Dividends are cash in hand and repayment of the shares bought....

Dividends are cash in hand and repayment of the shares bought. All good. BUT let me get something off my chest: house prices vs other capital returns

And might i start by saying SWMs sp, being as it is, is rather meaningless.
First it undervalues the performance year on year. 2nd, it's actually a punishment of shs and 3rd, the current sell off confirms the poor knowledge within the Australian sharemarket of why companies list. And 4th it fails to note the growth prospects about all things digital- the BVOD story. So the mechanism of buybacks may contribute more value that say a 5c dividend if it unleashes this locked away value.

Consider SWMs current price at say 50c - if the 10% buyback kicks in now and lifts the price to 55c then dividend of 5c and capital gain are equal though there are different tax outcomes and of course shifts in price momentum. And because we do not know the price SWM wish to obtain in their buying, further buying will occur until the 10% is finished. Buying Prime has been rewarded, BVOD continues to grow and yet price goes down on the presumption of missing dividend whilst noting performance will grow the company.

It is this lack of understanding by Australians with their share market that keeps the ASX to below 8000 a number that we were as close to before the GFC some 15 years ago.

Coming back to house prices that most acknowledge are been used as a maternal nest egg. if the taxing mob nearly 40 years ago had realised the difficulty of living now and the have's and have nots inequality and instead have introduced the economy wide benefits of risk allocation to individuals and not lock it away in superannuation where those masters fail to take any risk we, Australians, would have been better off. if the Dow Jones (NASDAQ etc) can rise 3 times in the last 15 years to 36000, then so could the ASX and we would see the ASX 200 reach around 21000 instead we sit not able to rise above the pre GFC Levels. Amazing. All because Gov have taxed in the way that promotes housing over business profits so that it all boils down to dividends as an annuity.

But SWM has fought to be almost a growth stock with its BVOD and that is about it's future story where I'm in.