EQIX · Real estate(real estate investment trusts) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Equinix Inc reported revenue of $9.2 billion in fiscal 2025. Of the $22.0 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 98.4% went back into the business and 43.6% to dividends. On the accounting screens, it passes 6 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 1.58 is in the grey zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20259.2B
Operating margin20.0%gross margin 51.1%
Return on invested capital10.7%5.4% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay-898.0M-9.7% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDANet cash428.0M more cash than debt
Piotroski F-score6/9tests 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
02.5B5.0B7.5B10.0B
2018
2018Revenue 5.1BOperating income 977.4M
2019
2019Revenue 5.6BOperating income 1.2B
2020Revenue 6.0BOperating income 1.1B
2021Revenue 6.6BOperating income 1.1B
2022Revenue 7.3BOperating income 1.2B
2023Revenue 8.2BOperating income 1.4B
2024Revenue 8.7BOperating income 1.3B
2025Revenue 9.2BOperating income 1.8B
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+8.3%
+9.0%
—
Operating income
+15.5%
+11.9%
—
Net income
+24.2%
+29.6%
—
Earnings per share
+21.5%
+26.9%
—
Dividend per share
+14.7%
+12.0%
—
Shares
+2.2%
+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.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
9.5%
Return on assets
3.4%
Asset turnover
0.23×
Overheads (SG&A)
20.0% 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
-1.0B01.0B2.0B
2018
2018Net income 365.4MFree cash flow -280.7MAfter stock-based pay -461.5M
2019
2019Net income 507.4MFree cash flow -86.8MAfter stock-based pay -323.3M
2020Net income 369.8MFree cash flow 27.3MAfter stock-based pay -267.6M
2021Net income 500.2MFree cash flow -204.3MAfter stock-based pay -568.1M
2022Net income 705.0MFree cash flow 685.0MAfter stock-based pay 281.0M
2023Net income 969.0MFree cash flow 436.0MAfter stock-based pay 29.0M
2024Net income 815.0MFree cash flow 183.0MAfter stock-based pay -279.0M
2025Net income 1.4BFree cash flow -400.0MAfter stock-based pay -898.0M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2018–2025
22.0B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 98%21.6B
Acquisitions 16%3.4B
Dividends 44%9.6B
Share buybacks 0%0
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -57%-12.6B
Over the same years it paid 2.8B in stock.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-10.00$0.00$10.00$20.00
2018
2018Earnings per share $4.56Free cash flow per share $-3.50Dividend per share $9.21
2019
2019Earnings per share $5.99Free cash flow per share $-1.02Dividend per share $9.87
2020Earnings per share $4.18Free cash flow per share $0.31Dividend per share $10.72
2021Earnings per share $5.53Free cash flow per share $-2.26Dividend per share $11.54
2022Earnings per share $7.68Free cash flow per share $7.46Dividend per share $12.55
2023Earnings per share $10.31Free cash flow per share $4.64Dividend per share $14.63
2024Earnings per share $8.50Free cash flow per share $1.91Dividend per share $17.15
2025Earnings per share $13.76Free cash flow per share $-4.08Dividend per share $18.92
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
80.0M85.0M90.0M95.0M100.0M
2018
2018Diluted shares 80.2M
2019
2019Diluted shares 84.7M
2020Diluted shares 88.4M
2021Diluted shares 90.4M
2022Diluted shares 91.8M
2023Diluted shares 94.0M
2024Diluted shares 95.8M
2025Diluted shares 98.1M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
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
-5.0B05.0B10.0B15.0B
2018
2018Net debt 9.3B
2019
2019Net debt 8.5B
2020Net debt 9.0B
2021Net debt 10.2B
2022Net debt 11.0B
2023Net debt 12.7B
2024Net debt 13.5B
2025Net debt -428.0M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
-0.1×
Interest coverage
4× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.32 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 40d
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 9 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 beforefailed
✕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?
1.58grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.03 × 6.56+0.20
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.15 × 3.26+0.50
Operating income ÷ assets 0.05 × 6.72+0.31
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.55 × 1.05+0.57
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?
-2.48below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.00+0.92
Gross margin slipping 0.96+0.51
Soft assets 0.96+0.39
Sales growth 1.05+0.94
Slower depreciation 1.18+0.14
Overheads vs sales 0.99-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.06-0.30
Leverage rising 0.18-0.06
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.