MSTR · Financials(finance services) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Strategy Inc reported revenue of $477.2 million in fiscal 2025, after shrinking 0.6% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 14.5% in 2017 to -1140.8%, and it earned -13.6% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $192.9 million its operations generated over 10 years, 159.1% went to buybacks and 22.8% back into the business; the share count rose 2304.6%. On the accounting screens, it passes 1 of 2 Piotroski tests and its Altman Z'' of 4.34 is in the safe zone; 2 of the six cross-checks between its statements fire.
Revenue, fiscal 2025477.2M-0.6% a year over 9 years
Operating margin-1140.8%gross margin 68.7%
Return on invested capital-13.6%-27.3% on average over 4 years
Free cash flow after stock pay-128.8M-27.0% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA-1.1×net debt 5.9B
Piotroski F-score1/2tests 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
-6.0B-4.0B-2.0B02.0B
2017Revenue 503.8MOperating income 73.2M
2018Revenue 497.6MOperating income 4.0M
2019Revenue 486.3MOperating income -1.0M
2020Revenue 480.7MOperating income -13.6M
2021Revenue 510.8MOperating income -784.5M
2022Revenue 499.3MOperating income -1.3B
2023Revenue 496.3MOperating income -115.0M
2024Revenue 463.5MOperating income -1.9B
2025
2025Revenue 477.2MOperating income -5.4B
2017201820192020202120222023202420252025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-1.3%
-1.3%
-0.6%
Shares
+18.8%
+94.3%
+42.4%
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.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
-8.7%
Return on assets
-6.2%
Asset turnover
0.01×
Research & development
19.7% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
31.8% 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
-4.0B-2.0B02.0B
2017Net income 18.2MFree cash flow 74.3MAfter stock-based pay 60.1M
2018Net income 22.5MFree cash flow 3.8MAfter stock-based pay -10.9M
2019Net income 34.4MFree cash flow 50.7MAfter stock-based pay 40.5M
2020Net income -7.5MFree cash flow 50.0MAfter stock-based pay 38.8M
2021Net income -535.5MFree cash flow 91.1MAfter stock-based pay 47.0M
2022Net income -1.5BFree cash flow 725,000After stock-based pay -62.9M
2023Net income 429.1MFree cash flow 9.8MAfter stock-based pay -59.8M
2024Net income -1.2BFree cash flow -56.0MAfter stock-based pay -133.1M
2025
2025Net income -3.8BFree cash flow -75.5MAfter stock-based pay -128.8M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2025
192.9M generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 23%44.0M
Acquisitions 0%0
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 159%306.9M
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -82%-158.0M
Over the same years it paid 358.1M in stock. The share count rose 2304.6%. The buybacks did not even cover what was handed out in stock.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-60.00$-40.00$-20.00$0.00$20.00
2017Earnings per share $1.58Free cash flow per share $6.44
2018Earnings per share $1.97Free cash flow per share $0.33
2019Earnings per share $3.33Free cash flow per share $4.91
2020Earnings per share $-0.78Free cash flow per share $5.16
2021Earnings per share $-53.44Free cash flow per share $9.09
2022Earnings per share $-12.98Free cash flow per share $0.01
2023Earnings per share $2.59Free cash flow per share $0.06
2024Earnings per share $-6.06Free cash flow per share $-0.29
2025
2025Earnings per share $-13.86Free cash flow per share $-0.27
2017201820192020202120222023202420252025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
0100.0M200.0M300.0M
2017Diluted shares 11.5M
2018Diluted shares 11.4M
2019Diluted shares 10.3M
2020Diluted shares 9.7M
2021Diluted shares 10.0M
2022Diluted shares 113.2M
2023Diluted shares 165.7M
2024Diluted shares 192.5M
2025
2025Diluted shares 277.7M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252025
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
02.0B4.0B6.0B8.0B
2017
2018
2019
2020Net debt 426.7M
2021Net debt 2.1B
2022Net debt 2.3B
2023Net debt 2.1B
2024Net debt 7.2B
2025
2025Net debt 5.9B
2017201820192020202120222023202420252025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
-1.1×
Interest coverage
— operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
5.62 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 157d
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 2 tests passed
–ProfitableReturn on assets above zero — not reportedno data
✕Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zerofailed
–Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓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 before — not reportedno data
–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 before — not reportedno data
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?
4.34safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.03 × 6.56+0.22
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.10 × 3.26+0.33
Operating income ÷ assets -0.09 × 6.72-0.59
Equity ÷ liabilities 4.16 × 1.05+4.37
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 (8M) is well below depreciation (26M).
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.
The effective tax rate is -30.4%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
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.