Service Properties Trust (SVC) — 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 | negative | The company lost $1.22 per share, so there are no earnings to pay a dividend out of and no ratio exists. |
| Operating cash flow | 5.7% | Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows. |
| Free cash flow | negative | Operating cash flow was $107m short of capital spending, so no ratio exists. The dividend was not funded from free cash flow this year. |
| Funds from operations | 23.4% | The basis the real estate industry uses. Adds back depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
Spread between highest and lowest: 18 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 77 / 100 — Adequate. ? Peer standing 47/50Direction 30/30Stability 0/20
Funds from operations payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 23.4% |
| 2024-12-31 | 112.1% |
| 2023-12-31 | 42.8% |
| 2022-12-31 | 17.2% |
| 2020-12-31 | 50.5% |
| 2019-12-31 | 66.8% |
Among the 47 real estate 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 $0.04 ÷ diluted EPS $-1.22
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $6.7m ÷ operating cash flow $117.8m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $6.7m ÷ (operating cash flow $117.8m − capex $224.8m)
- Funds from operations — dividends declared per share $0.04 ÷ derived FFO $0.17 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 2026-02-25 · accession
0000945394-26-000012
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
- 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.