BUR · Financials(finance services) · 5 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
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Burford Capital Ltd reported revenue of $413.4 million in fiscal 2025. On the accounting screens, it passes 1 of 7 Piotroski tests; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 2025413.4M
Operating margin56.2%gross margin —
Return on invested capital4.4%11.2% on average over 3 years
Free cash flow after stock pay-43.1M-10.4% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt 1.6B
Piotroski F-score1/7tests 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
00.5B1.0B1.5B
2021
2022Revenue 319.2MOperating income 195.0M
2023Revenue 1.1BOperating income 815.7M
2024Revenue 546.1MOperating income 390.6M
2025Revenue 413.4MOperating income 232.1M
20212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
4 yrs
Revenue
+9.0%
—
Operating income
+6.0%
—
Net income
+27.1%
—
Earnings per share
+26.5%
—
Dividend per share
-0.7%
—
Shares
+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.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
-200%-100%0%100%
2021
2022Operating 61.1%Net 9.6%Free cash flow -146.1%
2023Operating 75.0%Net 56.2%Free cash flow -25.6%
2024Operating 71.5%Net 26.8%Free cash flow 39.6%
2025Operating 56.2%Net 15.1%Free cash flow -7.1%
20212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
0%10%20%30%
2021
2022
2023Return on invested capital 20.7%
2024Return on invested capital 8.5%
2025Return on invested capital 4.4%
20212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
2.6%
Return on assets
0.9%
Asset turnover
0.06×
Overheads (SG&A)
9.3% 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
-0.5B00.5B1.0B
2021
2022Net income 30.5MFree cash flow -466.5MAfter stock-based pay -474.3M
2023Net income 610.5MFree cash flow -277.9MAfter stock-based pay -286.6M
2024Net income 146.5MFree cash flow 216.1MAfter stock-based pay 207.4M
2025Net income 62.6MFree cash flow -29.3MAfter stock-based pay -43.1M
20212022202320242025
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
-$4-$2$0$2$4
2021
2022Earnings per share $0.14Free cash flow per share $-2.10Dividend per share $0.12
2023Earnings per share $2.74Free cash flow per share $-1.25Dividend per share $0.12
2024Earnings per share $0.66Free cash flow per share $0.97Dividend per share $0.12
2025Earnings per share $0.28Free cash flow per share $-0.13Dividend per share $0.12
20212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
221M222M223M224M225M
2021
2022Diluted shares 221.8M
2023Diluted shares 223.0M
2024Diluted shares 223.2M
2025Diluted shares 224.6M
20212022202320242025
Debt and liquidity
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
00.5B1.0B1.5B2.0B
2021
2022
2023Net debt 1.3B
2024Net debt 1.3B
2025Net debt 1.6B
20212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
2× 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.
1of 7 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✕Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zerofailed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✕Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)failed
✕Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellfailed
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
–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.
Reported profit comfortably exceeds the cash generated (63M against -29M).
Benign
Growth consuming working capital, or the seasonality of the year-end.
Worrying
Profit held up by accounting entries that do not turn into money.
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.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 6 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market—none in the period
Under pre-arranged plans—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.
