BNY · Financials(state commercial banks) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Bank of New York Mellon Corp reported revenue of $20.1 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 2.9% a year over the previous 9 years. Of the $47.0 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 51.4% went to buybacks and 24.5% back into the business; the share count fell 31.1%. On the accounting screens, it passes 6 of 7 Piotroski tests; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202520.1B+2.9% a year over 9 years
Operating margin—gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay5.2B25.8% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt 26.8B
Piotroski F-score6/7tests 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
010.0B20.0B30.0B
2017Revenue 15.5B
2018
2018Revenue 16.4B
2019Revenue 16.5B
2020Revenue 15.8B
2021Revenue 15.9B
2022Revenue 16.5B
2023Revenue 17.7B
2024Revenue 18.6B
2025Revenue 20.1B
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+6.7%
+4.9%
+2.9%
Net income
+29.5%
+8.9%
+3.4%
Earnings per share
+35.1%
+13.8%
+7.8%
Free cash flow per share
-24.6%
+11.1%
+9.0%
Dividend per share
+12.2%
+10.0%
+9.9%
Shares
-4.2%
-4.3%
-4.1%
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
-25.0%0.0%25.0%50.0%75.0%100.0%
2017Net 26.3%Free cash flow 22.3%
2018
2018Net 26.0%Free cash flow 29.8%
2019Net 27.0%Free cash flow -6.8%
2020Net 22.9%Free cash flow 24.1%
2021Net 23.6%Free cash flow 10.2%
2022Net 15.5%Free cash flow 83.0%
2023Net 18.7%Free cash flow 26.5%
2024Net 24.3%Free cash flow -4.2%
2025Net 27.6%Free cash flow 25.8%
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
12.5%
Return on assets
1.2%
Asset turnover
0.04×
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
-5.0B05.0B10.0B15.0B
2017Net income 4.1BFree cash flow 3.5B
2018
2018Net income 4.3BFree cash flow 4.9B
2019Net income 4.4BFree cash flow -1.1B
2020Net income 3.6BFree cash flow 3.8B
2021Net income 3.8BFree cash flow 1.6B
2022Net income 2.6BFree cash flow 13.7B
2023Net income 3.3BFree cash flow 4.7BAfter stock-based pay 4.7B
2024Net income 4.5BFree cash flow -782.0MAfter stock-based pay -782.0M
2025Net income 5.5BFree cash flow 5.2BAfter stock-based pay 5.2B
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2025
47.0B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 25%11.5B
Acquisitions 0%170.0M
Dividends 22%10.5B
Share buybacks 51%24.2B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 1%619.0M
Over the same years it paid 1.0M in stock. The share count fell 31.1%. 24.2B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-5.00$0.00$5.00$10.00$15.00$20.00
2017Earnings per share $3.93Free cash flow per share $3.34Dividend per share $0.87
2018
2018Earnings per share $4.24Free cash flow per share $4.85Dividend per share $1.04
2019Earnings per share $4.71Free cash flow per share $-1.18Dividend per share $1.19
2020Earnings per share $4.05Free cash flow per share $4.28Dividend per share $1.25
2021Earnings per share $4.39Free cash flow per share $1.90Dividend per share $1.31
2022Earnings per share $3.14Free cash flow per share $16.84Dividend per share $1.43
2023Earnings per share $4.19Free cash flow per share $5.96Dividend per share $1.60
2024Earnings per share $6.06Free cash flow per share $-1.05Dividend per share $1.80
2025Earnings per share $7.74Free cash flow per share $7.22Dividend per share $2.02
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
700.0M800.0M900.0M1.0B1.1B
2017Diluted shares 1.0B
2018
2018Diluted shares 1.0B
2019Diluted shares 943.1M
2020Diluted shares 892.5M
2021Diluted shares 856.4M
2022Diluted shares 814.8M
2023Diluted shares 787.8M
2024Diluted shares 748.1M
2025Diluted shares 716.7M
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
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
010.0B20.0B30.0B
2017Net debt 22.6B
2018
2018Net debt 23.3B
2019Net debt 22.7B
2020Net debt 19.7B
2021Net debt 19.9B
2022Net debt 25.4B
2023Net debt 26.3B
2024Net debt 26.7B
2025Net debt 26.8B
2017201820182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
— 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.
6of 7 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✓Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforepassed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
–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 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?
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.