[rayiner]

Payment of dividends isn't either interest or a repayment of principal, since there is no obligation to pay dividends. They're also not expenses, since the company would generate the same revenue with or without paying dividends.

[nickff]

You are assuming that the company could obtain financing while never buying back stock or paying dividends? This seems to be an implicit (and often explicit) part of the fiduciary duty of the corporate officers (maximizing shareholder returns in the short or long term). I would not purchase stock from a corporation that promised never to return money to shareholders.