ALK · Industrials(air transportation, scheduled) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
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Alaska AIR Group, Inc. reported revenue of $14.2 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 10.2% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 22.0% in 2016 to 2.1%, and it earned 2.2% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $11.9 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 59.3% went back into the business and 22.0% to acquisitions; the share count fell 3.6%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 0.10 is in the distress zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202514.2B+10.2% a year over 9 years
Operating margin2.1%gross margin —
Return on invested capital2.2%4.0% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow—
Net debt ÷ EBITDA4.3×net debt 4.7B
Piotroski F-score5/8tests 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
-5.0B05.0B10.0B15.0B
2016Revenue 5.9BOperating income 1.3B
2017Revenue 7.9BOperating income 1.2B
2018Revenue 8.3BOperating income 643.0M
2019Revenue 8.8BOperating income 1.1B
2020Revenue 3.6BOperating income -1.8B
2021Revenue 6.2BOperating income 685.0M
2022Revenue 9.6BOperating income 70.0M
2023Revenue 10.4BOperating income 394.0M
2024Revenue 11.7BOperating income 570.0M
2025Revenue 14.2BOperating income 303.0M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+13.9%
+31.9%
+10.2%
Operating income
+63.0%
—
-15.0%
Net income
+19.9%
—
-20.6%
Earnings per share
+22.5%
—
-20.3%
Shares
-2.1%
-0.6%
-0.4%
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.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
2.4%
Return on assets
0.5%
Asset turnover
0.70×
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
-2.0B-1.0B01.0B2.0B
2016Net income 797.0MFree cash flow 708.0MAfter stock-based pay 682.0M
2017Net income 960.0MFree cash flow 564.0MAfter stock-based pay 509.0M
2018Net income 437.0MFree cash flow 235.0MAfter stock-based pay 188.0M
2019Net income 769.0MFree cash flow 1.0BAfter stock-based pay 997.0M
2020Net income -1.3BFree cash flow -456.0MAfter stock-based pay -480.0M
2021Net income 478.0MFree cash flow 738.0MAfter stock-based pay 687.0M
2022Net income 58.0MFree cash flow -253.0MAfter stock-based pay -295.0M
2023Net income 235.0MFree cash flow -444.0MAfter stock-based pay -529.0M
2024Net income 395.0M
2025Net income 100.0M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
11.9B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 59%7.0B
Acquisitions 22%2.6B
Dividends 6%660.0M
Share buybacks 12%1.4B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 1%118.0M
Over the same years it paid 432.0M in stock. The share count fell 3.6%. 1.0B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-15.00$-10.00$-5.00$0.00$5.00$10.00
2016Earnings per share $6.41Free cash flow per share $5.69Dividend per share $1.09
2017Earnings per share $7.75Free cash flow per share $4.55Dividend per share $1.19
2018Earnings per share $3.52Free cash flow per share $1.90Dividend per share $1.27
2019Earnings per share $6.19Free cash flow per share $8.25Dividend per share $1.39
2020Earnings per share $-10.72Free cash flow per share $-3.69Dividend per share $0.36
2021Earnings per share $3.77Free cash flow per share $5.82Dividend per share $0.00
2022Earnings per share $0.45Free cash flow per share $-1.98Dividend per share $0.00
2023Earnings per share $1.83Free cash flow per share $-3.45
2024Earnings per share $3.08
2025Earnings per share $0.83
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
117.5M120.0M122.5M125.0M127.5M130.0M
2016Diluted shares 124.4M
2017Diluted shares 123.9M
2018Diluted shares 124.0M
2019Diluted shares 124.3M
2020Diluted shares 123.5M
2021Diluted shares 126.8M
2022Diluted shares 127.9M
2023Diluted shares 128.7M
2024Diluted shares 128.4M
2025Diluted shares 119.9M
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
02.0B4.0B6.0B
2016Net debt 2.6B
2017Net debt 2.4B
2018Net debt 2.0B
2019Net debt 1.3B
2020Net debt 2.1B
2021Net debt 2.1B
2022Net debt 1.8B
2023Net debt 2.2B
2024Net debt 3.7B
2025Net debt 4.7B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
4.3×
Interest coverage
1× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
0.50 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 14d
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 8 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 fellfailed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✓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?
0.10distress zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets -0.16 × 6.56-1.07
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.25 × 3.26+0.81
Operating income ÷ assets 0.01 × 6.72+0.10
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.25 × 1.05+0.27
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.75below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.83+0.77
Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
Soft assets 0.97+0.39
Sales growth 1.21+1.08
Slower depreciation 0.82+0.09
Overheads vs sales 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.06-0.26
Leverage rising 1.04-0.34
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
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.
Net debt is 4.3 times EBITDA.
Benign
A stable sector with predictable cash flows and comfortable maturities.
Worrying
Little room if earnings fall; the maturity schedule is what to check.
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.
With a free cash flow margin at or below zero in year ten, the business never generates cash for its owners and a DCF says nothing useful. Set a positive margin for year ten to see what it would take.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 4 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market$1.0M1 purchase(s) by 1 insider(s)
Sold on the open market$263,2561 sale(s) by 1 insider(s)
Under pre-arranged plans0%of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
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.