Is the business good?
How good a business is TSLA?
Tesla, Inc. earns 6.8% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
6.8%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 2.2 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 4.2%
Operating margin · Auto Manufacturers median −0.46% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.51×
Cash conversion · 0.95× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- +0.60%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 6.3% |
| FY2021 | 12% |
| FY2022 | 17% |
| FY2023 | 9.2% |
| FY2024 | 7.2% |
| FY2025 | 4.6% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 19%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 4.2%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 3.7%
- Free cash flow margin
- 5.6%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 7.5%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $103.6B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $5.76B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $3.80B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 6.8%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Auto Manufacturers
Ranks #5 of 12 by Smart Score