All articles tagged with "Cash Conversion"
Three fuel cell companies target AI data center power, but execution quality varies dramatically. Bloom Energy's +4.5% ROIC vs Plug Power's -104% isn't a small difference—it's a fundamental divide between a functioning business and a value destroyer. Our SEC filing analysis reveals warning signs even for the winner.
The semiconductor equipment ROIC spread (LRCX 54% vs AMAT 27%) is observable in any screener. But SEC filings reveal four hidden signals: AMAT faces TWO government investigations plus $181M restructuring, KLAC's AI packaging segment grew 37% with 401bps margin expansion (proving AI demand is real), LRCX's cash conversion is declining -23.7% (hidden stress beneath high ROIC), and ASML's 4-customer concentration creates feast-or-famine cycles.
Two enterprise AI giants, two very different earnings quality profiles. Palantir (6/10) wins on cash conversion, accounting practices, and litigation risk. Snowflake (4/10) struggles with negative cash conversion (-0.47x) and aggressive software capitalization ($228M). Our 5-pass SEC filing analysis reveals what standard screeners miss.
ARM Holdings generates 97% gross margin—the highest in semiconductors. Yet only 4% reaches free cash flow. Taiwan Semiconductor earns 56% gross margin but converts 63% to FCF. Intel, despite $5.7 billion in CHIPS Act disbursements, still burns cash. We analyzed 20-F and 10-Q filings to explain these capital efficiency gaps.
Three major fintechs, three very different approaches to earnings quality. PayPal (8/10) represents conservative accounting, Block (6/10) shows aggressive tendencies with regulatory exposure, and Coinbase (4/10) raises red flags with 0.10x cash conversion. Our 5-pass filing intelligence reveals what standard screeners miss.
Earnings can be manipulated through accounting choices. Cash flow cannot. Learn the cash conversion framework—synthesizing Damodaran's multi-period analysis, Greenwald's earnings power value, and Sloan's accruals anomaly—to separate real profits from accounting fiction.