Owner Scorecard


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AFYA, Afya Limited Class A

Education Services asset-light

An asset-light business: the value sits in intellectual property and people, not plant, so the question is how durable the advantage is, not how high the margin.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · figures as filed, in BRL
AFYA · Afya Limited Class A
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
R$3.7B
+11.9% YoY · 25% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue R$3.7B 5-yr avg R$2.8B
Gross margin 64% 5-yr avg 63%
Operating margin 32.8% 5-yr avg 28.9%
ROIC 20% 5-yr avg 15%
Owner-earnings margin 37% 5-yr avg 33%
Free cash flow margin 37% 5-yr avg 33%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 63% and operating margin about 29% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. That margin has stayed fairly steady relative to where it runs (23%–33% over the years), so unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line, are the lever. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on debt terms & refinancing, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has run in the teens (median 16%, above 15% in 6 of 9 years), though buybacks and expensed R&D and brands shrink the capital base, so the figure overstates the underlying economics. The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 29% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMDec 2025
Income statement
R$216MR$334MR$751MR$1.2BR$1.7BR$2.3BR$2.9BR$3.3BR$3.7BR$3.7BRevenueRevenue
43%50%64%62%63%61%63%64%64%Gross marginGross mgn
R$49MR$96MR$205MR$363MR$441MR$664MR$767MR$1.0BR$1.2BR$1.2BOperating incomeOp. inc.
22.8%28.9%27.3%30.2%25.6%28.5%26.7%30.6%32.8%32.8%Operating marginOp. mgn
R$45MR$86MR$154MR$292MR$223MR$374MR$386MR$632MR$752MR$752MNet incomeNet inc.
5%4%8%8%12%9%6%4%4%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
R$40MR$80MR$299MR$372MR$631MR$844MR$1.0BR$1.4BR$1.5BR$1.5BOperating cash flowOp. cash
R$4MR$9MR$73MR$109MR$154MR$206MR$290MR$333MR$373MR$373MDepreciationDeprec.
(R$9M)(R$15M)R$72M(R$29M)R$253MR$264MR$368MR$468MR$406MR$406MWorking capital & otherWC & other
R$17MR$19MR$57MR$90MR$126MR$168MR$118MR$137MR$166MR$166MCapexCapex
7.8%5.6%7.6%7.5%7.3%7.2%4.1%4.1%4.5%4.5%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
R$36MR$71MR$242MR$282MR$505MR$676MR$925MR$1.3BR$1.4BR$1.4BOwner earningsOwner earn.
16.6%21.3%32.3%23.4%29.4%29.0%32.2%39.2%36.9%36.9%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
R$23MR$62MR$242MR$282MR$505MR$676MR$925MR$1.3BR$1.4BR$1.4BFree cash flowFCF
10.7%18.5%32.3%23.4%29.4%29.0%32.2%39.2%36.9%36.9%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
R$3MR$6MR$52MR$13MR$19MR$20MR$19MR$18MR$147MR$147MDividends paidDiv. paid
220%18%16%14%11%15%15%17%17%20%ROICROIC
97%17%7%10%8%12%11%15%16%16%Return on equityROE
92%16%5%10%7%11%10%14%12%12%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
R$25MR$62MR$943MR$1.0BR$749MR$1.1BR$553MR$911MR$1.1BR$1.1BCash & investmentsCash+inv
R$58MR$125MR$302MR$378MR$453MR$546MR$596MR$717MR$717MReceivablesReceiv.
R$1MR$4MR$8MR$12MR$12MR$1MR$1MInventoryInvent.
R$8MR$18MR$36MR$59MR$71MR$108MR$128MR$124MR$124MAccounts payablePayables
R$51MR$112MR$274MR$331MR$394MR$440MR$468MR$594MR$595MOperating working capitalOper. WC
R$134MR$1.1BR$1.4BR$1.2BR$1.6BR$1.2BR$1.6BR$1.9BR$1.9BCurrent assetsCur. assets
R$182MR$333MR$589MR$767MR$906MR$1.1BR$1.1BR$884MR$884MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.7×3.3×2.4×1.6×1.8×1.1×1.4×2.2×2.2×Current ratioCurr. ratio
R$918MR$2.9BR$4.8BR$6.4BR$7.2BR$7.6BR$8.8BR$9.4BR$9.4BTotal assetsAssets
R$78MR$60MR$617MR$1.4BR$1.9BR$1.8BR$2.2BR$2.1BR$2.1BTotal debtDebt
R$16M(R$883M)(R$428M)R$626MR$790MR$1.2BR$1.3BR$929MR$929MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
13.8×11.8×2.8×3.7×1.8×1.9×1.7×2.2×2.2×2.2×Interest coverageInt. cov.
R$47MR$502MR$2.1BR$2.8BR$2.9BR$3.2BR$3.6BR$4.3BR$4.9BR$4.9BShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
1.3M1.9M3.0M3.7M3.7M3.6M3.6M3.6M3.6M3.9MShares out (diluted)Shares
R$167.77R$177.87R$247.02R$324.00R$460.75R$644.56R$800.37R$916.62R$1021.61R$959.04Revenue / shareRev/sh
R$35.26R$46.00R$50.65R$78.78R$59.85R$103.38R$107.51R$175.18R$207.92R$195.18EPS (diluted)EPS
R$27.88R$37.95R$79.72R$75.98R$135.33R$187.02R$257.48R$359.44R$377.33R$354.22Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
R$17.97R$32.86R$79.72R$75.98R$135.33R$187.02R$257.48R$359.44R$377.33R$354.22Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
R$1.95R$3.11R$17.05R$3.50R$5.00R$5.46R$5.22R$5.07R$40.57R$38.08Dividends / shareDiv/sh
R$13.03R$9.93R$18.75R$24.23R$33.73R$46.53R$32.96R$37.98R$45.87R$43.06Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
R$36.32R$267.38R$679.58R$750.46R$790.04R$885.27R$1002.31R$1184.49R$1340.63R$1258.52Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.46 into 2018 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.62 into 2019 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Share counts before TTM are restated ×1/25 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
8-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+25.3%/yr+25.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share+38.5%/yr+37.8%/yr
EPS+24.8%/yr+21.4%/yr
Dividends / share+46.2%/yr+63.2%/yr
Capital spending / share+17.0%/yr+13.6%/yr
Book value / share+57.0%/yr+12.3%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count
90Mpeak FY2021
ROIC
17%low FY2021
Gross margin
64%low FY2017
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
0.7×peak FY2023

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

R$1.4Bowner earningsvs.R$752Mnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2017FY2025

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned R$752M of profit into R$1.4B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net incomeR$752M
Owner earningsR$1.4B · 37% of revenue
FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net incomeR$752MR$632MR$386MR$374MR$223M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+R$373M+R$333M+R$290M+R$206M+R$154M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+R$406M+R$468M+R$368M+R$264M+R$253M
Cash from operationsR$1.5BR$1.4BR$1.0BR$844MR$631M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−R$166M−R$137M−R$118M−R$168M−R$126M
Owner earningsR$1.4BR$1.3BR$925MR$676MR$505M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue37%39%32%29%29%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Adequate
    Operating income R$1.2B ÷ interest expense R$561M
    What this means

    Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.

  • How heavy is the debt, net of cash? R$929M · 0.8× operating profit
    Modest net debt
    Cash R$1.1B − debt R$2.1B
    What this means

    Netting R$1.1B of cash and short-term investments against R$2.1B of debt leaves R$929M owed, about 0.8× a year's operating profit (1.7× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Tight
    DSO 71 + DIO 0 − DPO 34 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

  • High through the cycle
    9-yr median, range 11%–220%; 20% latest = NOPAT R$1.2B ÷ invested capital R$5.8B
    Industry peers: median 21%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 9 years (it ran 20% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • High through the cycle
    9-yr median margin, range 17%–39%; latest R$1.4B = operating cash R$1.5B − maintenance capex R$166M
    Industry peers: median 16%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 37% of revenue this year, a 29% median across 9 years.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops R$1.5B ÷ net income R$752M
    What this means

    How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

  • Reinvests most of it
    Dividends + buybacks R$147M ÷ Owner Earnings R$1.4B
    What this means

    Of R$1.4B Owner Earnings, R$147M (11%) went back to shareholders, R$147M dividends, R$0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.44×
    Harvesting
    Capex R$166M ÷ depreciation R$373M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 4 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size
    Revenue ≥ $2B (a dollar floor) · R$3.7B
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's floor is a dollar figure — about $2B of revenue as a conservative modern stand-in. This company reports in its home currency and we carry no exchange rate, so we show the figure and leave the size bar for you to apply rather than convert it with a number we don't have.

  • Strong liquidity Pass
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.20×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Miss
    Debt ≤ working capital · R$2.1B vs R$1.1B WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Pass
    A profit every year (9-yr record) · no losses
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Pass
    Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (9)
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth Pass
    Earnings +33% over the record · +520%
    What this means

    At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are R$6.52/share (latest year R$8.32), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is R$53.63/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 9 of 9
    What this means

    Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 5 of 8 yrs
    What this means

    A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.

  • Operating margin 26% → 30% (3-yr avg ends)

    In the filing’s words Input costs rose and the filing says it recovered them in price — consistent with the margin holding here.

    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 26% early to 30% lately, median 29% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 19%
    What this means

    Every extra dollar the business reinvested came back at a high incremental return — the lens GBM read for a moat that reinvests rather than merely harvests. The record and the 10-K are where you check whether the rate holds.

  • Owner earnings growth +49%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 49% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2017 · 22.8% op. margin
    What this means

    Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.

  • Dividend record rising
    What this means

    Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assetsR$1.9B
  • Cash & short-term investmentsR$1.1B
  • ReceivablesR$717M
  • InventoryR$1M
  • Other current assetsR$98M
Current liabilitiesR$884M
  • Debt due within a yearR$61M
  • Accounts payableR$124M
  • Other current liabilitiesR$700M
Current ratio2.20×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio2.20×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio1.27×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capitalR$1.1Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cashR$61M due · R$1.1B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet
Deeper floors
Tangible book value(R$736M)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value(R$2.5B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leasesR$3.1BR$1.1B of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2025

Over the record, the business generated R$6.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

  • ReinvestedR$898M · 14%
  • DividendsR$295M · 5%
  • Retained (debt / cash)R$5.1B · 81%
  • Returned to ownersR$295M

    5% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, R$295M as dividends and R$0 as buybacks.

  • Net change in share count199.4%

    The diluted count rose from 1M to 4M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend recordR$40.57/sh

    Paid in 9 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 46% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.

  • Return on what it retained41%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out (R$2.6B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew R$1.1B, so each retained R$1 added about 0.41 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Afya Limited Class A is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2017–2025.

1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?199.4%

    Diluted shares grew 199.4% over 2017–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did reported profit become cash?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

Peers, nearest by economic model

No close industry peers in the catalog yet, so these are the nearest by economic model (asset-light compounder), compared on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
SWKSSkyworks Solutions Inc.$4.1B47%27.8%23%28%
ROLRollins$3.8B51%17.9%30%16%
CARTMaplebear Inc.$3.7B74%2.4%21%18%
AFYAAfya Limited Class AR$3.7B63%28.5%16%29%
QRVOQorvo Inc.$3.7B40%6.1%3%19%
NXTNextpower Inc.$3.6B26%16.4%59%11%
CVSACovista Inc.$1.8B52%13.2%8%16%
APEIAmerican Public Education Inc.$649M60%7.3%13%9%
Group median52%14.8%19%17%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the home-market price, not the US ADR quote. Afya Limited Class A reports in BRL, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that BRL, ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share in BRL. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio and the exchange rate, so it will not reconcile with these figures and would throw the multiple off.

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Afya Limited Class A has delivered.

Afya Limited Class A’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

R$

Through the cycle, Afya Limited Class A earns about R$1.1B on its 29.4% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 36.9% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base

The assumptions

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+23%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’25+54%/yr
Owner-earnings yield
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)
P/B
Graham’s price gate

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings R$1.4B on 90M shares outstanding (a weighted average, the only count this filer tags); net debt R$929M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Afya Limited Class A (AFYA), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/AFYA, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← AFRI its page in the Manual AG →

Industry order: ← AACG the Education Services chapter APEI →