BE · Technology(electrical industrial apparatus) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Bloom Energy Corp reported revenue of $2.0 billion in fiscal 2025. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 2.01 is in the grey zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20252.0B
Operating margin3.6%gross margin 99.1%
Return on invested capital2.2%-14.1% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow57.2M2.9% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA1.3×net debt 163.8M
Piotroski F-score4/9tests 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
2019
2019
2019Revenue 724.8MOperating income -232.8M
2020
2020Revenue 731.2MOperating income -80.8M
2021Revenue 906.9MOperating income -114.5M
2022Revenue 1.1BOperating income -261.0M
2023Revenue 1.3BOperating income -208.9M
2024Revenue 1.4BOperating income 22.9M
2025Revenue 2.0BOperating income 72.8M
2019201920192020202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+20.8%
+22.3%
—
Shares
+8.9%
+11.6%
—
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
-11.3%
Return on assets
-2.0%
Asset turnover
0.46×
Research & development
9.3% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
9.9% 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
-600.0M-400.0M-200.0M0200.0M
2019
2019
2019Net income -304.4MFree cash flow 112.7M
2020
2020Net income -157.6MFree cash flow -136.7M
2021Net income -164.4MFree cash flow -110.5M
2022Net income -301.7MFree cash flow -308.5M
2023Net income -302.1MFree cash flow -456.3M
2024Net income -27.2MFree cash flow 33.1M
2025Net income -87.1MFree cash flow 57.2M
2019201920192020202020212022202320242025
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-3.00$-2.00$-1.00$0.00$1.00
2019
2019
2019Earnings per share $-2.64Free cash flow per share $0.98
2020
2020Earnings per share $-1.14Free cash flow per share $-0.99
2021Earnings per share $-0.95Free cash flow per share $-0.64
2022Earnings per share $-1.62Free cash flow per share $-1.66Dividend per share $0.00
2023Earnings per share $-1.42Free cash flow per share $-2.15Dividend per share $0.00
2024Earnings per share $-0.12Free cash flow per share $0.15Dividend per share $0.01
2025Earnings per share $-0.36Free cash flow per share $0.24Dividend per share $0.00
2019201920192020202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
100.0M150.0M200.0M250.0M
2019
2019
2019Diluted shares 115.1M
2020
2020Diluted shares 138.7M
2021Diluted shares 173.4M
2022Diluted shares 185.9M
2023Diluted shares 212.7M
2024Diluted shares 227.4M
2025Diluted shares 240.4M
2019201920192020202020212022202320242025
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
0200.0M400.0M600.0M
2019
2019
2019Net debt 434.0M
2020
2020Net debt 144.0M
2021Net debt 130.7M
2022Net debt 63.1M
2023Net debt 182.0M
2024Net debt 325.9M
2025Net debt 163.8M
2019201920192020202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
1.3×
Interest coverage
2× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
5.98 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
8994 days collects in 68d, stock 13045d, pays in 4119d
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.
4of 9 tests passed
✕ProfitableReturn on assets above zerofailed
✓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?
2.01grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.71 × 6.56+4.64
Retained earnings ÷ assets -0.91 × 3.26-2.96
Operating income ÷ assets 0.02 × 6.72+0.11
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.21 × 1.05+0.22
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?
-2.57below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.80+0.73
Gross margin slipping 0.99+0.52
Soft assets 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.40
Sales growth 1.39+1.24
Slower depreciation 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.12
Overheads vs sales 0.87-0.15
Profit not in cash -0.05-0.21
Leverage rising 1.19-0.39
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.
The effective tax rate is -3.2%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
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.