Uniti Group Inc. (UNIT) — payout ratio, two ways
Fiscal year ending 2024-12-31 · sector Communications · 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.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 117.2% | The figure most screeners publish. |
| Operating cash flow | 29.6% | 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: 88 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 56 / 100 — Tight. ? Peer standing · not rankedDirection 18/30Stability 10/20
Operating cash flow payout, last 2 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2024-12-31 | 29.6% |
| 2023-12-31 | 30.4% |
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $0.75 ÷ diluted EPS $0.64
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $108.5m ÷ operating cash flow $366.6m
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-03-02 · accession
0001628280-26-013196
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: declared $0.50 and paid $0.75 disagree; dividends paid imply $0.76, so paid is used
- 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.