[quote=scaredyclassic]Aren’t the dividends priced into the stock?it’s difficult for me to understand why a non guaranteed dividend is of any utility in deciding investment strategy. The dividend is already calculated in. In theory, efficient markets would look forward to expected total return, calculate the risk and price accordingly[/quote]

I don’t know… I’m dumb… I’m just lemmings sheep…
Bah bah bahhh

i just think of all those people that owned BP thinking nothing would happen to the dividends and poof one tiny oil spill on the east coast, and BP dividend vaporizes…

Or Chesapeake Energy: natural gas market goes south, and poof BK….

If I’m only concerned about something a few years, then yeah, perhaps the likelihood of a company disaster happening while you own the stock is probably low. But holding something like 20-30 years. I don’t know….Seems like a lot of time for something major to go wrong…