FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES INC /DE/ (FCNCA) — 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 | 4.8% | 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 69 / 100 — Adequate. ? Peer standing 47/50Direction 18/30Stability 4/20
GAAP earnings payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 4.8% |
| 2024-12-31 | 3.6% |
| 2023-12-31 | 0.5% |
| 2022-12-31 | 3.2% |
| 2021-12-31 | 3.5% |
| 2020-12-31 | 3.5% |
Coverage worsened sharply this year, 3.6% to 4.8%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.
Among the 48 financials companies here, 94% pay out a larger share on this basis — this is comfortable for the sector.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $7.95 ÷ diluted EPS $165.24
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-24 · accession
0000798941-26-000015
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 $7.95 filed as declared, but dividends paid imply $12.38 — one of the two underlying facts is wrong. The filed per-share figure is used.
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.