In late June John Miller, Silke Koltrowitz and Michael Flaherty writing for Reuters reported Nestle plans to buy back 20 billion Swiss francs ($27.4 billion) of shares over 3 years. The reason is Third Point had bought $3.5 billion in stock and pushed management to aggressively boost performance and buy back shares. Nestle is a Switzerland based company with a global reach in foods and is the world’s largest food group with more than 2,000 brands. To do the buyback, the debt will rise to 1.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The corresponding figure this year is 0.8 times.

Nestle is struggling to grow as emerging markets slow, consumer habits change and people flock to smaller, independent brands they see as healthier and more authentic. Triple Point is controlled by Daniel Leob and he sees the world differently, he believes it is rare to find a business of Nestle’s quality with so many avenues for improvement. The President of Nestle Mark Schneider has met with Mr. Loeb and noted size alone does not protect you from the winds of change.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the great thing is they pay a dividend, the tougher part is change is always focused on them, and it is testament they can continue to pay dividends. Even if your investment is relatively stable there are metrics to watch.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.