FWONA · Communication(television broadcasting stations) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
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Liberty Media Corp reported revenue of $4.5 billion in fiscal 2025. Of the $15.1 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 26.0% went to acquisitions and 18.3% back into the business. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 7 Piotroski tests and its Altman Z'' of 3.26 is in the safe zone; 2 of the six cross-checks between its statements fire.
Revenue, fiscal 20254.5B
Operating margin12.9%gross margin —
Return on invested capital3.6%3.7% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay768.0M17.1% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA4.2×net debt 4.0B
Piotroski F-score5/7tests 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
05.0B10.0B15.0B
2018
2018Revenue 8.0BOperating income 1.5B
2019
2019Revenue 10.3BOperating income 1.5B
2020Revenue 9.4BOperating income 177.0M
2021Revenue 11.4BOperating income 2.0B
2022Revenue 3.2BOperating income 145.0M
2023Revenue 3.6BOperating income 266.0M
2024Revenue 3.7BOperating income 287.0M
2025Revenue 4.5BOperating income 577.0M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+12.3%
-13.7%
—
Operating income
+58.5%
+26.7%
—
Net income
-32.6%
—
—
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
-100.0%-50.0%0.0%50.0%100.0%
2018
2018Operating 18.8%Net 6.6%Free cash flow 21.8%
2019
2019Operating 14.3%Net 1.0%Free cash flow 17.5%
2020Operating 1.9%Net -15.2%Free cash flow 13.6%
2021Operating 17.3%Net 3.5%Free cash flow 17.5%
2022Operating 4.6%Net 57.4%Free cash flow 70.8%
2023Operating 7.4%Net 21.3%Free cash flow 56.1%
2024Operating 7.9%Net -56.5%Free cash flow 13.5%
2025Operating 12.9%Net 12.4%Free cash flow 17.6%
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
0.0%2.5%5.0%7.5%10.0%
2018
2018Return on invested capital 4.2%
2019
2019Return on invested capital 3.1%
2020Return on invested capital 0.6%
2021Return on invested capital 5.6%
2022Return on invested capital 0.3%
2023Return on invested capital 1.0%
2024Return on invested capital 8.1%
2025Return on invested capital 3.6%
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
7.2%
Return on assets
3.6%
Asset turnover
0.29×
Overheads (SG&A)
11.5% 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
-4.0B-2.0B02.0B4.0B
2018
2018Net income 531.0MFree cash flow 1.8BAfter stock-based pay 1.6B
2019
2019Net income 106.0MFree cash flow 1.8BAfter stock-based pay 1.5B
2020Net income -1.4BFree cash flow 1.3BAfter stock-based pay 1.0B
2021Net income 398.0MFree cash flow 2.0BAfter stock-based pay 1.7B
2022Net income 1.8BFree cash flow 2.2BAfter stock-based pay 2.2B
2023Net income 761.0MFree cash flow 2.0BAfter stock-based pay 2.0B
2024Net income -2.1BFree cash flow 492.0MAfter stock-based pay 462.0M
2025Net income 555.0MFree cash flow 789.0MAfter stock-based pay 768.0M
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2018–2025
15.1B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 18%2.8B
Acquisitions 26%3.9B
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 12%1.8B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 44%6.6B
Over the same years it paid 1.1B in stock. 692.0M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Shares outstanding
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
05.0B10.0B15.0B20.0B
2018
2018Net debt 13.0B
2019Net debt 13.4B
2019Net debt 14.3B
2020Net debt 14.6B
2021Net debt 15.8B
2022Net debt 14.7B
2023Net debt 2.8B
2024Net debt 361.0M
2025Net debt 4.0B
2018201820192019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
4.2×
Interest coverage
2× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.46 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 9d
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 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 fellfailed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
–No new sharesShare count did not grow — not reportedno data
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓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?
3.26safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.03 × 6.56+0.18
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.51 × 3.26+1.65
Operating income ÷ assets 0.04 × 6.72+0.25
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.12 × 1.05+1.17
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?
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.
Capital spending (119M) is well below depreciation (393M).
Benign
Mature assets, or a business that has become less capital-intensive.
Worrying
Under-investing: today's profit is being held up by consuming tomorrow's capacity.
Net debt is 4.2 times EBITDA.
Benign
A stable sector with predictable cash flows and comfortable maturities.
Worrying
Little room if earnings fall; the maturity schedule is what to check.
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: 4 filings by 4 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$16.1M4 sale(s) by 1 insider(s)
Under pre-arranged plans0%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.
