The capacity for the company to pay a hypothetical dividend increases as the company generates more free cash flow. So that increases the value. You are hittin

The capacity for the company to pay a hypothetical dividend increases as the company generates more free cash flow. So that increases the value. You are hitting on a correct notion here though, which is that if the market totally went away - ie you held your shares but couldn't sell or buy - and you're an investor who owns .0001% of a megacorp and >50% of the shareholders won't vote to issue a dividend, then the security is worthless to you. Similarly, if the market does still exist but for whatever reason the company is "unfairly" valued extremely low by the market, then having dividends gives you an "anchor" to hold on to - at least your asset is giving you a 1% or a 3% or a [insert dividend yield here]% dividend while you wait for the market to value it fairly again - whereas without the dividend you've got nothing.