Cash or shares for SCRIP dividend schemes?

Cash.

Reason:

1) odd lot troublesome to get rid.

2) dividend portfolio contain multiple stocks can use cash to DCA into the undervalued.

eg. during covid retail reit suffer, i took dividend of industrial reit to buy into retail, now industrial suffer i take retail dividend buy into industrial. The sector will keep rotating.

Assuming the company you invest in has a reputation for consistently paying dividends (cash or scrip), and will still be around in the foreseeable future (think blue chips)..then I would say pick scrip over cash... 1) no dilutive effect on your shareholding 2) scrips come with future dividend streams 3) scrips means you are vested in capital growth of the stock 4) cash you may end up keeping it in the bank or simply being spent

Only downside is having odd shares which is really no big deal since what you really want is continual dividends, which would more than cover the amount you get in cash originally...

The above may not be so if you have a large enough shareholding that your dividends alone are substantial enough to be deployed elsewhere which can earn higher returns...