Nope.. thats bullshit. If a company dissolves, creditors are first in line and stockholders are last in line. The nuts and bolts or even cash holdings, are often not even factored into stock price. If you did that with apple, its value should be much, much higher. What you buy, when you buy a stock, is earnings (sometimes paid out in dividends) and voting rights.
> If a company dissolves, creditors are first in line and stockholders are last in line.
Yes, that priority is accurate, and part of what sets (and limits) the value of stock, as is the priority between different classes of stock, where they exist.
> What you buy, when you buy a stock, is earnings (sometimes paid out in dividends) and voting rights.
Earnings are just increase in dissolution value, and dividends are just a partial dissolution.
It's hard for people to get their head around this but you are exactly right. A company has value tied into their market value and accumulated assets even if they pledge to never pay dividends. Berkshire Hathaway is a notable example here. Stock trading is a way to make this value liquid before any actual dissolution event.
