Owner Scorecard


← All companies ← CANG Manual CCEP → ← BLDP Electrical Equipment EMR →

CBAT, CBAK Energy Technology Inc.

Electrical Equipment capital-intensive Unprofitable

We are a manufacturer of new energy high power lithium and sodium batteries that are mainly used in light electric vehicles, electric vehicles, energy storage such as residential energy supply & uninterruptible power supply application, and other high-power applications.

Our primary product offerings consist of new energy high power lithium and sodium batteries, as well as battery pack products.

Hitrans is a leading developer and manufacturer of ternary precursor and cathode materials in China, whose products have a wide range of applications on batteries that would be applied to electric vehicles, electric tools, high-end digital products and storage, among others.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
CBAT · CBAK Energy Technology Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$230M
+30.2% YoY · 44% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $230M 5-yr avg $176M
Operating margin −11.0% 5-yr avg −7.0%
ROIC −17% 5-yr avg −6%
Owner-earnings margin 30% 5-yr avg 9%
Free cash flow margin 16% 5-yr avg −4%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

Situation
Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has run around −22% through the cycle on a 7.3% gross margin, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. Capital spending runs about 15% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −10%, above 15% in 0 of 8 years). By owner earnings: roughly 8% of revenue reaches owners as cash, though it swings, and customers and suppliers fund the business through negative working capital. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

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

Where the money comes from

read the 20-F →

China is 64% of revenue, so this is largely a single-region business.

Revenue by geography, FY2025
  • China64%$147M
  • Africa7%$17M
  • India7%$17M
  • Europe3%$8M
  • International3%$7M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

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
2017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$58M$24M$22M$38M$53M$249M$204M$177M$195M$230MRevenueRevenue
−17%−14%3%7%10%7%16%24%9%Gross marginGross mgn
($21M)($13M)($10M)($8M)($12M)($12M)($7M)$9M($18M)($25M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
−36.3%−55.0%−45.5%−22.6%−22.2%−4.6%−3.5%5.0%−9.4%−11.0%Operating marginOp. mgn
($21M)($2M)($11M)($8M)$62M($11M)($9M)$10M($11M)($18M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
$6M$9M($21M)($5M)($4M)$15M$47M$40M$49M$80MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$2M$2M$3M$3M$4M$8M$10M$8M$10M$11MDepreciationDeprec.
$26M$8M($13M)$49K($69M)$18M$45M$22M$50M$88MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$12M$7M$2M$6M$19M$12M$31M$17M$45M$44MCapexCapex
20.6%30.1%11.1%15.2%36.5%5.0%15.2%9.7%22.9%19.0%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$5M$6M($24M)($8M)($8M)$7M$37M$32M$39M$70MOwner earningsOwner earn.
7.9%25.6%−106.7%−20.8%−14.9%2.8%18.0%18.0%20.0%30.3%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($6M)$1M($24M)($11M)($23M)$3M$15M$23M$4M$37MFree cash flowFCF
−10.0%5.6%−106.7%−28.8%−44.6%1.1%7.5%12.7%2.0%16.0%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
-3035%-66%-12%-7%-8%-5%7%-13%-17%ROICROIC
-978%-621%-80%-15%46%-10%-8%8%-10%-17%Return on equityROE
−978%−621%−80%−15%46%−10%−8%8%−10%−17%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$2M$450K$2M$12M$7M$7M$5M$11M$48M$49MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$58M$22M$8M$30M$50M$27M$29M$33M$38M$46MReceivablesReceiv.
$10M$10M$9M$5M$30M$49M$33M$23M$51M$76MInventoryInvent.
$30M$23M$11M$20M$40M$67M$82M$85M$153M$203MAccounts payablePayables
$38M$8M$5M$15M$40M$9M($20M)($29M)($64M)($81M)Operating working capitalOper. WC
$85M$56M$28M$63M$60M$126M$128M$141M$181M$238MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$117M$93M$59M$74M$113M$112M$160M$172M$300M$368MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.7×0.6×0.5×0.9×0.5×1.1×0.8×0.8×0.6×0.6×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$2M$1M$1MGoodwillGoodwill
$153M$128M$96M$143M$263M$244M$281M$302M$426M$491MTotal assetsAssets
$14M$34M$4M$21MTotal debtDebt
$2M$27M($44M)($28M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-5.9×-4.4×-5.0×-34.5×-17.8×-7.1×7.9×-17.2×-23.5×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$2M$315K$14M$52M$133M$117M$113M$122M$113M$105MShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
34.9M39.9M39.0M62.0M87.9M88.9M89.3M90.2M89.2M88.6MShares out (diluted)Shares
$1.67$0.61$0.57$0.61$0.60$2.80$2.29$1.96$2.19$2.59Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-0.62$-0.05$-0.28$-0.13$0.70$-0.13$-0.10$0.11$-0.12$-0.20EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.13$0.16$-0.61$-0.13$-0.09$0.08$0.41$0.35$0.44$0.79Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.17$0.03$-0.61$-0.17$-0.27$0.03$0.17$0.25$0.04$0.41Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.35$0.18$0.06$0.09$0.22$0.14$0.35$0.19$0.50$0.49Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$0.06$0.01$0.35$0.85$1.52$1.32$1.26$1.35$1.26$1.19Book value / shareBVPS

Share counts before 2019 are restated ×1.5 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

The diluted share count moved ×1.59 into 2020 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.42 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
8-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+3.4%/yr+29.3%/yr
Owner earnings / share+16.1%/yr
Capital spending / share+4.7%/yr+40.3%/yr
Book value / share+45.5%/yr+8.4%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.

Share count
89Mpeak FY2024
ROIC
−13%low FY2017
Gross margin
9%low FY2017

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$39Mowner earningsvs.($11M)net incomelow FY2019

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 earned $39M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $10M it takes just to hold its position. It put $35M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $4M.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income($11M)$10M($9M)($11M)$62M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$10M+$8M+$10M+$8M+$4M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$50M+$22M+$45M+$18M−$69M
Cash from operations$49M$40M$47M$15M($4M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$10M−$8M−$10M−$8M−$4M
Owner earnings$39M$32M$37M$7M($8M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$35M−$9M−$21M−$4M−$16M
Free cash flow$4M$23M$15M$3M($23M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue20%18%18%3%-15%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $10M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $35M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows.

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 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income ($25M) ÷ interest expense $1M
    What this means

    A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.

  • Net cash
    Cash $9M + ST investments $40M − debt $21M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $28M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Negative, funded by others
    DSO 74 + DIO 156 − DPO 419 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

  • Below average through the cycle
    9-yr median, range -3035%–7%; -17% latest = NOPAT ($20M) ÷ invested capital $117M
    Industry peers: median -30%
    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 -17% 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.

  • Solid through the cycle
    9-yr median margin, range -107%–26%; latest $70M = operating cash $80M − maintenance capex $11M
    Industry peers: median -9%
    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 30% of revenue this year, a 8% median across 9 years. It chose to put $33M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was $37M — the gap is investment, not weakness.

  • Loss, but cash-generative
    Net income ($18M) · cash from operations $80M
    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

How is the cash used?

  • Reinvests most of it
    Dividends + buybacks $2M ÷ Owner Earnings $70M
    What this means

    Of $70M Owner Earnings, $2M (2%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $2M 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? 4.05×
    Expanding
    Capex $44M ÷ depreciation $11M
    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 · 0 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 Miss
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $230M
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Miss
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.65×
    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 · $21M vs ($130M) 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 Miss
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · 8 loss years
    What this means

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

  • Dividend record Miss
    Uninterrupted dividends · none paid
    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
    Earnings +33% over the record ·
    What this means

    Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.

  • 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 $-0.04/share (latest year $-0.20), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $1.19/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 2 of 9
    What this means

    Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 3 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 −46% → −3% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −46% early to −3% lately, median −22% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Owner earnings growth +26%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 26% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2018 · −55.0% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2018, understand why before trusting the good years.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Named as a competitive risk

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.

“If we cannot use AI, or that use is restricted, our business may be less efficient, or we may be at a competitive disadvantage.”

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

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, Mar 31, 2026

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 assets$238M
  • Cash & short-term investments$49M
  • Receivables$46M
  • Inventory$76M
  • Other current assets$67M
Current liabilities$368M
  • Debt due within a year$14M
  • Accounts payable$203M
  • Other current liabilities$151M
Current ratio0.65×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.44×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.13×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($130M)the cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$14M due · $49M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$104Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($150M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$23M$1M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$16Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $120M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

  • Reinvested$158M · 131%
  • Buybacks$2M · 1%
  • Returned to owners$2M

    2% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $2M as buybacks.

  • Source of funding−$39M

    Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $39M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.

  • Average price paid for buybacks

    Buybacks ran $2M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.

  • Net change in share count232.3%

    The diluted count rose from 27M to 89M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend record

    No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.

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.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
    ≈$152M · 66% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
    “Our top five customers accounted for approximately 66.1% and 37.1% of our revenues for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2025, respectively.”verify →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Credit & receivables, Inventory, Stock compensation as critical estimates

    each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Electrical Equipment

The same industry, side by side 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
NOVTNovanta Inc.$981M43%10.3%9%10%
MVSTMicrovast Holdings Inc.$428M10%-34.8%-30%-9%
SITMSiTime$327M53%-8.3%-8%8%
PLPlanet Labs PBC$308M49%-77.3%-40%-40%
CBATCBAK Energy Technology Inc.$230M7%-22.2%-12%8%
NRGVEnergy Vault Holdings Inc.$204M18%-39.9%-66%-22%
MXMagnachip Semiconductor Corporation$179M24%2.5%8%-5%
EOSEEos Energy Enterprises Inc.$114M-1234.4%-592%-1136%
Group median24%-28.5%-21%-7%
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. CBAK Energy Technology Inc. reports in USD, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio, 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 CBAK Energy Technology Inc. has delivered.

CBAK Energy Technology Inc.’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.

$

Through the cycle, CBAK Energy Technology Inc. earns about $30M on its 12.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 30.3% 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 · since FY2022+12%/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.

Free cash flow $37M on 89M diluted shares; net cash $28M. 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. Capex ($44M) runs well above depreciation ($11M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $70M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "CBAK Energy Technology Inc. (CBAT), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CBAT, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CANG its page in the Manual CCEP →

Industry order: ← BLDP the Electrical Equipment chapter EMR →