True, but that has very little to do with stock price. In fact, making a profit doesn't cause companies to distribute dividends. When stock prices aren't based

True, but that has very little to do with stock price. In fact, making a profit doesn't cause companies to distribute dividends. When stock prices aren't based on dividend potential, stock price slowly becomes detached from reality. Price becomes pure speculation. Worse, you can do insane things like borrowing money to buy back your own stock: this drives up the price while harming the company's future prospects because they now have to pay that loan back with interest.