PWR · Industrials(electrical work) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Quanta Services, Inc. reported revenue of $28.5 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 15.7% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 4.2% in 2016 to 5.7%, and it earned 12.5% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $10.4 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 89.8% went to acquisitions and 36.0% back into the business; the share count fell 3.8%. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 2.21 is in the grey zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202528.5B+15.7% a year over 9 years
Operating margin5.7%gross margin 15.0%
Return on invested capital12.5%12.2% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay1.4B5.1% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA0.2×net debt 324.4M
Piotroski F-score4/9tests 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
010.0B20.0B30.0B
2016Revenue 7.7BOperating income 320.8M
2017Revenue 9.5BOperating income 378.8M
2018Revenue 11.2BOperating income 540.3M
2019Revenue 12.1BOperating income 554.9M
2020Revenue 11.2BOperating income 611.4M
2021Revenue 13.0BOperating income 663.5M
2022Revenue 17.1BOperating income 872.1M
2023Revenue 20.9BOperating income 1.1B
2024Revenue 23.7BOperating income 1.3B
2025Revenue 28.5BOperating income 1.6B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+18.6%
+20.5%
+15.7%
Operating income
+22.7%
+21.4%
+19.6%
Net income
+27.9%
+18.2%
+19.9%
Earnings per share
+27.0%
+17.2%
+20.5%
Free cash flow per share
+31.2%
+12.7%
+28.4%
Dividend per share
+12.9%
+15.0%
—
Shares
+0.7%
+0.8%
-0.4%
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
11.5%
Return on assets
4.1%
Asset turnover
1.14×
Overheads (SG&A)
7.7% 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
0500.0M1.0B1.5B2.0B
2016Net income 200.1MFree cash flow 178.2MAfter stock-based pay 135.4M
2017Net income 315.0MFree cash flow 127.2MAfter stock-based pay 80.8M
2018Net income 293.3MFree cash flow 65.2MAfter stock-based pay 12.7M
2019Net income 402.0MFree cash flow 264.8MAfter stock-based pay 212.8M
2020Net income 445.6MFree cash flow 855.9MAfter stock-based pay 764.3M
2021Net income 486.0MFree cash flow 196.5MAfter stock-based pay 108.3M
2022Net income 491.2MFree cash flow 702.7MAfter stock-based pay 597.1M
2023Net income 744.7MFree cash flow 1.1BAfter stock-based pay 1.0B
2024Net income 904.8MFree cash flow 1.5BAfter stock-based pay 1.3B
2025Net income 1.0BFree cash flow 1.6BAfter stock-based pay 1.4B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
10.4B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 36%3.7B
Acquisitions 90%9.3B
Dividends 3%289.6M
Share buybacks 11%1.1B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -39%-4.1B
Over the same years it paid 938.5M in stock. The share count fell 3.8%. 151.3M 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
2016Earnings per share $1.27Free cash flow per share $1.13
2017Earnings per share $2.00Free cash flow per share $0.81Dividend per share $0.00
2018Earnings per share $1.90Free cash flow per share $0.42Dividend per share $0.00
2019Earnings per share $2.73Free cash flow per share $1.79Dividend per share $0.16
2020Earnings per share $3.07Free cash flow per share $5.89Dividend per share $0.20
2021Earnings per share $3.34Free cash flow per share $1.35Dividend per share $0.23
2022Earnings per share $3.32Free cash flow per share $4.75Dividend per share $0.28
2023Earnings per share $5.00Free cash flow per share $7.67Dividend per share $0.32
2024Earnings per share $6.03Free cash flow per share $9.84Dividend per share $0.36
2025Earnings per share $6.80Free cash flow per share $10.71Dividend per share $0.40
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
145.0M150.0M155.0M160.0M
2016Diluted shares 157.3M
2017Diluted shares 157.2M
2018Diluted shares 154.2M
2019Diluted shares 147.5M
2020Diluted shares 145.2M
2021Diluted shares 145.4M
2022Diluted shares 148.0M
2023Diluted shares 148.8M
2024Diluted shares 150.1M
2025Diluted shares 151.3M
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
-1.0B-500.0M0500.0M1.0B
2016Net debt 246.2M
2017Net debt 533.7M
2018Net debt 994.1M
2019Net debt -89.9M
2020Net debt -169.9M
2021Net debt -199.9M
2022Net debt -391.0M
2023Net debt -755.0M
2024Net debt -679.3M
2025Net debt 324.4M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
0.2×
Interest coverage
6× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.14 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 88d
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.
4of 9 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 fellfailed
✕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?
2.21grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.05 × 6.56+0.31
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.27 × 3.26+0.87
Operating income ÷ assets 0.06 × 6.72+0.43
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.56 × 1.05+0.59
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?
-2.47below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.10+1.01
Gross margin slipping 0.99+0.52
Soft assets 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.40
Sales growth 1.20+1.07
Slower depreciation 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.12
Overheads vs sales 1.00-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.05-0.23
Leverage rising 1.08-0.35
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.
Inventory is growing 42% against revenue growing 20%.
Benign
Stocking up for a launch, or securing supply.
Worrying
Demand is softening; discounts or write-downs tend to follow.
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.