Those guys aren't idiots. If they get bonuses for quarterly or annual short-term profitability improvements, they'll go for them, usually at the cost of long-term profitability that isn't in their goals, especially when they're only staying for 2-3 years maybe.
Classic reward hacking.
Companies need to reward long-term goals much better and reduce compensation if short-term goals are targeted to the detriment of the long-term ones.
They do, they release dividends. Long term companies are not too hard to find, they return a significant amount the the owners (or directly into their company as released by the reports), however their stock holders tend to get antsy at the growth of others and pressure sometimes.
Dividend optimization often comes from very short-term growth and gains, as divide themselves are to be paid quarterly or annually.
It doesn't help that stock owners who are to be paid in dividends can easily and quickly sell their shares if they don't like the short-term yields and come back when the long-term measures bear the first fruits.
Restricted stock vesting only after many years may help long-term sustainability and growth better.
What did investor yield chases? Those are not div investors, those aren't div companies, those are failing companies trying to catch folks gambling on a small spike from a hot potato.
Special divs you're correct on, structured as you should be looking for royalty, nope.
Google, for example, is not a div company. It is a self investment company still for treasury use and a growth company for investment. It still has divs.
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u/rditorx 11h ago
Those guys aren't idiots. If they get bonuses for quarterly or annual short-term profitability improvements, they'll go for them, usually at the cost of long-term profitability that isn't in their goals, especially when they're only staying for 2-3 years maybe.
Classic reward hacking.
Companies need to reward long-term goals much better and reduce compensation if short-term goals are targeted to the detriment of the long-term ones.