CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORP (COF) — is the dividend affordable?
Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector Financials · payout ratios computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 69.5% | The figure most screeners publish. |
Only one basis is shown, and that is the point. Operating and free cash flow swing with loan, deposit and reserve movements, so for a lender or insurer neither says anything about whether the dividend is affordable. Investment income is omitted for a second reason: insurers file it under the same tag a BDC uses, but it means investment income on float rather than the money that funds the distribution. Screeners that publish these for a bank are printing arithmetic, not information — and a wide gap between them is noise, not a finding.
Coverage rating 5 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 5/50Direction 0/30Stability 0/20
GAAP earnings payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 69.5% |
| 2024-12-31 | 21.0% |
| 2023-12-31 | 20.3% |
| 2022-12-31 | 13.5% |
| 2021-12-31 | 9.6% |
| 2020-12-31 | 19.4% |
Coverage has deteriorated three years running, 13.5% to 69.5%. Still covered, but moving the wrong way.
Among the 48 financials companies here, only 10% pay out a larger share on this basis — this is at the demanding end.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $2.80 ÷ diluted EPS $4.03
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-19 · accession
0000927628-26-000024
Every one is public at sec.gov and free to check. That is the point — you should not have to take my word for any of it.
Caveats on this company
- DPS derived from dividends paid ($2.80); no per-share tag filed
Computed by an open pipeline reading SEC XBRL directly. If any number here looks wrong to you, tell me — that is more useful to me than agreement.