It is not clear what Shane and Jock are fighting about. But I guess it is about the profitability of LSI going forward. I have no reason or inclination to take one side or the other. I belong to the "dividends don't lie" camp <G>. Or to be more precise, to the "A constantly rising dividend is a wonderful thing" school of thought.
Consider this -- $10,000 invested in Exxon in 1980 is worth right around $100,000 today and is paying the investor $2,100 in dividends each year. This assumes that dividends had been pulled out of the account each year. Had the dividends been reinvested (say, using a DRIP), the value of that $10,000 would have grown to almost $300,000, and the investor would have somewhere around 3,700 shares. His annual dividend check would have been closer to $6,000 instead of the $2,100 he was getting.
(Actually, with MO, he will be getting back his money every year, even if he never reinvested his dividends. I didn't use the MO example again not only because it would have been a repetition of what I have already stated before, but also because I wanted to demonstrate that there are other companies that produce similar fabulous returns. Now, that's what I call real long-term investing!). |
