AXON · Industrials(ordnance & accessories, (no vehicles/guided missiles)) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Axon Enterprise, Inc. reported revenue of $2.8 billion in fiscal 2025. Of the $1.3 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 98.7% went to acquisitions and 35.9% back into the business. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 3.38 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20252.8B
Operating margin-2.2%gross margin 59.7%
Return on invested capital5.6%3.8% on average over 2 years
Free cash flow after stock pay-559.1M-20.1% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA28.9×net debt 609.6M
Piotroski F-score5/9tests 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
-1.0B01.0B2.0B3.0B
2018
2018Revenue 420.1MOperating income 24.8M
2019
2019Revenue 530.9MOperating income -6.4M
2020Revenue 681.0MOperating income -14.2M
2021Revenue 863.4MOperating income -168.1M
2022Revenue 1.2BOperating income 93.0M
2023Revenue 1.6BOperating income 156.8M
2024Revenue 2.1BOperating income 58.5M
2025Revenue 2.8BOperating income -62.1M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+32.8%
+32.5%
—
Net income
-5.3%
—
—
Earnings per share
-9.3%
—
—
Free cash flow per share
-28.3%
—
—
Shares
+4.3%
+5.9%
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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
3.8%
Return on assets
1.8%
Asset turnover
0.40×
Research & development
24.6% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
37.3% 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
-750.0M-500.0M-250.0M0250.0M500.0M
2018
2018Net income 29.2MFree cash flow 52.7MAfter stock-based pay 30.9M
2019
2019Net income 882,000Free cash flow 49.7MAfter stock-based pay -28.8M
2020Net income -1.7MFree cash flow -34.1MAfter stock-based pay -167.7M
2021Net income -60.0MFree cash flow 74.6MAfter stock-based pay -228.7M
2022Net income 146.9MFree cash flow 179.6MAfter stock-based pay 73.4M
2023Net income 175.8MFree cash flow 129.6MAfter stock-based pay -1.7M
2024Net income 377.0MFree cash flow 329.5MAfter stock-based pay -53.1M
2025Net income 124.7MFree cash flow 75.1MAfter stock-based pay -559.1M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2018–2025
1.3B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 36%480.1M
Acquisitions 99%1.3B
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 0%0
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -35%-462.5M
Over the same years it paid 1.8B in stock.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-2.00$0.00$2.00$4.00$6.00
2018
2018Earnings per share $0.50Free cash flow per share $0.91
2019
2019Earnings per share $0.01Free cash flow per share $0.83
2020Earnings per share $-0.03Free cash flow per share $-0.55
2021Earnings per share $-0.91Free cash flow per share $1.13
2022Earnings per share $2.03Free cash flow per share $2.48
2023Earnings per share $2.33Free cash flow per share $1.72
2024Earnings per share $4.80Free cash flow per share $4.19
2025Earnings per share $1.51Free cash flow per share $0.91
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
50.0M60.0M70.0M80.0M90.0M
2018
2018Diluted shares 57.9M
2019
2019Diluted shares 60.0M
2020Diluted shares 61.8M
2021Diluted shares 66.2M
2022Diluted shares 72.5M
2023Diluted shares 75.5M
2024Diluted shares 78.6M
2025Diluted shares 82.4M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
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
0200.0M400.0M600.0M800.0M
2018
2018
2019
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024Net debt 225.4M
2025Net debt 609.6M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
28.9×
Interest coverage
-1× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
2.53 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
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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 9 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 beforepassed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
✓Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforepassed
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
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?
3.38safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.32 × 6.56+2.10
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.13 × 3.26+0.44
Operating income ÷ assets -0.01 × 6.72-0.06
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.86 × 1.05+0.91
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?
-2.35below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.92
Gross margin slipping 1.00+0.53
Soft assets 0.98+0.40
Sales growth 1.33+1.19
Slower depreciation 0.82+0.09
Overheads vs sales 1.05-0.18
Profit not in cash -0.01-0.06
Leverage rising 1.22-0.40
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 28.9 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.
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.