How the coverage rating is computed
One number, from filings only, measuring how well a company's own reported figures support the dividend it paid. It is not a view on the share price, the business, or whether anyone should own it.
What it measures
Every page on this site shows a payout ratio on each basis a company's filings support, and says which one applies. The rating compresses that into a single figure so forty companies can be scanned at once. Every input is printed on the company's own page, so the score can be recomputed by hand — that is the point of publishing the formula rather than a black box.
The three components
| Component | Points | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| Peer standing | 50 | Of companies in the same sector measured on the same basis, how many pay out a larger share? Paying less than most peers scores higher. |
| Direction | 30 | The current payout against the median of prior years. Median rather than last year, so one unusual comparison year cannot dominate. |
| Stability | 20 | How much the payout has moved year to year, as a coefficient of variation. A dividend covered at 60% every year is not the same proposition as one averaging 60% while swinging between 20% and 110%. |
The bands
| Score | Band | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 80–100 | Comfortable | Pays out less than most peers, steady or improving. |
| 60–79 | Adequate | Unremarkable for its sector. Covered, without much to say about it. |
| 40–59 | Tight | Pays out more than most peers, or the trend is against it. |
| 20–39 | Strained | Little margin on the basis that applies. |
| 0–19 | Not covered | The applying basis does not fund the dividend. |
Why it is relative to the sector
Absolute thresholds do not survive contact with the data. Realty Income pays out about 86% of funds from operations, which is ordinary for a REIT required to distribute most of its taxable income. An industrial company paying 86% of free cash flow is stretched. A rating on fixed bands would mark every REIT down for being a REIT.
This has a real weakness, and it is better stated than buried. In a sector where every company is stretched, the least stretched still scores well. One guard limits it: any company paying out more than the applying basis can fund is held to at most 39, whatever its peers look like.
What it deliberately does not include
- Price. A payout ratio does not change when a share price moves. Yield is shown separately where a price is available.
- Debt and interest cover. Those tags resolve for too few companies in SEC XBRL to score consistently, and a component that works for a third of the set is worse than none.
- Anything forward-looking. No estimates, no guidance, no sentiment. The rating describes what a company reported, not what it might do.
When it is not shown
A rating needs a computable payout on the basis that applies and at least one prior year. Where the filings do not support that, the page shows the arithmetic and no rating, rather than a number resting on nothing. Where a sector has fewer than five comparable companies here, peer standing is dropped and the other two components are rescaled — the page says so.
It is not advice
This is a research tool. It states what a company reported and how that compares with its own history and its sector. It does not tell anyone what to buy, hold or sell, and no figure on this site is a recommendation.