DDOG · Technology(services-prepackaged software) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Datadog, Inc. reported revenue of $3.4 billion in fiscal 2025. Of the $3.4 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 12.2% went to acquisitions and 5.5% back into the business. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 5.11 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20253.4B
Operating margin-1.3%gross margin 80.0%
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay249.9M7.3% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score5/8tests of improvement passed
Share counts are in today's shares. The SEC's filings restate only recent years after a split, so these jumps were read as splits and the older years scaled to match — otherwise per-share figures would compare different units:
2-for-1 before fiscal 2020; 2-for-1 before fiscal 2019.
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
-1.0B01.0B2.0B3.0B4.0B
2016
2017Revenue 100.8MOperating income -3.0M
2018Revenue 198.1MOperating income -11.0M
2019Revenue 362.8MOperating income -20.1M
2020Revenue 603.5MOperating income -13.8M
2021Revenue 1.0BOperating income -19.2M
2022Revenue 1.7BOperating income -58.7M
2023Revenue 2.1BOperating income -33.5M
2024Revenue 2.7BOperating income 54.3M
2025Revenue 3.4BOperating income -44.4M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+26.9%
+41.5%
—
Free cash flow per share
+31.3%
+51.5%
—
Shares
+4.8%
+3.9%
—
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
2.9%
Return on assets
1.6%
Asset turnover
0.52×
Research & development
45.2% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
8.2% 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
-500.0M0500.0M1.0B1.5B
2016
2017Net income -2.6MFree cash flow 11.5MAfter stock-based pay 8.4M
2018Net income -10.8MFree cash flow 1.2MAfter stock-based pay -4.1M
2019Net income -16.7MFree cash flow 10.9MAfter stock-based pay -8.1M
2020Net income -24.5MFree cash flow 103.7MAfter stock-based pay 29.3M
2021Net income -20.7MFree cash flow 276.6MAfter stock-based pay 112.9M
2022Net income -50.2MFree cash flow 383.1MAfter stock-based pay 20.0M
2023Net income 48.6MFree cash flow 632.4MAfter stock-based pay 150.1M
2024Net income 183.7MFree cash flow 835.9MAfter stock-based pay 265.5M
2025Net income 107.7MFree cash flow 1.0BAfter stock-based pay 249.9M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
3.4B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 5%187.8M
Acquisitions 12%421.1M
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 0%0
Kept, or used to pay down debt 82%2.8B
Over the same years it paid 2.4B in stock.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-1.00$0.00$1.00$2.00$3.00
2016
2017Earnings per share $-0.01Free cash flow per share $0.05
2018Earnings per share $-0.04Free cash flow per share $0.00
2019Earnings per share $-0.06Free cash flow per share $0.04
2020Earnings per share $-0.08Free cash flow per share $0.35
2021Earnings per share $-0.07Free cash flow per share $0.89
2022Earnings per share $-0.16Free cash flow per share $1.21
2023Earnings per share $0.14Free cash flow per share $1.81
2024Earnings per share $0.51Free cash flow per share $2.33
2025Earnings per share $0.30Free cash flow per share $2.75
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
200.0M250.0M300.0M350.0M400.0M
2016
2017Diluted shares 245.3M
2018Diluted shares 283.8M
2019Diluted shares 279.7M
2020Diluted shares 300.4M
2021Diluted shares 309.0M
2022Diluted shares 315.4M
2023Diluted shares 350.3M
2024Diluted shares 358.6M
2025Diluted shares 363.5M
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 ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
-4× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
3.38 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 79d
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 fell — not reportedno data
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
✕Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforefailed
✓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?
5.11safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.57 × 6.56+3.74
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.02 × 3.26+0.07
Operating income ÷ assets -0.01 × 6.72-0.04
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.28 × 1.05+1.35
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?
-2.71below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.97+0.89
Gross margin slipping 1.01+0.53
Soft assets 1.24+0.50
Sales growth 1.28+1.14
Slower depreciation 1.39+0.16
Overheads vs sales 1.07-0.18
Profit not in cash -0.14-0.66
Leverage rising 0.74-0.24
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.
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.
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.