Most companies use share buybacks or pay special dividends on their common stock to return excess cash to shareholders.

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We looked at the last three films each actor starred in over the last three years that opened in more than 2, 000 theaters, calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or her) salary.

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Somebody at the brokerage or bank guesses what the annual return will be, and the investor must pay taxes on this theoretical return each year even though he has no cash in his hand.

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