Dividend coverage
Dividend coverage is how many times over the year's earnings covered the dividend that was paid. Two times means half the profit went out and half stayed.
How it is computed here
| Formula | earnings per share ÷ dividend per share |
|---|---|
| Unit | Multiple (×) |
| Period | One fiscal year, as reported |
| Source | Extracted from SEC filings; every value on an asset page carries the accounting tag and the filing it came from |
| Identifier | cobertura_do_dividendo |
What goes into the formula
| Earnings per share | The diluted figure where reported, the basic one otherwise. |
|---|---|
| Dividend per share | Cash paid on one share for the fiscal year. Both sides are per-share, so the ratio is immune to the share count — unlike most figures on this site, a stock split does not disturb it. |
A formula without its inputs explained is decoration. Where an input is missing from a filing, the metric is left empty here rather than completed with a zero or an estimate.
How to calculate dividend coverage, step by step
Three companies with the same dividend and different earnings.
| All three — dividend per share | $1.20 |
|---|---|
| Company A — EPS | $3.60 |
| Company B — EPS | $1.30 |
| Company C — EPS | $0.60 |
- A: 3.60 ÷ 1.20 = 3.0 times.
- B: 1.30 ÷ 1.20 = 1.1 times.
- C: 0.60 ÷ 1.20 = 0.5 times.
Result: 3.0×, 1.1× and 0.5× on an identical dividend
A keeps two thirds of its profit and could absorb a bad year without touching the dividend. B has no room at all. C paid twice what it earned, and the difference came from cash on hand or from borrowing.
The figures in this example are illustrative and rounded — they are not a real company. The real figures on this site are the live ones below and on every asset page, each carrying the filing it came from.
What dividend coverage is good for
Coverage is the plainest way to ask whether a dividend can survive a bad year. It answers in a unit anyone can hold in their head — 'twice over' — and it is the same question the payout ratio asks upside down.
What this number does not tell you
Coverage is the inverse of the payout ratio and inherits its blind spot: it measures accounting profit, not the cash that actually funds the payment, so a capital-heavy company with real cash to spare can look uncovered. It also says nothing about whether the earnings repeat — one good year covering one dividend is not a policy — and it ignores debt maturities entirely. Coverage below one is not the same as a dividend in danger. Of the 1,550 companies here reporting a dividend, a profit and free cash flow in the same year, 205 paid out more than their accounting profit while paying less than their free cash flow. On the profit measure the dividend looks uncovered; on the cash that actually funds it, it is covered. This is why the entry insists the denominator matters.
Every metric on this site is published with its blind spot stated. A figure without its limit is half a fact.
Highest reported dividend coverage
| AMGAFFILIATED MANAGERS GROUP, INC. | 568.50× |
|---|---|
| WTMWHITE MOUNTAINS INSURANCE GROUP LTD | 430.14× |
| NVDANVIDIA CORP | 122.50× |
| PLDPrologis, Inc. | 118.67× |
| NRCNRC HEALTH | 96.15× |
| TRSTRIMAS CORP | 73.75× |
| XYFX Financial | 66.18× |
| TXTTEXTRON INC | 63.88× |
From the most recent fiscal year of each company.
See it in a published filing
These pages show the figure across up to nineteen fiscal years, with the accounting tag and the filing behind every value.