Investors like to look at growing profits as an indicator of company health – and potential returns. But earnings can be manipulated. There are myriad ways to create profits on paper. Earnings are basically an accountant’s best guess of a company’s profitability. All too often, companies must restate their past reported earnings because of aggressive accounting practices, and this can cause considerable trouble for investors, who may have already based future stock price predictions on these (unreliable) historical earnings.
However, you can be sure no accountant can restate dividends. And no company can take back your dividends. Once that cash payment hits your account – it’s yours to do with as you like.