it's not psychological at all. Dividends give you returns that can be reinvested in whatever you want, so it helps with diversification. Now, in the US companies have muddled the field so good dividends don't mean much, but it is still useful to remember this.
Not really. Share buyback may be an advantage, but it doesn't necessarily reflect on the price of the stock. In other words, a company can buy its own stock and price can fall anyway (see for example GE). This cannot happen with money deposited on your account.
You’re conflating daily price action and the balance sheet. From a pure financial perspective, the stock price is reduced by exactly the amount of the dividend and nothing is reduced if a company doesn’t pay a dividend.
Everything else is the typical movement of any stock, that of course can be detached from reality. The thing is: people are way too focused on the dividend part as if this was the only valid way to investing.
Traditional investing focused on dividends for a good reason: you can live on dividends without paying long term capital gains (taxes on dividends are usually lower). At a time when most investors were common folks trying to make a long term investment decision, this was a good thing. Moreover, companies that pay dividends are by definition more mature, which can be a good sign for some investors that want more predictability in their portfolios. The reality is that dividend-based investment has its advantages, which were forgotten by the current generation of investors.
