Why do stocks have any value?

Going to get flamed for this but looking for actual answers - what actually makes a non-dividend stock worth anything?

Standard answer is you own a piece of the company. Fine. But say I own 1% of a company that never pays a dividend, never does a buyback, never gets acquired. I'm not entitled to a dollar of its cash flows, ever. So what am I actually holding besides something worth whatever the next guy pays for it?

And when a company does pay a dividend, the stock drops by roughly the dividend amount. Left pocket to right pocket. So what even counts as a real return of capital to a shareholder vs. just an accounting reshuffle?

I know the textbook answer is the share = PV of future cash that eventually accrues to you. But for something like AMZN that "eventually" has been theoretical for 25 years. Is the whole thing just a bet that capital comes back someday? Or am I missing a cleaner mechanism?

3 Comments
 

Why do you brush your teeth everyday? Certainly no short term value but much like reinvestment in ROIC the reinvestment in your health pays dividends in the future

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