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If a company never pays a dividend, as a shareholder, why should I care if it's doing great and has positive media coverage and hype?
What's in it for me?
Is the fact it's reported, and analysed positively, as doing swell, enough for fund managers and retail investors? To put a higher value on its share price, since it's winning the popular vote, without the need to share it's wealth with stockholders? Are we all just clapping our hands louder and louder at how much money they are making?
Dividends are often depicted as “free money”. When received, they provide investment return and a miraculous source of successful investing. This is not the case.
There are two aspects to dividends:
what happens on the corporate level
what happens in your brokerage account on the ex-dividend date
On the ex-div date, the stock exchanges reduce share price by the EXACT amount of the dividend. That means a dividend provides zero total return. Only share price appreciation achieves that. If the dividend occurs in a non-sheltered account, you pay taxes for receiving a portion of your own money back from your brokerage account. You are paying for the privilege of receiving some of your own money.
This article at Vanguard explains it with an example:
https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/taxes/buying-dividend
You should be investing in high quality companies that are leaders in their sector with strong (and growing) free cash flow, low debt, and good management. If they pay a dividend, fine. If not, no big deal.
