Dividends, in addition to creating an expectation, are also a ratchet because an ever-increasing streak of dividends is tracked as a metric to gauge the health

Dividends, in addition to creating an expectation, are also a ratchet because an ever-increasing streak of dividends is tracked as a metric to gauge the health of a company.[1] If a company wants to return one-time excess money to investors, buybacks are the only way. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500_Dividend_Aristocrats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500_Dividend_Aristocrats