Walmart Is About to Pay a Boosted Dividend, but Is It Actually Safe?

By Trey Thoelcke Published Mar 16, 8:45AM EDT

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Walmart (WMT) raised its annual dividend to $0.99 per share, extending to 53 consecutive years of increases and achieving Dividend King status, with a 0.75% yield at $126.52 and operating cash flow coverage of 5.54x against $7.507 billion in annual dividend payments.
Walmart’s dividend is very safe because free cash flow of $14.923 billion covers the $0.99 payout with healthy ratios, earnings are growing with FY27 guidance of $2.75 to $2.85 per share, and management has authorized a $30 billion share repurchase program alongside the increase.

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Walmart Is About to Pay a Boosted Dividend, but Is It Actually Safe? — © Andrei Stanescu / Getty Images

Walmart (NYSE: WMT | WMT Price Prediction) goes ex-dividend on March 20, 2026, with payment on April 6, 2026. The company raised its payout from $0.94 to $0.99 per share annually alongside Q4 FY26 earnings in February, extending a streak to 53 consecutive years of increases and maintaining Dividend King status. At $126.52, the yield is 0.75%. This is not a traditional income stock, but the dividend is worth examining for safety.

Metric	Value
Annual Dividend	$0.99 per share
Dividend Yield	0.75%
Consecutive Years of Increases	53 years
Most Recent Increase	5.3% (February 2026)
Dividend King Status	Yes

Cash Flow Comfortably Covers the Dividend

Walmart paid $7.507 billion in dividends in FY26 against $41.565 billion in operating cash flow, a coverage ratio of 5.54x. After $26.642 billion in capital expenditures, free cash flow was $14.923 billion, with dividends consuming roughly half. Adjusted EPS of $2.64 against a $0.94 per share dividend puts the earnings payout ratio well below 40%.

Metric	Value	Assessment
Earnings Payout Ratio (FY26)	$0.94 / $2.64	Healthy
FCF Payout Ratio (FY26)	$7.507B / $14.923B	Healthy
OCF Coverage	5.54x	Strong

Operating cash flow has grown steadily from $24.2 billion in FY22 to $41.6 billion in FY26. Walmart guides for capex of roughly 3.5% of net sales in FY27, which pressures FCF but remains manageable given expected operating income growth of 6% to 8%.

Balance Sheet Is Solid

Metric	Value	Assessment
Total Liabilities	$178.8B	Moderate
Shareholders’ Equity	$105.9B	Growing
Cash on Hand	$10.7B	Solid Buffer
EBITDA	$44.2B	Strong

Interest expense is guided to rise by $200 million to $300 million in FY27, worth monitoring but not alarming. Shareholders’ equity grew 8.69% year over year, signaling a strengthening balance sheet.

53 Years of Increases Speaks for Itself

Year	Annual Dividend
FY27 (declared)	$0.99
FY26	$0.94
FY25	$0.83
FY24 (pre-split adjusted)	$2.28
FY23 (pre-split adjusted)	$2.24

Walmart executed a 3-for-1 stock split in February 2024, making pre- and post-split figures not directly comparable. What matters: no cuts, no freezes, 52 consecutive annual increases.

Management Signals Continued Commitment

Incoming CEO John Furner struck a confident tone with Q4 results: “The pace of change in retail is accelerating. It’s exciting. And our financial results show that we’re not only embracing this change, we’re leading it.” The simultaneous announcement of a new $30 billion share repurchase authorization alongside the dividend increase shows management is investing in growth and returning capital simultaneously.

Recent Walton Family Holdings Trust block sales and executive share sales following RSU vesting are compensation-driven transactions, not signals of concern. A family trust managing generational wealth operates differently from an executive quietly liquidating ahead of bad news.

This Dividend Is Rock Solid

Dividend Safety Rating: Very Safe

The FCF payout ratio is healthy, OCF coverage is 5.54x, earnings are growing, and 53 years of uninterrupted increases carry real institutional weight. FY27 guidance calls for adjusted EPS of $2.75 to $2.85, widening coverage further against the new $0.99 dividend.

The bull case: a Dividend King with accelerating digital revenue, an advertising business at $6.4 billion annually, and operating cash flow that has nearly doubled in four years. The bear case: tariff exposure compressing margins, heavy capex constraining FCF, and a valuation near 46x trailing earnings leaving little room for disappointment. The dividend is not at risk. The stock price is another conversation.

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.