Dividend Basis payout ratios, computed from filings

Earnings payout ratio

Dividends as a share of GAAP net income — the figure almost every screener publishes, usually without saying that is what it is.

← All five bases

What it measures

Earnings are an accounting measure. They carry depreciation on assets bought years ago, and exclude the cash spent on assets bought this year. Both of those sit between reported profit and the cash a dividend is actually paid from.

It is not a bad measure, and for an asset-light business it is close to the cash figure. It is a bad only measure. The companies where it matters are the ones where it disagrees with cash, and you cannot know which those are without computing both.

The distribution

Across every company here whose filings support this basis, whether or not it is the one that applies to them.

Companies Lowest25th pctMedian 75th pctHighest
4760.8% 27.0% 44.0% 72.3%500.0%

Where it is the basis that applies

105 companies here are read on GAAP earnings rather than on anything else, because that is what their own filings support. Among them the median payout is 54.1%, a quarter pay out less than 30.9% and a quarter more than 68.6%. They are concentrated in Utilities (57), Banks & insurers (48).

Lowest payout

  1. Renaissancere Holdings (RNR) 2.9%
  2. Loews (L) 3.1%
  3. First Citizens Bancshares (FCNCA) 4.8%
  4. Constellation Energy (CEG) 5.2%
  5. Cheniere Energy (LNG) 8.5%
  6. Allstate (ALL) 10.5%
  7. PG&E (PCG) 10.7%
  8. Chubb (CB) 14.9%

Highest payout

  1. Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN) 118.2%
  2. TXNM Energy (TXNM) 111.5%
  3. Antero Midstream (AM) 105.9%
  4. Firstenergy (FE) 100.6%
  5. Old Republic International (ORI) 98.4%
  6. Sempra (SRE) 93.8%
  7. Williams Companies (WMB) 93.5%
  8. Fidelity National Financial (FNF) 91.4%

Common questions

What is a earnings payout ratio?

Dividends as a share of GAAP net income — the figure almost every screener publishes, usually without saying that is what it is.

What is a good earnings payout ratio?

Across the 476 companies here that report one, the median is 44.0%, with half between 27.0% and 72.3%. A figure is only meaningful against companies measured the same way and in the same sector, which is why the coverage rating is scored within a sector rather than against a fixed band.

How is it calculated here?

From the company's own annual filing, read out of SEC XBRL. Every company page names the accession number each figure came from and links it to EDGAR, so the arithmetic can be checked against the source rather than taken on trust.

The other four bases

The same dividend produces a different ratio on each of them, and the dividend payout ratio page sets out why.