I hope some of you have given a brief look at yahoo payout ratio.
They are posting 300 % or something like that.
Going to balance statements (03-31-2009 ) figures i have not been able to verify this..see according to accounting principles you have this equation that relates somehow to payout ratio:

FINAL RETAINED EARNINGS=BEGINNING RETAINED EARNINGS +NET INCOME-PAID DIVIDENS.
So SIPLY FRE=BRE+NI-PD
Now subtitute and :

FRE= 1428
FRE= 1338
NI= 158
THEY REPORTED PAID DIVIDENDS OF 110 SO PD =110.
So you see firstly the ecuation doesnt seems to hold:1428 is not equal to 1338+158-110

secondly even if paid div were 110 then the payout ratio given by yahoo would be a very intriguing number.
Now if you divide 110 by 158 that is to say total earnings or net income then it would give you a payout ratio of 70 % aprox.Much decent than the awful 33? % that yahoo keeps posting.
Glad if you could feed back..thks.