The Russell 2000 would make an interesting study of who is paying a dividend and what is the dividend yield of those paying a dividend?
The Dow industrials were paying an average dividend yield of 1.5%--that's the bluest of blue chips.
Not exactly keeping up with inflation or in the interest of the proverbial long term investor, huh.
Tom
Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
> JW Mason wrote:
>
> > The results were interesting.
> >
> > 1999's price-payout ratio, 36.8, was almost exactly equal to the postwar
> > average of 35.3. Even though the price earnings ratio is over twice its
> > historic average, the proportion of profits being paid out to
> > shareholders, 74.4%, is also over twice its historic average of 35.1%.
> >
> >
>
> Except more than all of those buybacks are being carried out with freshly
> borrowed money, so from the point of view of shareholders it is a wash -
> they get the money, but also the increased liabilities of the companies
> they own.
>
> It'd be interesting to see what the numbers look like once you substract
> net borrowing from stock repurchases.
>
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