Moody's: Companies Cutting Capex To Pay Dividends

One of the more concerning corporate trends that’s emerged over the past few years has been the rising value of dividends  to shareholders of public companies at the expense of capital investment, as some anti “activists” like Marty Lipton have noted.

Analysts at ratings agency Moody’s have crunched the numbers to find how just how widespread this trend is and they published their findings in a report at the end of last month. 

Companies Cut Capex To Pay Dividends

Since 2004, the ratio of shareholder compensation to capital spending has jumped sharply since 2004. Moody’s calculates that for the span covering 1984 through 2004, shareholder compensation (which analysts define in this case as the...