The Company Pays a 10.8% Dividend, and Its CEO Says: “Our Stock Is Too Cheap”
Rithm Capital pays $0.25 quarterly and says it has earned enough to cover it for 28 consecutive quarters. But according to its financial statements, it pays out more than it earns. Both figures are true, and the difference between them will determine what happens to your dividend next.
Key points
Rithm Capital pays 10.8% annually, and two figures in its own financial statements tell opposite stories about that dividend.
In the second quarter of 2026, the company reported earnings of $0.04 and earnings available for distribution of $0.60.
It has transformed from a mortgage REIT into a $61 billion asset manager, but the market still values it below book value.
The CEO publicly says the stock is too cheap, while the CFO has sold 55% of his stake.
In 2020, this management team slashed the dividend by 90%, and there are clear signals to watch for if history repeats.
One dividend, two earnings figures
Rithm Capital $RITM pays shareholders $0.25 per share every quarter. At a share price of $9.23, that works out to an annual yield of 10.8%—a return that even a risky bond might envy. But with a dividend, you never ask only how much, but also where the money comes from.
And that’s where the problem begins. In the third quarter of 2026, the company reported earnings available for distribution of $0.55 per share, more than double the dividend. CEO Michael Nierenberg noted on the conference call that this was the 28th consecutive quarter in which this figure exceeded the payout, and that over its history the company had distributed a total of $6.8 billion to shareholders. From this perspective, the dividend is covered with plenty to spare.
But GAAP earnings tell a very different story. Over the past twelve months, the payout ratio comes to 111%, meaning the company paid out more than it earned according to its financial statements. The contrast was starkest in the second quarter of 2026: GAAP earnings of $0.04 per share versus earnings available for distribution of $0.60. A fifteenfold difference at one company in a single quarter.
Both figures are true, and both appear in the official financial statements. They differ only in what management includes in each one. And what gets left out of one of them is where the whole Rithm story of the past three years lies.