Dividend Basis payout ratios, computed from filings

Free cash flow payout ratio

Cash from operations, less what the company spent to keep its own assets running. Free cash flow is the money genuinely available once the business has paid for its own upkeep — and a dividend is paid in cash, not in accounting profit.

← All five bases

What it measures

It is the basis that applies to most companies on this site. Where a business owns plant, vehicles, stores or networks, the capital spending needed to keep them working is not optional, and a measure that ignores it flatters the dividend.

Its weakness is that it does not separate maintenance capital spending from growth capital spending — the filings rarely do. A company building a new plant looks stretched in the year it builds it. That is why the pages here show the prior years alongside the current one rather than a single figure.

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
4061.0% 21.3% 39.6% 73.0%459.4%

Where it is the basis that applies

356 companies here are read on free cash flow rather than on anything else, because that is what their own filings support. Among them the median payout is 35.7%, a quarter pay out less than 20.0% and a quarter more than 61.7%. They are concentrated in Industrials (74), Consumer discretionary (44), Technology (42), Consumer staples (38), Health care (38).

Lowest payout

  1. Nvidia (NVDA) 1.0%
  2. PVH (PVH) 1.4%
  3. Celanese (CE) 1.6%
  4. Textron (TXT) 1.9%
  5. Alpha Metallurgical Resources (AMR) 2.3%
  6. PayPal Holdings (PYPL) 2.3%
  7. Ingersoll Rand (IR) 2.6%
  8. DigitalBridge Group (DBRG) 2.8%

Highest payout

  1. LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (LYB) 459.4%
  2. Liberty Energy (LBRT) 386.2%
  3. Whirlpool (WHR) 370.4%
  4. Gilat Satellite Networks (GILT) 351.1%
  5. CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings (CCC) 302.4%
  6. DuPont de Nemours (DD) 263.0%
  7. Medical Properties Trust (MPT) 217.9%
  8. Texas Instruments (TXN) 192.0%

Common questions

What is a free cash flow payout ratio?

Cash from operations, less what the company spent to keep its own assets running. Free cash flow is the money genuinely available once the business has paid for its own upkeep — and a dividend is paid in cash, not in accounting profit.

What is a good free cash flow payout ratio?

Across the 406 companies here that report one, the median is 39.6%, with half between 21.3% and 73.0%. 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.