MARKETS / GLOSSARY / FREE CASH FLOW MARGIN

Free cash flow margin

Free cash flow margin is the share of revenue that ends up as cash the company can actually do something with — free cash flow divided by revenue.

Definition

How it is computed here

Formula(cash from operations − capital expenditure) ÷ revenue
UnitRatio (shown as %)
PeriodOne fiscal year, as reported
SourceExtracted from SEC filings; every value on an asset page carries the accounting tag and the filing it came from
Identifiermargem_fluxo_caixa_livre
The inputs

What goes into the formula

Cash from operationsCash the business itself generated, from the cash flow statement.
Capital expenditureCash spent on property, plant and equipment — what it took to keep the assets working and to add to them.
RevenueThe top line, so the result reads as cents per dollar billed.

A formula without its inputs explained is decoration. Where an input is missing from a filing, the metric is left empty here rather than completed with a zero or an estimate.

Worked example

How to calculate free cash flow margin, step by step

A company whose profit and cash tell different stories.

Revenue$4,000M
Net income$276M
Cash from operations$620M
Capital expenditure$300M
  1. Free cash flow = 620 − 300 = $320M.
  2. Free cash flow margin = 320 ÷ 4,000 = 8.0%.
  3. Net margin, for comparison = 276 ÷ 4,000 = 6.9%.

Result: 8.0% of cash against 6.9% of accounting profit

This company converts more than it books, which usually means large depreciation on assets bought long ago. The reverse pattern — cash margin well below net margin, year after year — is the one worth asking about.

The figures in this example are illustrative and rounded — they are not a real company. The real figures on this site are the live ones below and on every asset page, each carrying the filing it came from.

Why it matters

What free cash flow margin is good for

Comparing this to net margin is the fastest way to see whether reported profit is turning into money. A business whose cash margin tracks its net margin over years is converting; one whose cash margin sits persistently below is not, and the gap has to be somewhere — working capital, capitalised costs, or profit that was never cash.

The limit

What this number does not tell you

Cutting capital expenditure raises this margin immediately and costs the business later, so a sudden improvement is as likely to be underinvestment as efficiency. Working capital swings move it for reasons that are about timing, not performance — one large customer paying in January instead of December shifts the margin between two years without anything happening.

Every metric on this site is published with its blind spot stated. A figure without its limit is half a fact.

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In the data

Highest reported free cash flow margin

From the most recent fiscal year of each company.

On a real company

See it in a published filing

Their sectors

These pages show the figure across up to nineteen fiscal years, with the accounting tag and the filing behind every value.

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