TLN · Utilities(electric services) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Signed in, this page also says what this company is inside your own portfolio: its weight, its share of your risk, and what buying or selling some of it would change. Sign in ›
Talen Energy Corp reported revenue of $2.5 billion in fiscal 2025. Of the $2.8 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 136.1% went to acquisitions and 74.0% to buybacks; the share count rose 9.4%. On the accounting screens, it passes 3 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 0.06 is in the distress zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 4 of the six cross-checks between its statements fire.
Revenue, fiscal 20252.5B
Operating margin-3.6%gross margin —
Return on invested capital-1.5%1.6% on average over 2 years
Free cash flow after stock pay80.0M3.2% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA32.4×net debt 6.1B
Piotroski F-score3/8tests of improvement passed
Share counts are in today's shares. The SEC's filings restate only recent years after a split, so these jumps were read as splits and the older years scaled to match — otherwise per-share figures would compare different units:
1-for-2 before fiscal 2021.
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
-1B01B2B3B4B
2013Operating income -293.0M
2014Operating income 397.0M
2015Operating income -39.0M
2021
2022Revenue 3.2BOperating income 241.0M
2023
2023
2023
2024Revenue 1.6BOperating income 226.0M
2025Revenue 2.5BOperating income -90.0M
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
—
-4.7%
—
Shares
-8.2%
—
+1.0%
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
-50%0%50%100%
2013
2014
2015
2021
2022Operating 7.5%Net -40.3%Free cash flow -1.4%
2023
2023
2023
2024Operating 14.4%Net 63.4%Free cash flow 10.9%
2025Operating -3.6%Net -8.7%Free cash flow 24.1%
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
-2%0%2%4%6%
2013
2014Return on invested capital 4.0%
2015Return on invested capital -0.5%
2021
2022
2023
2023
2023
2024Return on invested capital 4.7%
2025Return on invested capital -1.5%
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
-20.0%
Return on assets
-2.0%
Asset turnover
0.23×
Overheads (SG&A)
24.8% 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
-2B-1B01B
2013Net income -230.0MFree cash flow -173.0M
2014Net income 410.0MFree cash flow 46.0M
2015Net income -341.0MFree cash flow 317.0MAfter stock-based pay 299.0M
2021
2022Net income -1.3BFree cash flow -45.0MAfter stock-based pay -45.0M
2023
2023
2023
2024Net income 998.0MFree cash flow 171.0MAfter stock-based pay 138.0M
2025Net income -219.0MFree cash flow 606.0MAfter stock-based pay 80.0M
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2013–2025
2.8B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 67%1.9B
Acquisitions 136%3.8B
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 74%2.1B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -177%-4.9B
Over the same years it paid 577.0M in stock. The share count rose 9.4%. 1.5B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
-$10$0$10$20
2013Earnings per share $-5.51Free cash flow per share $-4.14
2014Earnings per share $9.82Free cash flow per share $1.10
2015Earnings per share $-6.21Free cash flow per share $5.77
2021
2022
2023
2023
2023
2024Earnings per share $17.67Free cash flow per share $3.03
2025Earnings per share $-4.79Free cash flow per share $13.26
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
020M40M60M
2013Diluted shares 41.8M
2014Diluted shares 41.8M
2015Diluted shares 54.9M
2021
2022Diluted shares 0
2023
2023Diluted shares 59.0M
2023Diluted shares 59.0M
2024Diluted shares 56.5M
2025Diluted shares 45.7M
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Debt and liquidity
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
02B4B6B8B
2013
2014Net debt 1.9B
2015Net debt 4.1B
2021
2022
2023
2023Net debt 2.7B
2023Net debt 2.4B
2024Net debt 2.7B
2025Net debt 6.1B
2013201420152021202220232023202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
32.4×
Interest coverage
— operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.28 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 23d
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 8 tests passed
✕ProfitableReturn on assets above zerofailed
✓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 growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕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?
0.06distress zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.03 × 6.56+0.18
Retained earnings ÷ assets -0.06 × 3.26-0.18
Operating income ÷ assets -0.01 × 6.72-0.06
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.11 × 1.05+0.12
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?
-2.20below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.52+1.39
Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
Soft assets 0.59+0.24
Sales growth 1.60+1.43
Slower depreciation 2.42+0.28
Overheads vs sales 2.39-0.41
Profit not in cash -0.08-0.40
Leverage rising 1.27-0.42
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.
Receivables are growing 142% against revenue growing 60%.
Benign
A shift towards larger customers on longer terms, or sales concentrated at the end of the period.
Worrying
Sales are being made on looser credit, or revenue has been booked that may never be collected.
Capital spending (98M) is well below depreciation (279M).
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 -31.9%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
Net debt is 32.4 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.
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.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 6 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$988,0001 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.