ACGL · Financials(fire, marine & casualty insurance) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Arch Capital Group Ltd. reported revenue of $19.9 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 18.1% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 20.7% in 2016 to 26.6%. Of the $34.8 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 12.0% went to buybacks and 8.2% to acquisitions. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 6 Piotroski tests; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202519.9B+18.1% a year over 9 years
Operating margin26.6%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay6.0B30.0% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score5/6tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
05.0B10.0B15.0B20.0B
2016Revenue 4.5BOperating income 921.8M
2017Revenue 5.6BOperating income 874.7M
2018Revenue 5.5BOperating income 962.3M
2019Revenue 6.9BOperating income 2.0B
2020Revenue 8.5BOperating income 1.7B
2021Revenue 9.2BOperating income 2.5B
2022Revenue 9.6BOperating income 1.7B
2023Revenue 13.6BOperating income 3.7B
2024Revenue 17.4BOperating income 4.8B
2025Revenue 19.9BOperating income 5.3B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+27.5%
+18.6%
+18.1%
Operating income
+46.4%
+25.3%
+21.5%
Net income
+43.9%
+25.6%
+22.8%
Earnings per share
+44.1%
+27.8%
+22.7%
Free cash flow per share
+17.8%
+18.6%
+18.1%
Shares
-0.2%
-1.7%
+0.1%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
0.0%20.0%40.0%60.0%
2016Operating 20.7%Net 15.5%Free cash flow 30.5%
2017Operating 15.5%Net 11.0%Free cash flow 19.1%
2018Operating 17.7%Net 13.9%Free cash flow 28.1%
2019Operating 28.4%Net 23.6%Free cash flow 29.0%
2020Operating 20.2%Net 16.5%Free cash flow 33.5%
2021Operating 27.1%Net 23.3%Free cash flow 36.6%
2022Operating 17.6%Net 15.4%Free cash flow 39.2%
2023Operating 27.2%Net 32.6%Free cash flow 41.8%
2024Operating 27.6%Net 24.7%Free cash flow 38.0%
2025Operating 26.6%Net 22.1%Free cash flow 30.7%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
18.2%
Return on assets
5.6%
Asset turnover
0.25×
Overheads (SG&A)
0.7% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
02.0B4.0B6.0B8.0B
2016Net income 692.7MFree cash flow 1.4BAfter stock-based pay 1.3B
2017Net income 619.3MFree cash flow 1.1BAfter stock-based pay 1.0B
2018Net income 758.0MFree cash flow 1.5BAfter stock-based pay 1.5B
2019Net income 1.6BFree cash flow 2.0BAfter stock-based pay 1.9B
2020Net income 1.4BFree cash flow 2.8BAfter stock-based pay 2.8B
2021Net income 2.2BFree cash flow 3.4BAfter stock-based pay 3.3B
2022Net income 1.5BFree cash flow 3.8BAfter stock-based pay 3.7B
2023Net income 4.4BFree cash flow 5.7BAfter stock-based pay 5.6B
2024Net income 4.3BFree cash flow 6.6BAfter stock-based pay 6.5B
2025Net income 4.4BFree cash flow 6.1BAfter stock-based pay 6.0B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
34.8B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 1%383.7M
Acquisitions 8%2.8B
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 12%4.2B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 79%27.4B
Over the same years it paid 867.8M in stock. The share count barely moved. 3.3B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$5.00$10.00$15.00$20.00
2016Earnings per share $1.85Free cash flow per share $3.64
2017Earnings per share $1.48Free cash flow per share $2.57
2018Earnings per share $1.84Free cash flow per share $3.70
2019Earnings per share $3.98Free cash flow per share $4.88
2020Earnings per share $3.43Free cash flow per share $6.94
2021Earnings per share $5.39Free cash flow per share $8.45
2022Earnings per share $3.91Free cash flow per share $9.97
2023Earnings per share $11.73Free cash flow per share $15.04
2024Earnings per share $11.29Free cash flow per share $17.34
2025Earnings per share $11.70Free cash flow per share $16.30
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
360.0M380.0M400.0M420.0M
2016Diluted shares 374.2M
2017Diluted shares 417.8M
2018Diluted shares 412.9M
2019Diluted shares 411.6M
2020Diluted shares 410.3M
2021Diluted shares 400.3M
2022Diluted shares 377.6M
2023Diluted shares 378.8M
2024Diluted shares 381.8M
2025Diluted shares 375.9M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
36× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
— current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
—
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 6 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.