WESTLAKE CORP (WLK) — payout ratio, three ways

Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector Materials · payout ratios computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.

Basis	Payout	Why it differs
GAAP earnings	negative	The company lost $11.70 per share, so there are no earnings to pay a dividend out of and no ratio exists.
Operating cash flow	58.5%	Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows.
Free cash flow	negative	Operating cash flow was $530m short of capital spending, so no ratio exists. The dividend was not funded from free cash flow this year.

Nothing is marked as applying, deliberately. The basis that governs here is free cash flow, and this year it yields no ratio at all. The figure above is shown for completeness; treating it as the answer is the substitution this page exists to prevent.

Coverage rating 10 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 10/50Direction 0/30Stability 0/20

Free cash flow payout, last 6 years

Fiscal year	Payout
2024-12-31	86.3%
2023-12-31	17.0%
2022-12-31	7.4%
2021-12-31	8.4%
2020-12-31	17.7%
2019-12-31	25.7%

Coverage worsened sharply this year, 17.0% to 86.3%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.

Among the 36 materials companies here, only 19% pay out a larger share on this basis — this is at the demanding end.

The arithmetic

GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $2.11 ÷ diluted EPS $-11.70
Operating cash flow — dividends paid $272.0m ÷ operating cash flow $465.0m
Free cash flow — dividends paid $272.0m ÷ (operating cash flow $465.0m − capex $995.0m)

Where the figures came from

10-K filed 2026-02-26 · accession 0001262823-26-000016

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.