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Dividends Show Differences Between Financials

I agree with jimsep and Menachem Ben Yakov.
When purchasing a stock, look for the reasonable payout of -- what 25% or 50%, ballpark figure -- profits to the stockholder in the form of dividends (not so much buybacks, which I suspect may be to makeup for all the stock thrown at the executives of the company to cover their raiding the profit cookie jar.)
It's old fashioned fiscal responsibility at running the business the company says it's in. Buying other companies should be judiciously done, not in a greedy way to spend the shareholders' money, as if the shareholder doesn't know what to do with it. He or she should use the dividends to buy more of the same stock. If the company is that good, the shareholder probably would.
Of course, companies with high dividends and high debt--well the debt washes out the benefit of the current dividend, I would say.
Yes, if we went back to the traditional high dividends--even after a 15 (or 20% taxation in the future?), it would be one way to know the executives of the company are really working for us. What a novel thought.
Dividends, dividends, dividends. The proof is in the pudding.