Besides slicing and dicing business segment information, Axa Rosenberg's model looks at each company's overall balance sheet, cash flow from operations and net income.

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"So the returns may be lower, but overall you have a more dependable cash-flow stream, " he says.

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There is no question that dividends are one way public companies return cash flow to investors, but statistics prove that float shrink is better for overall price performance as the stock of companies who shrink the float using free cash flow rise more then companies using the same amount of cash to pay dividends.

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O.tel.o overall, he says, will turn cash-flow positive in 2002, a big swing from this year's likely loss of DM2 billion, half of which is eaten by Veba.

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And as interest rates stay down, the best and safest corporate use of free cash flow is to shrink the overall amount of shares, rather then making anything resembling a risky investment.

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Companies that have been shrinking the trading float of shares the most using free cash flow have not only significantly outperformed the high dividend ETFs, but the overall market as well.

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Over the past year or so, portfolios of companies that are using free cash flow to shrink the float have not only significantly outperformed all dividend ETFs, but also the overall market.

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