Is the business good?
How good a business is NRG?
NRG Energy earns 5.7% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
5.7%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 3.3 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 6.1%
Operating margin · Utilities - Independent Power Producers median 6.1% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.41×
Cash conversion · 2.67× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- +8.2%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 12% |
| FY2021 | 12% |
| FY2022 | 6.4% |
| FY2023 | 1.3% |
| FY2024 | 8.6% |
| FY2025 | 6.0% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 19%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 6.1%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 2.6%
- Free cash flow margin
- 1.1%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $33.1B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $348M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $849M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 5.7%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Utilities - Independent Power Producers
Ranks #5 of 6 by Smart Score