GENUINE PARTS CO (GPC) — payout ratio, two ways
Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector Industrials · payout ratios computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | 63.3% | Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows. |
| Free cash flow | 134.0% | What is left after maintaining the business. |
No GAAP earnings figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 71 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 0 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 0/50Direction 0/30Stability 0/20
Free cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 134.0% |
| 2024-12-31 | 81.1% |
| 2023-12-31 | 57.1% |
| 2022-12-31 | 44.0% |
| 2021-12-31 | 46.9% |
| 2020-12-31 | 24.4% |
Coverage has deteriorated three years running — 44.0% to 134.0% — and the dividend now exceeds what the basis that applies can fund.
Among the 73 industrials companies here, only 0% pay out a larger share on this basis — this is at the demanding end.
The arithmetic
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $563.8m ÷ operating cash flow $890.8m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $563.8m ÷ (operating cash flow $890.8m − capex $469.8m)
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-20 · accession
0000040987-26-000003
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
- basis discarded as outside the sane band (distribution far larger than the year's income — usually a special dividend or a return of capital, not a payout ratio): earnings
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.