Its my understanding that in recent years (and due to the double taxation of dividends) the general trend in the US has been for companies to move away from paying dividends and instead seek to deliver on capital gains of the stock itself.
To me this has always seemed fraught with danger because the this was far more likely to lead companies into unhealthy practises such as acquisitions (which more often than not lead to destruction of shareholder value) and over-optimistic forecasts. To a lesser extent it also could act to remove the pressure on managements to maximise profits inevitably leading to excessive expenditures not always focused on growing shareholder returns such as executive remuneration and perks.
As a result, many successful companies show no or low levels of dividends at this time...a practise that shareholders would place pressure on companies to change when their shares are not delivering either dividends or capital growth due to the 'bear'.
This process would be dramatically slowed if the only investors benifiting from this change are private individuals and the not the major stockmarket investors...ie funds..
