Shareholder Yield

Portfolio Management
April 2026

Share Repurchases and Investment Policies

Research

21 Pages

This study examines the claim that share repurchases lead to reductions in real investments and finds no support for the claim that repurchases lead to lower real investments.

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Dividends
April 2026

Dividend Capture Returns and Their Drivers: A Bayesian Analysis of Large-Cap Stocks Over 35 Years

Kaden Ma

Research

18 Pages

This paper examines the profitability of dividend capture from 1990–2025 using Bayesian linear regression, focusing more on retail investors.

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Portfolio Management
April 2026

When Resilience Resonates: The S&P 500 Resilient Shareholder Yield Index

S&P Global

Elizabeth Bebb

Research

19 Pages

The S&P 500 Resilient Shareholder Yield Index identifies companies that balance rewarding shareholders with the financial strength needed to sustain those rewards over time.

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Portfolio Management
March 2026

SBC & Dilution Tracker Dashboard Launch

Altimeter Capital

Thomas Reiner

Research

11 Pages

Thomas Reiner gives an update on quarterly stock-based compensation and dilution analytics and a live company leaderboard.

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Dividends
March 2026

How Income Investors Can Avoid Dividend Traps in 2026

Morningstar

Dan Lefkovitz

Research

7 Pages

With the Morningstar US Market Index‘s dividend yield below 1.2% (and ex-US at 2.6%), Morningstar looks at how to avoid dividend traps.

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Dividends
March 2026

The Impact of Early Option Exercise on Ex-Dividend Stock Returns

Research

47 Pages

The authors revisit the well-documented stock return anomaly around ex-days and establish a novel link to early exercise of equity options.

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Dividends
March 2026

Data Update 8 for 2026: Time for Harvesting – Dividends and Buybacks

Aswath Damodaran

Research

9 Pages

Professor Damodaran looks at the decision by businesses on how much cash to return to their owners, and in what form (dividends or buybacks), and how that decision played out globally in 2025.

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Dividends
December 2025

Why dividend growth investing has staying power

T. Rowe Price

Tom Huber, Tamzin Manning

Research

6 Pages

T. Rowe Price explains why sticking with a dividend growth strategy can provide useful diversification while creating an opportunity to compound returns over the long term.

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Markets
December 2025

Tech Dilution Through Q3: Discipline Cracks at Big Tech

Platform Aeronaut

Thomas Reiner

Article

10 Pages

Thomas Reiner reviews how share based dilution has evolved across tech through Q3 2025, with discipline slipping at Big Tech.

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Markets
December 2025

Does Share Repurchase Legalization Really Harm Corporate Investments?

Elliot Tobin, Charles Wang

Research

56 Pages

Using staggered legalizations across countries, the authors test whether permitting open-market buybacks reduces corporate investment and real activity.

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Portfolio Management
March 2025

Dividends and Buybacks – Inertia and Me-tooism!

Aswath Damodaran

Research

23 Pages

Professor Aswath Damodaran provides a framework for thinking about how much cash a business can return to its owners, and then argues that, in reality, this decision is affected by inertia and me-tooism.

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Portfolio Management
February 2025

Why Total Shareholder Yield Matters More Than Dividends

Morningstar

Larry Swedroe

Article

6 Pages

Morningstar explains why total shareholder yield, which combines dividends and buybacks, may be a more useful framework than focusing on dividends alone.

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Portfolio Management
October 2024

Buybacks for US, Dividends for EU

Verdad

Chris Satterthwaite

Research

4 Pages

Verdad’s deep dive on shareholder yield finds it “does a relatively good job of spreading returns in a linear fashion, both in the US and abroad.”

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Markets
December 2023

Searching for Great Dividend Funds

Morningstar

Todd Trubey, Daniel Sotiroff

Research

19 Pages

Morningstar analyzes various dividend strategies: dividend income, dividend growth, and dividend growth & income. Then they share a “how to” guide with what to focus on when trying to identify dividend funds that will perform well over the long run.

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Markets
November 2023

Total Shareholder Return: Linking The Drivers of Total Returns to Fundamentals

Morgan Stanley

Michael Mauboussin, Dan Callahan

Research

32 Pages

Morgan Stanley Investment Management explores how total shareholder return ties stock price, earnings, valuation and capital distributions back to fundamentals.

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Markets
August 2023

The Difference of Dividends

WisdomTree

Alejandro Saltiel, Matt Wagner

Research

6 Pages

WisdomTree analyzes how dividends have driven long run equity returns and how its dividend indexes compare with the S&P 500.

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Portfolio Management
March 2020

Examining Share Repurchasing and the S&P Buyback Indices in the U.S. Market

S&P Global

Liyu Zeng, Priscilla Luk

Research

27 Pages

S&P Dow Jones Indices examines how share repurchases evolved into the dominant corporate payout method and how related indices behave.

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Portfolio Management
November 2019

The Factor Archives: Shareholder Yield

O’Shaughnessy Asset Management

Jamie Catherwood

Research

7 Pages

O’Shaughnessy Asset Management explores shareholder yield as a more complete lens for evaluating equity returns, combining dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction to better capture how firms return capital.

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Portfolio Management
March 2019

Reconsidering Returns

Samuel Hartzmark, David Solomon

Research

66 Pages

Investors' perception of performance is biased because the relevant measure, returns, is rarely displayed. Major indices ignore dividends, inducing mechanical underperformance on ex-dividend days.

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Portfolio Management
March 2019

Misperceptions Surrounding Corporate Cash Spending Priorities and The Economics of Share Repurchases

Goldman Sachs

David Kostin

Research

16 Pages

Goldman Sachs explores the mechanics, timing, and market impact of corporate buybacks, framing them as one of the most influential yet misunderstood drivers of equity performance.

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Portfolio Management
November 2016

The Dividend Disconnect

Samuel Hartzmark, David Solomon

Research

56 Pages

Many individual investors, mutual funds and institutions trade as if dividends and capital gains are disconnected attributes, not fully appreciating that dividends result in price decreases.

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Portfolio Management
October 2014

Juicing the Dividend Yield: Mutual Funds and the Demand for Dividends

Samuel Hartzmark

Research

49 Pages

This paper presents evidence consistent with a subset of mutual funds engaging in significant trading to artificially increase their dividend yields, by buying stocks shortly before ex-dividend dates and selling them afterwards.

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Portfolio Management
October 2012

The Dividend Month Premium

Samuel Hartzmark, David Solomon

Research

55 Pages

We document an asset-pricing anomaly whereby companies have positive abnormal returns in months when a dividend is predicted. The premium is consistent with price pressure from dividend-seeking investors.

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