I can see this being true in the stocks world. A lot of companies have IPOed without a plan for dividend payouts because their main business plan is investment in expansion. People who jumped onto amazon and tesla may have made fortunes but have gotten exactly 0 dividends.

Yet. Companies pay dividends when they no longer believe that they can provide a better ROI by investing it in themselves. Like AAPL. All it signals is there remains a growth story to be had.

However, any money the company invests in itself raises the intrinsic and shareholder value of outstanding equity, just like share buybacks, and dividends.