company uses to finance its investments. However, deciding on an optimal capital mix has been a huge task for most manufacturing companies. This paper therefore examined the effect of capital structure on financial performance of quoted manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study covered ten companies for a period of seven years from 2013 to 2019. Panel data analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The independent variables used are total debt to total asset ratio (TDTAR), long-term debt to total assets (LDTAR), short-term debt to total assets (SDTAR) and total debt to total equity (TDTER) while the dependent variables are return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). The results of the study showed that SDTAR and LDTAR have positive but insignificant effects on ROA, and TDTAR has a negative significant effect on ROA and ROE respectively. Also, TDTAR and TDTER have negative insignificant effect on ROE. The study concluded that SDTAR, LDTAR, TDTER have no significant effect on ROA and ROE but TDTAR have effect on ROA. This study therefore recommended that firms should be cautious in accumulating debt that could eventually have adverse effects on their value and financial performance.
Keywords: Capital Structure, Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Total Assets, total debts
