With shareholders in line for another special dividend, chief executive Simon Wolfson's refusal to launch a pre-Christmas sale appeared vindicated.
Mark Brumby at Langton Capital was also cautious: Were it not for corporate issues (the make-up of the group's share register, its board, that absence of a chief executive, no dividend etc).
State Farm executives deflected questions about the marketing value of the dividend, but Steve Vogel, the company's chief spokesman, said the dividend would "obviously make me feel good about being a State Farm policyholder".
In a recent conference call Michael Campbell, Regal's chief executive, justified the dividends as "the most efficient means of distributing value," adding that his balance sheet remained prudently capitalized.
Raymond Bickson, Taj chief executive, reported that dividend payout in 2007-8 increased by 19percentt over the previous year, that profit after taxes rose 17percentthathathehe average room rate went up 16percentt and that 14 Taj hotels outside India are projected to open by the end of 2010.
However, the dividends collected by chief executives will not be broken out in the compensation tables found in corporate filings.
Granted, JPMorgan Chase is already serving up a tasty $4 billion a year in dividends, and its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, is hoping the Federal Reserve will give him permission to bulk up the offering after the latest round of stress tests.
His chief proposal-the freezing of dividends for three years-sent shares in the City into a nose dive, and though aimed at the rich, was a cruel blow to the thousand of small investors who have been trying to paddle along on modest fixed incomes.
So did the decisions last year by Philippe Dauman, its chief executive, to pay a dividend and buy back stock.
That's Bill Winters, the hard-charging new chief executive who said the dividend was too high and so halved it.
