Owner Scorecard


← All companies ← NVAX Manual NVDA → ← NSPR Medical Devices & Equipment NVST →

NVCR, NovoCure

Medical Devices & Equipment consumer brand UnprofitableDistress / turnaround

We are a global oncology company with a proprietary platform technology called Tumor Treating Fields, which are electric fields that exert physical forces to kill cancer cells.

Optune Lua is also approved by the FDA under the Humanitarian Device Exemption ("HDE") pathway for the treatment of adult patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma or pleural mesothelioma (together, "MPM") together with standard chemotherapies.

We have also have a CE certificate in the EU and approval or local registration to market Optune Lua for the treatment of MPM in certain other countries.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
NVCR · NovoCure
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$655M
+8.3% YoY · 6% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $674M 5-yr avg $569M
Gross margin 75% 5-yr avg 77%
Operating margin −27.2% 5-yr avg −24.5%
ROIC −33% 5-yr avg −23%
Owner-earnings margin −6% 5-yr avg −3%
Free cash flow margin −7% 5-yr avg −6%

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 −22% through the cycle on a 75% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −89 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. Read this kind of business on the installed base and what follows it. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, 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 −23%, above 15% in 0 of 10 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 →

41% of revenue comes from outside the United States.

Revenue by geography, FY2025
  • United States59%$386M
  • Germany12%$79M
  • France12%$76M
  • Other international markets9%$57M
  • Japan6%$38M
  • China3%$19M

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.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$83M$177M$248M$351M$494M$535M$538M$509M$605M$655M$674MRevenueRevenue
52%69%68%75%78%79%79%75%77%75%75%Gross marginGross mgn
62%33%30%25%22%24%25%32%31%27%32%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
50%22%20%22%27%38%38%44%35%34%34%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($115M)($39M)($34M)($914K)$30M($44M)($90M)($233M)($170M)($154M)($183M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
−139.1%−22.2%−13.6%−0.3%6.1%−8.3%−16.6%−45.7%−28.2%−23.5%−27.2%Operating marginOp. mgn
($132M)($62M)($64M)($7M)$20M($58M)($93M)($207M)($169M)($136M)($173M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
($108M)($33M)($2M)$27M$99M$83M$31M($73M)($26M)($49M)($27M)Operating cash flowOp. cash
$6M$8M$9M$8M$9M$10M$11M$11M$11M$15M$15MDepreciationDeprec.
($4M)($6M)$13M($27M)($6M)$36M$6M$7M($29M)($32M)($8M)Working capital & otherWC & other
$6M$7M$7M$10M$15M$24M$21M$27M$43M$27M$21MCapexCapex
6.8%4.2%2.7%3.0%3.0%4.5%4.0%5.3%7.1%4.1%3.1%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($113M)($41M)($9M)$16M$90M$73M$20M($84M)($38M)($64M)($42M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
−136.6%−22.9%−3.5%4.6%18.2%13.6%3.7%−16.6%−6.2%−9.7%−6.3%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($113M)($41M)($9M)$16M$84M$59M$9M($100M)($69M)($76M)($48M)Free cash flowFCF
−136.6%−22.9%−3.5%4.6%17.0%11.0%1.8%−19.7%−11.4%−11.5%−7.1%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0$0$0Dividends paidDiv. paid
-66%-23%-22%-0%5%-5%-8%-27%-46%-27%-33%ROICROIC
-93%-54%-57%-3%4%-14%-21%-57%-47%-40%-52%Return on equityROE
−93%−54%−57%−3%4%−14%−21%−57%−47%−40%−52%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$100M$79M$141M$177M$235M$209M$115M$241M$164M$94M$88MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$6M$30M$37M$59M$97M$94M$86M$61M$74M$89M$93MReceivablesReceiv.
$26M$22M$23M$24M$27M$24M$29M$38M$35M$41M$43MInventoryInvent.
$18M$17M$27M$37M$54M$73M$85M$94M$105M$122M$127MAccounts payablePayables
$14M$34M$32M$46M$70M$45M$30M$5M$4M$8M$9MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$262M$245M$321M$440M$999M$1.1B$1.1B$1.0B$1.1B$647M$632MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$37M$50M$65M$86M$114M$143M$159M$179M$756M$223M$218MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
7.1×4.9×5.0×5.1×8.8×7.5×7.0×5.8×1.5×2.9×2.9×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$282M$265M$340M$479M$1.1B$1.1B$1.2B$1.1B$1.2B$804M$788MTotal assetsAssets
$96M$97M$149M$149M$430M$562M$566M$569M$97M$195M$195MTotal debtDebt
($4M)$19M$9M($28M)$195M$353M$450M$328M($66M)$101M$108MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
-15.8×-3.4×-2.0×-0.1×1.7×-5.0×-11.0×-47.5×-14.6×-6.9×-8.3×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$142M$114M$112M$218M$477M$410M$441M$362M$360M$340M$331MShareholders’ equityEquity
26.7%15.3%16.1%14.9%15.3%17.7%19.9%22.7%26.4%16.0%20.5%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
85.6M88.5M91.8M97.2M109M103M105M106M108M111M114MShares out (diluted)Shares
$0.97$2.00$2.70$3.61$4.54$5.17$5.14$4.79$5.61$5.88$5.91Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-1.54$-0.70$-0.69$-0.07$0.18$-0.56$-0.88$-1.95$-1.56$-1.22$-1.52EPS (diluted)EPS
$-1.32$-0.46$-0.09$0.17$0.83$0.70$0.19$-0.79$-0.35$-0.57$-0.37Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.32$-0.46$-0.09$0.17$0.77$0.57$0.09$-0.94$-0.64$-0.68$-0.42Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.00$0.00$0.00Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.07$0.08$0.07$0.11$0.14$0.23$0.20$0.25$0.40$0.24$0.19Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$1.66$1.28$1.22$2.24$4.38$3.97$4.22$3.41$3.34$3.05$2.90Book value / shareBVPS
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+22.2%/yr+5.3%/yr
Capital spending / share+15.3%/yr+11.7%/yr
Book value / share+7.0%/yr−6.9%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

  • Revenue+8.3%
    “Net revenues increased by $50.1 million, or 8%, to $655.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 from $605.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The growth in net revenues primarily resulted from a $20.5 million increase from continued growth in France, a $14.1 million increase in Germany from active patient growth and reimbursement improvements, and a $21.7 million increase from the remaining international markets driven by active patient growth and reimbursement improvements in certain markets.”
    ✓ figure matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count
111Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
−27%low FY2016
Gross margin
75%low FY2016
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
22.3×peak FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

($64M)owner earningsvs.($136M)net incomelow FY2016

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2019FY2022

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 ($64M) of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $15M it takes just to hold its position. It put $12M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($76M).

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income($136M)($169M)($207M)($93M)($58M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$15M+$11M+$11M+$11M+$10M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$105M+$160M+$116M+$107M+$95M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−$32M−$29M+$7M+$6M+$36M
Cash from operations($49M)($26M)($73M)$31M$83M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$15M−$11M−$11M−$11M−$10M
Owner earnings($64M)($38M)($84M)$20M$73M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$12M−$32M−$16M−$11M−$14M
Free cash flow($76M)($69M)($100M)$9M$59M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-10%-6%-17%4%14%

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 $15M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $12M 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. 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 $105M), owner earnings is nearer ($169M).

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 ($154M) ÷ interest expense $22M
    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 debt against an operating loss
    Cash $94M − debt $195M
    What this means

    Netting $94M of cash and short-term investments against $195M of debt leaves $101M owed, with no operating profit this year to measure it against — understand that combination before anything else about the company. 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 50 + DIO 90 − DPO 267 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
    10-yr median, range -66%–5%; -27% latest = NOPAT ($122M) ÷ invested capital $442M
    Industry peers: median -8%
    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 10 years (it ran -27% 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.

  • Consumes cash through the cycle
    10-yr median margin, range -137%–18%; latest ($64M) = operating cash ($49M) − maintenance capex $15M
    Industry peers: median -3%
    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 -10% of revenue this year, a -6% median across 10 years. It chose to put $12M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($76M) — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $105M of SBC) leaves ($169M).

  • Loss, and burning cash
    Net income ($136M) · cash from operations ($49M)
    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?

  • 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? 1.82×
    Expanding
    Capex $27M ÷ depreciation $15M
    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 Miss
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $655M
    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 Pass
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.90×
    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 · $195M vs $424M 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) · 9 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 $-1.47/share (latest year $-1.18), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $2.94/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, 2016–2025

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

  • Profitable years 1 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 9 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 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 −58% → −32% (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 −58% early to −32% lately, median −22% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC −28%
    What this means

    Reinvested capital came back at a negative incremental return over this window — the invested base grew while operating profit did not. The filings show where it went.

  • Worst year 2016 · −139.1% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2016, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Share count +3.0%/yr
    What this means

    The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

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.

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 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$632M
  • Cash & short-term investments$88M
  • Receivables$93M
  • Inventory$43M
  • Other current assets$407M
Current liabilities$218M
  • Accounts payable$127M
  • Other current liabilities$90M
Current ratio2.90×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio2.70×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.40×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$414Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Cash runway1.8 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+12.3%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters6.5× → 2.9×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$331Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$174MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$246M$51M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$16Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

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 yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2021$1.2M−$31.5M$73M
2022Mr. Danziger$2.3M$2.1M$20M
2023$1.5M−$5.2M($84M)
2024$1.5M$796k($38M)
2025$13.2M−$4.5M($64M)
2025$7.0M$62k($64M)

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. A dash under the name means the filing tags the figure without naming the officer.

  • Insider ownership6.6%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • CEO pay ratio84:1

    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$105M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 16% 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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why NovoCure 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 2016–2025.

2 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$96M → $195M

    Debt rose from $96M to $195M while owner earnings went from about ($54M) to ($62M): the borrowing grew and the earnings that would carry it are not there now. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.

  • Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?10 of 10 years

    Management took an impairment or write-down in 10 of the last 10 years, $16M in all. A charge taken almost every year is not one-time; it is the business — past deals coming due, and an admission the assets were worth less than what was paid. Munger's rule: when the "one-time" keeps happening, it is the business. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

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, Medical Devices & 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
TNDMTandem Diabetes Care$1.0B52%-15.0%-24%-1%
INSPInspire Medical Systems$912M84%-28.7%-19%-23%
OFIXOrthofix Medical Inc. Common Stock (DE)$822M75%-2.3%-3%1%
ATECAlphatec Holdings$764M68%-30.2%-47%-31%
NVCRNovoCure$655M75%-19.4%-23%-5%
BVSBioventus Inc.$568M68%2.8%-3%7%
ATRCAtriCure$535M75%-10.8%-8%-8%
GKOSGlaukos Corporation$507M76%-25.2%-8%-3%
Group median75%-17.2%-14%-4%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

NovoCure 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.

$
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered5%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−7%

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.

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

Manual order: ← NVAX its page in the Manual NVDA →

Industry order: ← NSPR the Medical Devices & Equipment chapter NVST →