The teetotaling corporation: its preferred liquid is cash.

• Author: Rand, A. Barry
• Position: Manage Your Assets - Brief Article

Dramatic efforts have been undertaken in the past few years to fortify balance sheets from unprofitable, financially-inflated acquisitions and overly ambitious capital investments. Companies are seeking to put cash on the books whether through asset disposals, debt reduction or, more commonly, through improved DSO by F & A outsourcing providers. Investors state it's an indication that companies can't increase sales and profit as quickly as they have in the past. Average annual sales gains have decreased, new initiatives have failed to compensate for slowing sales, and companies don't want to keep buying stuff and losing money on it.

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Further, make no mistake, dividend-paying stocks are back in vogue, for those like Microsoft, when cash is successfully hoarded new opportunities such as share buybacks, dividend payouts and better leverage for acquisitions and new capital investments create renewed interest in stock activity by investors. So what's the general corporate cash collective on best efforts to...