繼續整理學習美國投資書《終極股息投資攻略》第3章，作者來自美國基金評級公司晨星(Morningstar)。
Returning Cash to Shareholders? Which Ones? Companies with big share-buyback announcements love to claim how they're returning millions or billions of dollars to shareholders. The press releases announcing acquisitions contain just as much fanfare, if not more. But step back for a second: Yes, the company is returning cash to shareholders. The question is, which ones?
Share buybacks return cash to shareholders, all right: former shareholders. In addition to dividends of $1.68 a share in 2007 (a total payout of about $1.7 billion), UPS appears set to buy back another $2.5 billion or thereabouts worth of stock. Including these buybacks, the total cash UPS will pay out to shareholders might run north of $4 for each UPS share. But these additional payouts aren't going into my pocket; the cash actually goes to UPS shareholders who are selling their shares back to the company. In other words, the cash goes into the pockets of the least loyal, least confident, and least dividend-oriented shareholders of the firm. Me, I just get my $1.68 a share.
Acquisitions are also returns of cash to shareholders--the shareholders of other companies. If UPS can buy a good business at a reasonable price and build it into a great one, I benefit. But if UPS merely wants to get bigger rather than better and more profitable, dividend returns for shareholders will probably suffer.This is why I'm not a big fan of share buybacks, and I'm not particularly enthusiastic about acquisitions, either. Assuming the total return remains the same, I'd just as soon have more cash flowing into my pocket--even if it means slightly less dividend growth potential. By contrast, most management teams would rather not raise the dividend to a level that maximizes shareholder dividends. Buyback plans, however well intentioned, can be suspended at any time if the company sees some other use for its earnings (acquisitions, more likely than not).That doesn't mean I'd like to see UPS pay out every available dollar. Doing so would raise UPS's payout ratio substantially and leave the dividend with less protection should earnings drop in the future. But somewhere in between a very high payout ratio with no buybacks and a low payout ratio with gobs of buybacks is a happy medium--one that provides adequate and well-protected dividend income as well as good growth, both for the corporation's existing business operations and for my future dividend stream.
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