When EnergySolutions, a nuclear waste management company in Salt Lake City, went public in November 2007, it did something not that many newly listed companies do: It announced plans to issue a dividend.

"We knew we had a pretty stable business with stable cash flow," says CFO Philip Strawbridge. "With two-thirds of our income coming from life-of-plan arrangements with utilities that operate nuclear plants, and most of our other contracts being with the U.S. and U.K. governments, we felt we had the predictability to pay out $10 million a year in dividends and still leave us with $60 million of true free cash for investment."

Meanwhile, there was the advantage that, at a time when the IPO market was starting to close down, "we could open ourselves to funds that require that their investments pay dividends–such as teachers union pension funds and the like–investors that have the advantage of being more stable and long-term."