HPHelmerich & Payne, Inc.
Is the business good?
The checks split: earnings fully cash-backed (8.2×), but margins compressing.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is improving vs a year ago.
Operating profit is falling even as sales grow, costs are outrunning the top line.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is HP?
Helmerich & Payne, Inc. earns 1.7% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 7.3 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 2.3%
Operating margin · Oil & Gas Drilling median 5.0% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 8.16×
Cash conversion · 5.69× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- +0.61%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | −35% |
| FY2021 | −35% |
| FY2022 | 2.2% |
| FY2023 | 20% |
| FY2024 | 17% |
| FY2025 | 0.09% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 32%
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 2.3%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- −3.4%
- Free cash flow margin
- 7.9%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 0.68%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $4.00B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $315M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- −$137M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 1.7%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.