Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this session, I start by looking at a structure of cash return that is built on the notion that equity investors in businesses should get the cash left over after every other need has been met, i.e., residual cash flows, and examine how to estimate potential dividends. I then look at practice and at why companies end up deviating from the residual cash flow model, and in particular, at the choice between dividends and buybacks to return cash to shareholders. In the second half of the session, I look at cash returned in 2024, across sectors and geographies, broken down into dividends and buybacks, and then highlight companies with dividend policies that are mismatched with their cash flows, and why that mismatch exists.
Slides: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pdfiles/blog/DataUpdate9for2025.pdf
Blog post: aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2025/03/data-update-9-for-2025-dividends-and.html
Datasets:
Dividend fundamentals
US: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfund.xls
Global: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfundGlobal.xls
Cash return and FCFE
US: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfcfe.xls
Global: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfcfeGlobal.xls
In this session, I start by looking at a structure of cash return that is built on the notion that equity investors in businesses should get the cash left over after every other need has been met, i.e., residual cash flows, and examine how to estimate potential dividends. I then look at practice and at why companies end up deviating from the residual cash flow model, and in particular, at the choice between dividends and buybacks to return cash to shareholders. In the second half of the session, I look at cash returned in 2024, across sectors and geographies, broken down into dividends and buybacks, and then highlight companies with dividend policies that are mismatched with their cash flows, and why that mismatch exists.
Slides: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pdfiles/blog/DataUpdate9for2025.pdf
Blog post: aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2025/03/data-update-9-for-2025-dividends-and.html
Datasets:
Dividend fundamentals
US: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfund.xls
Global: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfundGlobal.xls
Cash return and FCFE
US: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfcfe.xls
Global: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/divfcfeGlobal.xls
