Most long-term investors put a heavy emphasis on fundamental analysis to help guide their decisions about what stocks they should pay attention to. In that vein, one of the big questions that most investors like to try to answer is what kind of returns they can realistically expect over time. That might sound funny since stock prices are so fluid and vary from one extreme to another over time; but one of the things that has proven to be a pretty good point of reference is how actively management works to return value to its shareholders. There are two primary methods that get used: stock buybacks and dividends. More →