Two reasons that come to mind: 1) Not all growth is easy or cheap. Investing $X to grow by Y% doesn't mean you can invest 2$X to grow by 2Y%. At some point the

Two reasons that come to mind: 1) Not all growth is easy or cheap. Investing $X to grow by Y% doesn't mean you can invest 2$X to grow by 2Y%. At some point the ROI is close to zero or even negative, though I would agree with risk-free interest rates also close to zero, nearly any positive ROI is better than cash distributions. 2) Some investors want a portion of profits to be distributed when a company is doing well. Investing in growth is a risk, distributing cash is not.