The thing we must decide as shareholder is whether or not the payment of a dividend is a GOOD thing in the long run for the value of the shareholders. If the company is taking on a lot of debt that needs to be paid off on interest, then paying you the owner money, might NOT be the best use of the resources that the company has for the long run. There is one thing to always consider when investing in stocks that pay a dividend. What is the companies’ debt to equity ratio? If a company has little equity for its stockholders thanks to it being diluted by debt, but it is paying a dividend anyway, then there are much better ways that company could be spending your MONEY. One of the ways of testing where money us going is simply taking the total amount of net income minus dividends. The rest goes into what is called RETAINED EARNINGS but you need to see on the balance sheet how much money is going to pay off debt or to buy assets. In general however I think that it is GOOD that companies decide to pay a dividend to their stockholders most the time. It’s a good thing about 80% of the time and a bad thing 20% of the time when it comes to investing in stocks. Paying a dividend is usually a sign of corporate prosperity and abundance but also can be foolish 20% of the time if not used properly.