Synchrony Financial pays a 34-cent dividend on Nov. 16 to common shareholders who own the stock at the close of business on Nov. 5, the record date. The board declared it Oct. 20, the same day the company reported third-quarter results. Those results showed record spending on its cards and a 17% drop in profit.
What the Nov. 16 payment covers
Synchrony’s dividend announcement sets the common dividend at $0.34 per share, payable Nov. 16, 2026, to holders of record on Nov. 5, 2026. At four payments a year, that rate works out to $1.36 per share. The company’s newsroom posting repeats the same dates.
Three preferred series pay on the same dates. Series A, a 5.625% fixed-rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred, pays about $14.06 per share, or $0.351563 per depositary share. Series B, an 8.250% fixed-rate reset preferred, pays about $20.63 per share, or $0.515625 per depositary share.
Series C, a 7.250% fixed-rate reset preferred, pays about $1,812.50 per share, or $18.125 per depositary share. Series A and B depositary shares each represent a 1/40th interest in a preferred share, and Series C depositary shares represent 1/100th. All three are non-cumulative, meaning a skipped payment is not owed later.
Dividends are only part of what Synchrony sends back to investors. In the third quarter it returned $1.2 billion to shareholders, according to its earnings release filed with the SEC. Of that, $1.1 billion went to share buybacks and $110 million to common dividends. About $4.6 billion remains under the repurchase authorization.
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Record spending, lower profit
Net earnings were $892 million, or $2.68 per diluted share, down 17% from about $1.1 billion, or $2.86 per share, a year earlier. Purchase volume rose 8% to $49.7 billion, a record for a third quarter. President and chief executive Brian Doubles opened his commentary by calling it “another strong performance in the third quarter,” and said spend reached a record third-quarter level.
Loan receivables grew 3% to $103.3 billion, and average active accounts were flat at 68.3 million. Net interest income rose 2% to $4.8 billion. The net interest margin, which measures what Synchrony earns on its loans against its funding costs, fell 12 basis points to 15.50%.
The profit drop traces mostly to costs set aside for bad loans and to operating expense. The provision for credit losses rose 10% to $1.3 billion, mainly because Synchrony added $30 million to reserves this quarter after releasing $152 million a year ago. Other expense also rose 10% to $1.4 billion on higher operational losses, technology investment and marketing.
The efficiency ratio, expenses as a share of revenue, rose 330 basis points to 35.9%. Return on assets fell to 2.9%, return on equity to 21.0% and return on tangible common equity to 25.2%. Retailer share arrangements, payments to partners based on card performance, rose 7% to $1.1 billion.
Cardholders’ side of the ledger
Credit quality improved. Net charge-offs were 4.79% of average receivables, down 37 basis points and a seasonal low. Loans 30 or more days past due were 4.34% of receivables, down 5 basis points, and loans 90 or more days past due were 2.06%, down 6 basis points. The allowance for credit losses stood at 10.01% of receivables.
Spending grew unevenly across Synchrony’s five sales platforms. Purchase volume rose 13% in Diversified & Value, 9% in Home & Auto, 6% in Lifestyle, 5% in Digital and 3% in Health & Wellness. Period-end receivables fell 1% in Lifestyle while growing 8% in Diversified & Value.
The company said it added or renewed 10 partners in the quarter, including La-Z-Boy and Fender. It also refreshed the Venmo credit card with a feature that gives more cash back for splitting purchases with friends, and launched CareCredit Pay Later. CareCredit, its health-care financing card, was integrated into the Vetspire veterinary practice platform, and Synchrony announced a Stripe integration for CareCredit checkout financing. It also set up a partnership with OpenAI and joined the “Poppy” personal-agent protocol initiative led by Sierra and Meta.
Deposits rose 4%, or $3.1 billion, to $83.0 billion and made up 83% of Synchrony’s funding, with liquid assets of $19.5 billion. Its Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio was 12.9%, down from 14.3%. The release says prior-period capital figures were recast for a change in how capitalized software is presented.
What the payout rests on
Synchrony paid $110 million in common dividends in the quarter while spending ten times that on buybacks. Profit fell, and the 34-cent payment is still on the calendar. The payout sits alongside charge-offs at a seasonal low and a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 12.9%.
For a shareholder, the dates matter more than the size of the check. Owning the stock at the close of business on Nov. 5 is what puts a holder on the list for the Nov. 16 payment. The next question is whether lower earnings and a bigger loss reserve change the board’s appetite for buybacks before they touch the dividend.
Does a dividend date cover the bills that come before it?
A 34-cent payment arrives Nov. 16 and only for people who own the shares by Nov. 5, while heating, drug and property-tax bills arrive on their own schedule. Retirees living on fixed income often have programs that cover some of those costs, and most of them have to be applied for.
Synchrony’s results are a markets story, so the kit here turns to a related job: household costs. The Benefits Checklist scans 11 benefit programs retirees often miss, including heating help and senior property-tax breaks, with the 2026 income limits and a 50-state phone directory.
Get the 11-program benefits checklist with income limits →
More Financial Reading
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- 15 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
