#financial-analysis
Financial Analysis
Analyze financial data and metrics to evaluate business performance and health
Times Interest Earned Ratio Explained: The Number Lenders Check First
The times interest earned (TIE) ratio — EBIT divided by interest expense — tells lenders how many times over your operating earnings cover your interest bill. Most lenders want at least 2.5–3.0; below 1.5 signals high default risk. Here's how to calculate it, where it falls short, and how to improve it before a loan application.
Economic Value Added (EVA) Explained: The Profit Metric That Charges for Capital
Economic Value Added (EVA) = NOPAT − (WACC × invested capital) — the profit left after every source of capital, debt and equity alike, is paid its going rate. A worked example, how to estimate NOPAT and WACC, why EVA avoids ROI's percentage bias, and how small business owners can use it for capital decisions.
Alphabet Q1 2026: Google Cloud Grows 63%, and a $37.7B Paper Gain Drives the EPS Beat
Alphabet's Q1 2026 revenue was $109.9B (+21.8% YoY) with Google Cloud accelerating to 63% growth and backlog above $460B, but the 82% jump in diluted EPS to $5.11 rests largely on a $37.7B other-income line — mostly unrealized marks on non-marketable equity securities. Backing out the $36.9B equity-securities gain leaves EPS near $2.76, roughly flat against last year's $2.81. Rebuilding the FY2022–Q1 2026 books in a public Beancount ledger shows exactly where the gain landed — non-marketable securities rose from $68.7B to $106.9B, not cash.
Amazon FY2025 Earnings: A Record $77.7B Profit — and AWS Now Generates 57% of It
Amazon's FY2025: $716.9B net sales (+12.4%) and a record $77.7B net income (+31.1%) — but operating income grew only 16.6%, with a $15.2B non-operating equity gain accounting for $7.0B after tax. AWS grew 19.7% to $128.7B and produced 57% of company operating income on 18% of revenue, while PP&E jumped $104.4B in a single year. Modeled line by line in a public Beancount ledger.
Apple's Best March Quarter Ever: $111.2B Revenue, a New $100B Buyback, and Retained Earnings Turn Positive Again
Apple's Q2 FY2026 revenue reached $111.2 billion (+17% YoY) with expanding margins across every geographic segment, and a new $100 billion buyback authorization pushed retained earnings positive for the first time since fiscal 2021. Full income statement and balance sheet, FY2021-Q2 FY2026, in a public Beancount ledger.
Broadcom FY2025 Earnings: $63.9B in Revenue, and a Net Income That Nearly Quadrupled to $23.1B
Broadcom's FY2025: $63.9B revenue (+23.9%) and GAAP net income of $23.1B, up 292% from $5.9B — but decomposing the $17.2B swing shows revenue growth explains only 72% of it, with roughly $4.8B coming from a tax provision flipping to a $397M benefit plus one-time restructuring and discontinued-operations reversals. The durable signals are Infrastructure Software's operating margin rebounding to 76.8%, above its pre-VMware baseline, and AI semiconductor revenue guided to roughly double to $8.2B. Rebuilt line by line in a public Beancount ledger, FY2021–FY2025.
Circle Q1 2026: $694M in Revenue, and Most of It Never Stays
Circle's Q1 2026 revenue was $694.1M (+20% YoY) with USDC in circulation at $77.0B, but $405.4M — 58.4% — went to distribution partners, leaving an RLDC margin of 41%. Reserve income is 94% of revenue, so the top line tracks short-term interest rates. Rebuilding Circle's books in a public Beancount ledger also shows FY2025 was a net-loss year (−$70M), driven by a one-time $503.4M IPO compensation charge in Q2.
Micron FY2026 Q3 Earnings: Revenue Rose 346%. The Cost of Making the Chips Rose 10%.
Micron's fiscal Q3 2026 revenue rose 345.7% to $41.46 billion while cost of goods sold rose only 10.5% to $6.40 billion, lifting GAAP gross margin from 37.7% to 84.6% and net income to $28.24 billion — a margin built on DRAM pricing, not cost structure, in a business that posted a negative 9.1% gross margin as recently as FY2023.
MiniMax FY2025 Earnings: $79M in Revenue, and a $1.9 Billion Loss That Isn't What It Looks Like
MiniMax's first annual report as a listed company shows FY2025 revenue of $79.0M (+158.9% YoY) and gross margin up to 25.4%, alongside an IFRS net loss of $1.87B — but $1.59B of that loss is a non-cash fair-value remeasurement of convertible redeemable preferred shares that converted to equity at the January 9, 2026 Hong Kong listing. Adjusted net loss grew only 2.7%, from $244.2M to $250.9M. A public Beancount ledger of FY2022–FY2025 shows exactly where the paper loss sits and why it disappears in FY2026.
NVIDIA Q1 FY2027: $81.6B Revenue, and $15.9B of Net Income That Isn't From Chips
NVIDIA's Q1 FY2027 revenue hit $81.6B (+85% YoY) and net income $58.3B (+211%), but $15.9B of that profit came from marking up its equity portfolio, not selling chips — core net income is closer to $42.4B. The quarter also retired the five-segment breakout for two platforms, Data Center (92% of revenue) and Edge Computing. Full income statement and balance sheet, FY2024–Q1 FY2027, in a public Beancount ledger.
Palantir Q1 2026 Earnings: An 85% Growth Rate, a 53% Net Margin, and a Balance Sheet That Still Says It Has Never Made Money
Palantir's Q1 2026 revenue grew 84.7% to $1.633 billion while total costs grew only 24%, lifting operating margin to 46.2% and net margin to 53.7% — a net margin that exceeds the operating margin because interest income adds $134.6 million and the effective tax rate is just 1.4%, against an accumulated deficit that still stands at $2.69 billion.
Tesla Q1 2026: Margins Hit a 5-Quarter High While Deliveries Keep Falling — and a New $25B+ Capex Guide Rattled the Stock
Tesla's Q1 2026 revenue reached $22.4 billion (+16% YoY) with automotive gross margin hitting a 5-quarter high of 19.2% ex-regulatory-credits, but a capex guidance raise to over $25 billion and a $2.0 billion SpaceX equity stake sent the stock down 3.56% despite the earnings beat. Full income statement and balance sheet, FY2021-Q1 2026, in a public Beancount ledger.