In the May 4, 1981, issue of Fortune, an article entitled “Fresh Evidence That Dividends Don’t Matter” stated, “All told, 115 companies of the 500 [largest industrial corporations] raised their payout every year during the period [1970–1989]. Investors in this . . . group would have fared somewhat better than investors in the 500 as a whole: the median total [annual compound] return of the 115 was 10.7% during the decade versus 9.4% for the 500.” Is this evidence that investors prefer dividends to capital gains? Why or why not?