EQUINIX INC (EQIX) — payout ratio, four ways
Fiscal year ending 2025-12-31 · sector Real estate · computed from SEC filings, not taken from a data vendor.
| Basis | Payout | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 136.3% | What most screeners publish, and badly wrong here — depressed by depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
| Operating cash flow | 47.5% | Before capital spending, so it understates the payout that free cash flow shows. |
| Free cash flow | negative | Operating cash flow was $400m short of capital spending, so no ratio exists. The dividend was not funded from free cash flow this year. |
| Funds from operations | 54.2% | The basis the real estate industry uses. Adds back depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
Spread between highest and lowest: 89 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $18.76 ÷ diluted EPS $13.76
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $1,856.0m ÷ operating cash flow $3,911.0m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $1,856.0m ÷ (operating cash flow $3,911.0m − capex $4,311.0m)
- Funds from operations — dividends declared per share $18.76 ÷ derived FFO $34.64 per share
- FFO built NAREIT-style: net income, plus real-estate depreciation, less gains on sale, over weighted-average diluted shares
- This is an approximation. Every REIT defines its own adjusted variant in the filing text, so it will not match the earnings release exactly
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-11 · accession
0001101239-26-000032
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
- FFO derived (NAREIT approximation)
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.