On Thu, 22 May 2014 11:12:39 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 22 May 2014 08:32:26 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 22 May 2014 01:55:01 -0400, wrote:

Dividends are profit, after everyone is paid and all expenses are
recovered.

===

Technically speaking that is not necessarily true. Dividends are
usually a cash distribution to shareholders but that does not imply
that the corporation is currently profitable although that is most
often the case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dividend

A company that takes operating capital and returns it to stock holders
is not a company I want to bet my (stock) money on.

===

Understood, but sometimes it's entirely legit. One example is a
company that has big tax loss carry forwards but is still generating
substantial positive cash flow.