TBill

Still, the Crooks Be Winnin'

I'm not in a position to judge ALD, but one thing I can say for certain that paying a big dividend on one hand and selling stock on the other rarely makes any business sense. If a company needs money to expand, the dividend shud be zero. I know, you see a lot of it going on these days... companies in trouble, issuing shares like confetii just to keep the doors open, and still maintaining a dividend. Stupid. And if you look at the performance of companies that do this... it's not good.

[There is only one case where it makes any sense: the stock has gotten insanely high. Selling stock looks like free money, so managements sells a bunch, now has plenty of cash to maintain a dividend. Very rare, and of course, not good for the fools who buy the new shares. ]