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FCF Margin History Chart
Chart any stock's free-cash-flow margin % across the last 10 fiscal years and see at a glance how much of every revenue dollar survives as cash after capital spending. Auto-populates from Yahoo Finance. Pair it with the FCF history chart for dollars and the EBITDA margin history chart for full context.
How to Read FCF Margin Trends
FCF margin measures how much of every revenue dollar becomes free cash flow — the cash left after a business funds its operations and its capital expenditures. It is the truest test of whether reported growth is actually self-funding. A rising FCF margin means the company is converting sales into spendable cash more efficiently; a falling one means capital intensity, working-capital drag, or margin pressure is eating into that conversion.
Read it against the full margin stack. When net margin holds but FCF margin sinks, the cash is being consumed below the income statement — heavy capex, swelling receivables or inventory, or stock-based compensation flattering earnings. When FCF margin tops net margin, large non-cash charges like depreciation are depressing reported profit without touching cash. Use the gross margin history chart, operating margin history chart, and EBITDA margin history chart alongside this one to locate exactly where the margin is being won or lost.
Once you have the trend, see the raw dollars with the FCF history chart, anchor valuation with the DCF calculator, or screen the whole market with the FCF yield screener.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the FCF margin history chart show?
It plots a company's free-cash-flow margin — free cash flow divided by total revenue, expressed as a percentage — for up to 10 fiscal years. Reading the bars left to right shows whether a larger or smaller share of each revenue dollar is surviving as cash after capital spending. Bars are colored green above 15%, yellow between 5% and 15%, orange between 0% and 5%, and red when free cash flow is negative, with a dashed line marking the 5-year average.
What is a good FCF margin?
As a rough guide, an FCF margin above 15% signals a strong cash converter, 5–15% is healthy for most businesses, 0–5% is thin, and negative means the company is burning cash. But the bar varies by industry: asset-light software firms can sustain FCF margins above 25%, while capital-intensive manufacturers, utilities, and retailers often run in the single digits even when perfectly healthy. Judge the trend and compare against direct peers rather than fixating on the absolute number.
How is FCF margin calculated here?
Free cash flow is operating cash flow minus capital expenditures, taken from Yahoo Finance annual cash-flow statements. FCF margin is that free cash flow divided by total revenue for the same fiscal year, times 100. Negative years are kept and shown in red because a cash-burn year is part of the story, not an error to hide.
When does FCF margin diverge from net margin, and why?
Net margin and FCF margin can move apart whenever accounting profit and cash collection disagree. A company can report healthy net income while FCF margin lags — heavy capital spending, rising inventory or receivables, or stock-based compensation that flatters earnings but not cash. Conversely, FCF margin can exceed net margin when large non-cash charges like depreciation or amortisation depress reported profit without touching cash. Watching the two side by side is one of the cleanest tells for earnings quality.
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