HERSHEY CO (HSY) — payout ratio, two ways
Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector Consumer staples · payout ratios computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | 47.7% | Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows. |
| Free cash flow | 59.5% | 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: 12 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 54 / 100 — Tight. ? Peer standing 26/50Direction 10/30Stability 18/20
Free cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 59.5% |
| 2024-12-31 | 56.3% |
| 2023-12-31 | 57.3% |
| 2022-12-31 | 42.9% |
| 2021-12-31 | 43.2% |
| 2020-12-31 | 50.9% |
Among the 38 consumer staples companies here, 53% pay out a larger share on this basis.
The arithmetic
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $1,085.3m ÷ operating cash flow $2,277.4m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $1,085.3m ÷ (operating cash flow $2,277.4m − capex $454.6m)
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-17 · accession
0001628280-26-008586
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.
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.