Is the business good?
How good a business is XYL?
Xylem Inc. earns 8.1% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
8.1%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 0.93 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 14%
Operating margin · Specialty Industrial Machinery median 15% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.98×
Cash conversion · 0.98× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −0.17%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 7.5% |
| FY2021 | 11% |
| FY2022 | 11% |
| FY2023 | 8.8% |
| FY2024 | 12% |
| FY2025 | 14% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 39%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 14%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 11%
- Free cash flow margin
- 11%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 2.5%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $9.09B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $966M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $981M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 8.1%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Specialty Industrial Machinery
Ranks #30 of 44 by Smart Score