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FLNC, Fluence Energy Inc.

Electrical Equipment capital-intensive UnprofitableDistress / turnaround

Fluence is a global market leader delivering intelligent energy storage and optimization software for renewables and storage.

Our energy storage solutions and operational services are designed to help create a more resilient grid and unlock the full potential of renewable portfolios.

As of September 30, 2025, we had 6.8 gigawatts ("GW") of energy storage assets deployed and 9.1 GW of contracted backlog across 33 markets in 25 countries with a gross global pipeline of 128.8 GW.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

FLNC · Fluence Energy Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$2.3B

−16.1% YoY · 32% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $2.6B 5-yr avg $1.8B

Gross margin 12% 5-yr avg 3%

Operating margin −0.7% 5-yr avg −6.9%

ROIC −4% 5-yr avg −31%

Owner-earnings margin −10% 5-yr avg −15%

Free cash flow margin −10% 5-yr avg −15%

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. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run around −7.2% through the cycle on a 1.4% 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. Inventory runs near 20% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside 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 −32%, above 15% in 1 of 4 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. 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 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 3 regions, the largest Americas at 58%.

Revenue by geography, FY2025

Americas58%$1.3B
EMEA27%$608M
Asia Pacific15%$349M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2020–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
							Income statement
$561M	$681M	$1.2B	$2.2B	$2.7B	$2.3B	$2.6B	RevenueRevenue
1%	−10%	−5%	6%	13%	13%	12%	Gross marginGross mgn
3%	6%	10%	6%	6%	7%	6%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
2%	3%	5%	3%	2%	4%	3%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($40M)	($159M)	($101M)	($65M)	$32M	($25M)	($18M)	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−7.2%	−23.3%	−8.4%	−2.9%	1.2%	−1.1%	−0.7%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($47M)	($162M)	($104M)	($70M)	$23M	($48M)	($42M)	Net incomeNet inc.
							Cash flow & returns
($14M)	($265M)	($282M)	($112M)	$80M	($146M)	($236M)	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$3M	$5M	$7M	$11M	$14M	$29M	$38M	DepreciationDeprec.
$30M	($108M)	($229M)	($80M)	$19M	($146M)	($252M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$2M	$4M	$8M	$3M	$8M	$15M	$17M	CapexCapex
0.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.3%	0.7%	0.6%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($16M)	($270M)	($290M)	($115M)	$72M	($160M)	($253M)	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−2.8%	−39.6%	−24.2%	−5.2%	2.7%	−7.1%	−9.8%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($16M)	($270M)	($290M)	($115M)	$72M	($160M)	($253M)	Free cash flowFCF
−2.8%	−39.6%	−24.2%	−5.2%	2.7%	−7.1%	−9.8%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0	$18M	$29M	$0	$0	—	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$0	$0	$5M	$3M	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
—	—	-102%	-48%	42%	-15%	-4%	ROICROIC
—	—	-24%	-17%	5%	-11%	-11%	Return on equityROE
—	—	−24%	−17%	5%	−11%	−11%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
							Balance sheet
$95M	$37M	$468M	$346M	$449M	$691M	$387M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	$57M	$87M	$103M	$216M	$273M	$180M	ReceivablesReceiv.
—	$390M	$653M	$225M	$183M	$455M	$764M	InventoryInvent.
—	$158M	$305M	$65M	$437M	$321M	$189M	Accounts payablePayables
—	$289M	$435M	$263M	($38M)	$407M	$755M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
—	$662M	$1.6B	$1.2B	$1.7B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Current assetsCur. assets
—	$771M	$1.1B	$746M	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.5B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
—	0.9×	1.4×	1.6×	1.3×	1.5×	1.4×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$5M	$9M	$25M	$26M	$27M	$29M	$29M	GoodwillGoodwill
—	$718M	$1.7B	$1.4B	$1.9B	$2.4B	$2.3B	Total assetsAssets
—	—	$0	$51M	$30M	$391M	$392M	Total debtDebt
—	—	($468M)	($295M)	($418M)	($300M)	$4M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-313.8×	-110.6×	-50.1×	—	—	—	-5.1×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
—	—	$436M	$402M	$472M	$430M	$368M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
—	0.0%	3.7%	1.2%	0.9%	0.9%	0.8%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
							Per share
—	—	69.7M	116M	184M	130M	132M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
—	—	$17.19	$19.05	$14.66	$17.37	$19.58	Revenue / shareRev/sh
—	—	$-1.50	$-0.60	$0.12	$-0.37	$-0.32	EPS (diluted)EPS
—	—	$-4.16	$-0.99	$0.39	$-1.23	$-1.91	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
—	—	$-4.16	$-0.99	$0.39	$-1.23	$-1.91	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
—	—	$0.11	$0.03	$0.04	$0.11	$0.13	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
—	—	$6.25	$3.46	$2.57	$3.30	$2.79	Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.67 into 2023 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.58 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1/1.41 into 2025 — shares retired, 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

	5-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+0.3%/yr (3-yr)	+0.3%/yr (3-yr)
Capital spending / share	+0.1%/yr (3-yr)	+0.1%/yr (3-yr)
Book value / share	−19.2%/yr (3-yr)	−19.2%/yr (3-yr)

The record, charted

FY2020–2025

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

Share count

130Mpeak FY2024

ROIC

−15%low FY2022

Gross margin

13%low FY2021

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

($160M)owner earningsvs.($48M)net incomelow FY2022

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

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 reported a $48M loss but ($160M) of owner earnings: $112M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	($48M)	$23M	($70M)	($104M)	($162M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$29M	+$14M	+$11M	+$7M	+$5M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$20M	+$24M	+$27M	+$44M	—
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$146M	+$19M	−$80M	−$229M	−$108M
Cash from operations	($146M)	$80M	($112M)	($282M)	($265M)
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$15M	−$8M	−$3M	−$8M	−$4M
Owner earnings	($160M)	$72M	($115M)	($290M)	($270M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	-7%	3%	-5%	-24%	-40%

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 . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $20M), owner earnings is nearer ($180M).

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 →

Material weakness in financial controls

“Based on the information requested by the SEC, we believe that the SEC is reviewing the Company's revenue recognition practices, a previously-disclosed material weakness in internal controls, capitalization of internal-use software costs, as well as certain…”

The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? -11.6×

Does not cover its interest

Operating income ($23M) ÷ interest expense $2M

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.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$300M

Net cash

Cash $691M − debt $391M

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $300M, 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.
How long is cash tied up? 69d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 44 + DIO 84 − DPO 60 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?

Return on invested capital -48%

Below average through the cycle

4-yr median, range -102%–42%; -14% latest = NOPAT ($18M) ÷ invested capital $130M

Industry peers: median 10%

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 4 years (it ran -14% 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.
Owner-earnings margin -7%

Consumes cash through the cycle

6-yr median margin, range -40%–3%; latest ($160M) = operating cash ($146M) − maintenance capex $15M

Industry peers: median 10%

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 -7% of revenue this year, a -7% median across 6 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $20M of SBC) leaves ($180M).
Are earnings backed by cash? ($146M)

Loss, and burning cash

Net income ($48M) · cash from operations ($146M)

In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.

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 not.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? —

No surplus to allocate

What this means
The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.
Investing or harvesting? 0.51×

Harvesting

Capex $15M ÷ depreciation $29M

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 · 2 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 Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $2.3B

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 Near

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.51×

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 Pass

Debt ≤ working capital · $391M vs $694M 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 (6-yr record) · 5 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 $-0.24/share (latest year $-0.37), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $3.25/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, 2020–2025

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

Profitable years 1 of 6

What this means
Lost money in 5 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 of 4 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 −13% → −1% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −13% early to −1% lately, median −7% — 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.
Worst year 2021 · −23.3% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2021, 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 A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“Our failure to successfully develop and commercialize our products or services involving AI Technologies could depress the market price of our stock and impair our ability to: raise capital; expand our business; provide, improve and diversify our product offerings; continue our operations and efficiently manage our ope…”

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, and the company is using it that way.

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 the latest quarter, 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$2.1B

Cash & short-term investments$387M
Receivables$180M
Inventory$764M
Other current assets$751M

Current liabilities$1.5B

Accounts payable$189M
Other current liabilities$1.3B

Current ratio1.43×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.91×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.27×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$631Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Cash runway1.5 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+7.7%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.3× → 1.4×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$275Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value$193MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$9M$9M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2022	$2.6M	$2.1M	($290M)
2022	$1.9M	$9.7M	($290M)
2023	$1.8M	$3.1M	($115M)
2024	$6.6M	$6.2M	$72M
2025	$6.9M	−$196k	($160M)

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
CEO pay ratio58:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
Stock-based compensation$20M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
≈$1.1B · 41% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
“In fiscal year 2025, our two largest customers represented approximately 41% of our revenues.”verify →

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.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
ENSEnerSys	$3.8B	31%	12.1%	10%	11%
ENREnergizer Holdings	$3.0B	39%	11.4%	9%	10%
ATKRAtkore	$2.9B	28%	13.6%	20%	12%
SPBSpectrum Brands Holdings	$2.8B	34%	3.8%	3%	6%
LFUSLittelfuse Inc.	$2.4B	38%	13.0%	10%	14%
FLNCFluence Energy Inc.	$2.3B	4%	-5.0%	-32%	-6%
FELEFranklin Electric	$2.1B	34%	11.6%	14%	9%
NOVTNovanta Inc.	$981M	43%	10.3%	9%	10%
Group median	—	34%	11.5%	10%	10%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Fluence Energy Inc. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

Today’s price $

The assumptions Required return 9% Years to get there 10 Revenue growth 0%

Revenue, delivered40%/yr’20→’25

Mature owner-earnings margin 15%

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach—

Margin the price demands—

Owner-earnings margin today−10%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Weigh FLNC against another business →

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

Manual order: ← FLGT its page in the Manual FLO →

Industry order: ← FELE the Electrical Equipment chapter GEV →