So much noise going on in the space.
Debt to pay dividends? No debt pays for asset acquisition through capex spend...
dividends not covered by eps? EPS includes depreciation of assets but doesn't include appreciation so it's skewed...
dividends not covered by free cash flow? Because capex is elevated as part of generational shift.
if you look at the debt increase vs asset increase
2019 debt: 28,153. vs now 38.5. = 10.5B. More debt
2019 assets: 60.1 vs now 74.2 = 14.1B more assets
the narrative dividends pay dividend is false as asset acquisitions offset the debt by 140%....
if debt paid dividends that would be less than 100%.
So that all said the generational capex spend is drawing down, non core assets are being converted to cash (5.7 B worth of cash for less than 2B worth of booked assets).
opex is being trimmed (layoffs to lean up the corporate payroll and dropping under performing source retail and media assets)
What gets me is this all in print on the annuals and in great detail but is not double clicked on by the analysts...