MID AMERICA APARTMENT COMMUNITIES INC. (MAA) — payout ratio, four ways
Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector Real estate · payout ratios computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 160.5% | What most screeners publish, and badly wrong here — depressed by depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
| Operating cash flow | 65.8% | Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows. |
| Free cash flow | 98.8% | Counts property acquisitions as though they were maintenance. |
| Funds from operations | 71.2% | The basis the real estate industry uses. Adds back depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
Spread between highest and lowest: 95 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 58 / 100 — Tight. ? Peer standing 34/50Direction 4/30Stability 20/20
Funds from operations payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 71.2% |
| 2024-12-31 | 65.1% |
| 2023-12-31 | 58.8% |
| 2022-12-31 | 57.8% |
| 2021-12-31 | 56.1% |
| 2020-12-31 | 59.9% |
Coverage has deteriorated three years running, 57.8% to 71.2%. Still covered, but moving the wrong way.
Among the 47 real estate companies here, 68% pay out a larger share on this basis.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $6.07 ÷ diluted EPS $3.78
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $709.0m ÷ operating cash flow $1,078.2m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $709.0m ÷ (operating cash flow $1,078.2m − capex $360.2m)
- Funds from operations — dividends declared per share $6.07 ÷ derived FFO $8.52 per share
- FFO built NAREIT-style: net income, plus real-estate depreciation, less gains on sale, over weighted-average diluted shares
- This is an approximation. Every REIT defines its own adjusted variant in the filing text, so it will not match the earnings release exactly
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-06 · accession
0001193125-26-041208
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
- ebitda built from net income (no operating income reported)
- FFO derived (NAREIT approximation)
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.