Question

how does a stock differ from a cash dividend? is one better than the other from the shareholders perspective?

Answer 1

A stock or a share represents a share of ownership in a publicly owned company.
Companies raise capital by issuing stock to shareholders. Once a stock is listed on an
exchange, investors can buy and sell the shares on the stock exchange.
A dividend is a payment made by a publicly owned company to its stockholders.
A company pays a dividend to attract investors and create a demand for that companies
stock. The company decides when to pay a cash dividend to its stockholders. A
company for example can pay a dividend annually or quarterly.
The total return of a stock is the capital gains yield plus the dividend yield.
Capital gains yield and dividend yield are different components of the total return
of the stock and cannot be compared.
From a shareholders perspective, a shareholder will want to maximize capital
gains yield and dividend yield. In other words, the shareholder will want to see
the value of the stock appreciate over time and receive the maximum amount in dividends.
A shareholder wants to maximize total return on the stock. Total return depends
on how much the stock appreciates over time and how much the shareholder receives
in dividends during that time.

A stock and a cash dividend cannot be compared and are like different parts of an equation.