Here's one of those things that will make an investor curse out loud. You've got a company in front of you, it looks very, very interesting. You start an analysis, like what you see. You're interested, even. Maybe you even put it on a list of companies that you want to investigate.

Meanwhile the stock price climbs, and climbs and climbs. That's disconcerting, but it's nothing compared with what happens next.

For Reinhold Industries (NASDAQ:RNHDA), "next" was today. Just a few months ago the company began paying a generous dividend of $0.50 per quarter, giving it a yield approaching 10%. Today, though, Reinhold figured it would accelerate its payouts to shareholders a wee bit, announcing that it was going to issue a special dividend of $11.75 per share, payable on December 28. What happens to the stock? As I write, it's soared 35%.

Reinhold's businesses aren't exactly sexy. Similar to Brady (NYSE:BRC), which I profiled last month, Reinhold's products aren't things about which people spend too much time thinking. They make things like the frames for aircraft seat backs, swimming pool heater covers, sheet molding products, helmets, police body armor, and bomb bodies. Companies in certain businesses similar to these -- Stocks 2004 selection DHB (AMEX:DHB) leaps to mind -- have had a great year. Reinhold, for whatever intrinsic attraction and similarities, has hardly joined in the revelry; its shares average little more than $30,000 in volume per day. These aren't exactly businesses that drive enormous brand awareness among consumers or investors. What they have driven, very well, is a business that creates substantial cash.

But though the company is paying out so much of its cash flow, one thing about the announcement is troubling: The amount the company is going to pay out, approximately $32 million, is substantially higher than the liquid resources it had on its balance sheet in the most recent quarterly report. A fair chunk of these funds are coming from a new $36.5 million credit facility. Hmmmm, tapping a credit line to pay a special dividend seems not quite right. It makes one wonder what the rush is -- after all, the $2.00 per share ordinary dividend already equaled a 7%-plus yield.

At any rate, such a big payout, 42% of the company's opening marketing cap, is a rarity in finance. It also meant a big day for those holding Reinhold and a big bray at the moon for those of us standing on the transom.

Bill Mann does not own any companies mentioned in this story.