The challenges businesses faced during the pandemic’s early days forced many companies to change their dividend policies. Now, more than four years on from those scary days, it is apparent that many companies will not go back to their pre-COVID dividend practices. Share buybacks have become a more popular way to “return cash to shareholders.”
Instead of paying out more free cash flow as dividends, companies have supplemented or replaced dividend payments with share buyback plans.
This post appeared at Dividend Stocks Research.