DHI · Consumer discretionary(operative builders) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-09-30
Horton D R Inc reported revenue of $34.3 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 12.2% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 11.1% in 2016 to 13.8%. Of the $14.9 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 69.0% went to buybacks and 18.6% to dividends; the share count fell 17.4%. On the accounting screens, it passes 3 of 7 Piotroski tests; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202534.3B+12.2% a year over 9 years
Operating margin13.8%gross margin 23.7%
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay3.2B9.2% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score3/7tests 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
010.0B20.0B30.0B40.0B
2016Revenue 12.2BOperating income 1.4B
2017Revenue 14.1BOperating income 1.6B
2018Revenue 16.1BOperating income 2.1B
2019Revenue 17.6BOperating income 2.1B
2020Revenue 20.3BOperating income 3.0B
2021Revenue 27.8BOperating income 5.4B
2022Revenue 33.5BOperating income 7.6B
2023Revenue 35.5BOperating income 6.3B
2024Revenue 36.8BOperating income 6.3B
2025Revenue 34.3BOperating income 4.7B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+0.8%
+11.0%
+12.2%
Operating income
-14.7%
+9.7%
+14.9%
Net income
-15.1%
+8.6%
+16.8%
Earnings per share
-11.2%
+12.5%
+19.3%
Free cash flow per share
+108.7%
+24.2%
+24.7%
Dividend per share
+21.4%
+18.2%
+19.7%
Shares
-4.4%
-3.5%
-2.1%
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.
Return on invested capitalCost of capital today · 10.2%
0.0%5.0%10.0%15.0%
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
14.8%
Return on assets
10.1%
Asset turnover
0.97×
Overheads (SG&A)
10.8% 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
02.0B4.0B6.0B
2016Net income 886.3MFree cash flow 545.8MAfter stock-based pay 496.8M
2017Net income 1.0BFree cash flow 337.5MAfter stock-based pay 278.3M
2018Net income 1.5BFree cash flow 477.1MAfter stock-based pay 421.3M
2019Net income 1.6BFree cash flow 764.9MAfter stock-based pay 691.7M
2020Net income 2.4BFree cash flow 1.3BAfter stock-based pay 1.2B
2021Net income 4.2BFree cash flow 440.9MAfter stock-based pay 349.5M
2022Net income 5.9BFree cash flow 413.6MAfter stock-based pay 308.5M
2023Net income 4.7BFree cash flow 4.2BAfter stock-based pay 4.0B
2024Net income 4.8BFree cash flow 2.0BAfter stock-based pay 1.9B
2025Net income 3.6BFree cash flow 3.3BAfter stock-based pay 3.2B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
14.9B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 8%1.2B
Acquisitions 8%1.2B
Dividends 19%2.8B
Share buybacks 69%10.3B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -3%-480.4M
Over the same years it paid 871.8M in stock. The share count fell 17.4%. 9.4B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$5.00$10.00$15.00$20.00
2016Earnings per share $2.36Free cash flow per share $1.46Dividend per share $0.32
2017Earnings per share $2.74Free cash flow per share $0.89Dividend per share $0.39
2018Earnings per share $3.81Free cash flow per share $1.24Dividend per share $0.49
2019Earnings per share $4.29Free cash flow per share $2.03Dividend per share $0.59
2020Earnings per share $6.41Free cash flow per share $3.58Dividend per share $0.69
2021Earnings per share $11.42Free cash flow per share $1.21Dividend per share $0.79
2022Earnings per share $16.51Free cash flow per share $1.17Dividend per share $0.89
2023Earnings per share $13.82Free cash flow per share $12.10Dividend per share $0.99
2024Earnings per share $14.34Free cash flow per share $6.11Dividend per share $1.19
2025Earnings per share $11.57Free cash flow per share $10.60Dividend per share $1.60
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
300.0M320.0M340.0M360.0M380.0M400.0M
2016Diluted shares 375.1M
2017Diluted shares 378.9M
2018Diluted shares 383.4M
2019Diluted shares 377.4M
2020Diluted shares 370.2M
2021Diluted shares 365.8M
2022Diluted shares 354.8M
2023Diluted shares 343.3M
2024Diluted shares 331.6M
2025Diluted shares 309.9M
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
— 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.
3of 7 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)failed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
–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 beforefailed
✕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.
Value per share, with these assumptions$247.20discounted at 10.2% a year · 52% of it from after year 10
Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.
What the value implies, in the usual multiples
At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings
21.4×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA
15.8×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue
2.2×
Free cash flow yield
4.1%
From cash flows to a value per share
10 years of cash flow, today37.0B
Everything after, today39.6B
The whole business76.6B
Minus net debt-0
What belongs to shareholders76.6B
Divided among 309.9M shares: <strong>$247.20</strong> each.
The projection next to its history
Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.
ReportedProjected
02.0B4.0B6.0B8.0B
2016Reported 496.8M
2017Reported 278.3M
2018Reported 421.3M
2019Reported 691.7M
2020Reported 1.2B
2021Reported 349.5M
2022Reported 308.5M
2023Reported 4.0B
2024Reported 1.9B
2025Reported 3.2B
2026Projected 4.5B
2027Projected 5.0B
2028Projected 5.4B
2029Projected 5.9B
2030Projected 6.3B
2031Projected 6.7B
2032Projected 7.1B
2033Projected 7.4B
2034Projected 7.6B
2035Projected 7.8B
2016201820202022202420262028203020322034
Year by year
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
Revenue
38.0B
41.8B
45.7B
49.4B
52.9B
56.3B
59.3B
61.9B
64.0B
65.6B
Growth
11.0%
10.1%
9.1%
8.2%
7.2%
6.3%
5.3%
4.4%
3.4%
2.5%
Cash margin
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
11.9%
Free cash flow
4.5B
5.0B
5.4B
5.9B
6.3B
6.7B
7.1B
7.4B
7.6B
7.8B
Worth today
4.1B
4.1B
4.1B
4.0B
3.9B
3.7B
3.6B
3.4B
3.2B
3.0B
If the least-known inputs move
Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.
The discount rate and growth forever
discount ↓ · forever →
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
9.2%
255
270
286
305
328
9.7%
239
251
265
281
300
10.2%
224
235
247
261
277
10.7%
211
221
231
243
257
11.2%
200
208
217
228
239
Year-one growth and the final margin
margin ↓ · growth →
7.0%
9.0%
11.0%
13.0%
15.0%
9.5%
179
194
209
226
244
10.7%
195
211
228
247
267
11.9%
211
228
247
267
289
13.1%
227
246
266
288
312
14.3%
243
263
285
309
334
All the inputs moving at once
5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 2.0%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.
10th percentile$186.10
Median$247.96
90th percentile$335.06
$200.00$300.00$400.00
Half of the simulations land between <b>$212.70</b> and <b>$288.59</b>; one in ten below $186.10, one in ten above $335.06.
Does the long run make sense?
11.3×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 11.3 times that year's EBITDA.
Free growthIn year 10 free cash flow is at or above after-tax operating profit, yet the model grows 2.5% forever. Growth needs reinvestment; this assumes it comes for free, which flatters the terminal value.
52%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
What lenders charge, after the tax saving on interest: 6.68% × (1 − 23.6%) = <strong>5.10%</strong>.
Weighted by how much of each the company uses (book value (no price given)): <strong>10.18%</strong>, the rate every future cash flow is discounted at.
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.