{"data":{"id":"sw_415c614a221fbfecd7bc","slug":"entergy-new-orleans-payout-ratio-tops-64-000-of-gaap-earnings","title":"Entergy New Orleans' Payout Ratio Tops 64,000% of GAAP Earnings","subheadline":"The regulated utility subsidiary keeps its steady $1.375 annualized dividend flowing even as reported GAAP profits shrink to a sliver of that payout.","summary":"Entergy New Orleans' payout ratio has surged past 64,000% of GAAP earnings, underscoring how thin the utility subsidiary's reported profits have become relative to its steady quarterly dividend, a divergence first flagged in dividend-tracking data.","body":"Entergy New Orleans, LLC, the regulated utility subsidiary that supplies electricity and gas to the city of New Orleans, is showing a payout ratio of more than 64,000% of its GAAP earnings, a figure that stood out while reviewing dividend data on Dividendly, a Madison Labs research site. The company continues to distribute a steady $1.375 annualized dividend, paid quarterly at $0.3438 per share, against a share price that closed recent sessions near $20.84, putting the current yield at 6.60%.\n\nAt face value, a payout ratio in the tens of thousands of percent means the company is distributing dividends worth many multiples of what it reported in per-share GAAP net income over the trailing period used in the calculation. Payout ratios above 100% already indicate a company is paying out more than it earned under GAAP in a given stretch; a reading in the five-digit range points to reported earnings that are close to breakeven, or even negative on a net basis, once regulatory adjustments, depreciation, and other non-cash items are applied. The math is straightforward, the ratio divides the dividend paid by GAAP earnings per share, so a fixed dividend combined with GAAP earnings that shrink toward zero produces an outsized percentage even without any change in the cash actually being distributed.\n\nFor income-focused investors, the headline payout ratio is one of the more attention-grabbing figures in a utility's profile, since payout ratio is commonly used as a rough proxy for dividend coverage. A very high or triple-digit ratio typically raises questions about how sustainable a payout is relative to accounting profits. But utility subsidiaries like Entergy New Orleans operate under rate regulation, where GAAP net income in any single period can be distorted by items such as storm-cost recovery mechanisms, regulatory asset amortization, or one-time charges tied to rate case outcomes: factors that don't necessarily reflect the cash flow available to support the dividend. That nuance is part of why payout ratio, while useful as a screening flag, is described on Dividendly's own methodology notes as not applicable at all for structures like REITs and BDCs that pay from cash flow rather than GAAP earnings; regulated utilities sit in a gray area where GAAP earnings can be volatile even when cash distributions hold steady.\n\nBackground on the stock shows a dividend history with ten years of recorded payments and no cuts or suspensions in that record, according to the payment data. Growth, however, has been limited to one consecutive annual increase, short of the three-year streak that would satisfy a stronger dividend-growth read, and the ten-year record falls short of the twenty-year threshold typically associated with a payout tested across a full economic cycle. Combined with a house rank score of 48 out of 100 in Dividendly's model, below the 70-plus threshold paired with a 2%-plus yield that the site uses as one screening marker, the stock's profile registers a mixed picture: an unbroken payment record alongside stalled growth and a payout ratio that, on GAAP terms alone, looks extreme.\n\nThe yield move itself is worth separating from the payout question. Dividendly's tracking shows ENO's yield rose from 6.41% to 6.60% over roughly the past 90 days, and essentially all of that increase came from the share price declining from about $21.45 to $20.84 rather than from any change in the dividend rate, which stayed flat. A yield that rises because a share price falls is a different signal than one driven by a raised payout, and the current yield sits above roughly 99% of the daily readings recorded over the past 15 months of Dividendly's price history for the stock.\n\nThe broader equity tape on the day carried little direct read-through for a regulated utility subsidiary like Entergy New Orleans, with megacap technology names showing outsized swings (Palo Alto Networks down 9.3%, Palantir down 5.8% and ServiceNow down 4.3%, against gains for Nvidia, Oracle and Deere) a reminder that utility-sector dividend names often move on a different rhythm than growth and tech stocks during periods of broader market volatility.\n\nGoing forward, investors tracking Entergy New Orleans' dividend profile are likely to watch whether the company's next reported GAAP earnings show any recovery from the levels implied by the current payout ratio, whether the dividend rate itself changes at the next declared payment, and whether the consecutive-increase streak extends toward the three-year mark that would strengthen the stock's growth profile in dividend-screening models. The next ex-dividend date is set for September 30, 2026, with payment following on October 1, 2026, according to the company's disclosed schedule.","source":{"name":"Dividendly","slug":"dividendly"},"category":"Dividends","article_type":"Data Story","license":"Free to republish, in full or in part, with attribution to SourceWire and a link to the original article. No fees, registration, or permission required.","quality_score":81,"human_reviewed":false,"original_url":"https://dividendly.ai/stock/ENO","featured_image":null,"published_at":"2026-09-03T11:30:46.266816+00:00","updated_at":"2026-09-03T11:30:46.266816+00:00","is_demo":false,"attribution":"Via SourceWire. Discovered via Dividendly.","attribution_html":"Via SourceWire. Discovered via Dividendly."},"meta":{"demo_data":false}}