Hormel Foods
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 133.3% | whyThe figure most screeners publish. |
| Operating cash flow | 74.9% | whyBefore capital spending. |
| Free cash flow | 118.5% | whyAfter maintaining the business. |
Spread between highest and lowest: 58.4 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 15 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 4/50Direction 0/30Stability 11/20
Against its own history: 118.5% this year vs 65.2% median over the prior 5. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.
Free cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-10-26 | 118.5% |
| 2024-10-27 | 60.9% |
| 2023-10-29 | 76.2% |
| 2022-10-30 | 65.2% |
| 2021-10-31 | 68.0% |
| 2020-10-25 | 64.1% |
Coverage worsened sharply this year, 60.9% to 118.5%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.
8% of the 38 consumer staples here pay out more — at the demanding end.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $1.16 ÷ diluted EPS $0.870
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $633m ÷ operating cash flow $845m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $633m ÷ (operating cash flow $845m − capex $311m)
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2025-12-05 · accession 0000048465-25-000059
Every one is public at sec.gov and free to check. That is the point — you should not have to take our word for any of it.
Computed by an open pipeline reading SEC XBRL directly. If any number here looks wrong to you, tell us — that is more useful to us than agreement.
What the free cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Who else looks like this
Every figure above is computed from Hormel Foods’s own filing, and every company here is measured the same way. Screen all of them on any of these twelve measures, or on the rules two investors published — free, and nothing you screen leaves your browser.