MARCUS CORP (MCS) — payout ratio, two ways
Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector not classified · payout ratios computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.
Free cash flow is not shown for this company. It cannot be computed from what this company files — the inputs are absent from its XBRL, not zero. The figure marked in the table is operating cash flow instead.
This company is not classified. The SEC files it under SIC 7830, a catch-all that covers businesses with little in common. No sector-specific rule is applied, so the general basis for an operating company — free cash flow — is used. Read the comparison below rather than the single marked figure.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 72.2% | The figure most screeners publish. |
| Operating cash flow | 10.9% | Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows. |
No free cash flow 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: 61 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 33 / 100 — Strained. ? Peer standing · not rankedDirection 10/30Stability 6/20
Operating cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 10.9% |
| 2024-12-26 | 8.5% |
| 2023-12-28 | 7.3% |
| 2022-12-29 | 3.3% |
| 2019-12-26 | 13.6% |
| 2018-12-27 | 11.9% |
Coverage has deteriorated three years running, 3.3% to 10.9%. Still covered, but moving the wrong way.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $0.29 ÷ diluted EPS $0.41
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $9.2m ÷ operating cash flow $84.2m
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-27 · accession
0000062234-26-000011
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 ($0.29); no per-share tag filed
- 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): fcf
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.