ZDZiff Davis, Inc.
Is the business good?
The checks split: 7 of 9 health tests passed and earnings fully cash-backed (7.8×), but margins compressing.
High fundamental quality. Nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year health from the filings.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash. Conversion is improving vs a year ago.
Operating margin has narrowed over the past few years, profitability per dollar of sales is eroding.
Margin-driven, fat margins on slower asset turns. ROE 10% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
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 ZD?
Ziff Davis, Inc. earns 3.8% 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% · 5.2 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 5.5%
Operating margin · Advertising Agencies median 5.7% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 7.81×
Cash conversion · 5.59× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- −13%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 12% |
| FY2021 | 12% |
| FY2022 | 14% |
| FY2023 | 9.7% |
| FY2024 | 8.1% |
| FY2025 | 13% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 85%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 5.5%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 49%
- Free cash flow margin
- 24%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 4.3%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $1.32B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $317M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $643M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 3.8%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.