Owner Scorecard


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PAYS, Paysign Inc.

Commercial Services & Supplies asset-light Cyclical

We are a vertically integrated provider of prepaid card products and processing services for corporate, consumer and government entities.

Our payment solutions are utilized by our corporate customers as a means to increase customer loyalty, increase patient adherence rates, reduce administration costs and streamline operations.

We market our prepaid card solutions under our Paysign brand.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
PAYS · Paysign Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$82M
+40.5% YoY · 28% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $91M 5-yr avg $51M
Gross margin 60% 5-yr avg 54%
Operating margin 12.6% 5-yr avg 0.4%
Owner-earnings margin 83% 5-yr avg 55%
Free cash flow margin 83% 5-yr avg 55%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What it is
Revenue is Plasma Industry (56%), Pharma Industry (41%) and Other Revenue (3%).
Situation
Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 50% and operating margin about 1.7% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −35% and 18% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −101 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.

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 5 lines, the largest Plasma Industry at 56%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025
  • Plasma Industry56%$46M
  • Pharma Industry41%$34M
  • Other Revenue3%$3M
  • Breakage Revenue1%$475K
  • Settlement Revenue0%$0

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
$10M$15M$23M$35M$24M$29M$38M$47M$58M$82M$91MRevenueRevenue
44%44%49%56%39%50%55%51%55%59%60%Gross marginGross mgn
25%27%33%34%63%51%47%43%43%40%38%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$1M$2M$2M$6M($8M)($3M)$344K($167K)$1M$7M$12MOperating incomeOp. inc.
13.0%11.6%10.6%17.6%−34.6%−9.3%0.9%−0.4%1.7%9.0%12.6%Operating marginOp. mgn
$1M$2M$3M$7M($9M)($3M)$1M$6M$4M$8M$10MNet incomeNet inc.
0%0%0%9%8%25%27%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$4M$7M$16M$17M$14M$15M$25M$28M$23M$52M$77MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$572K$876K$1M$1M$2M$2M$3M$4M$6M$8M$9MDepreciationDeprec.
$2M$4M$11M$5M$18M$13M$19M$14M$11M$32M$53MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$110K$707K$257K$464K$1M$329K$105K$263K$435K$1M$1MCapexCapex
1.1%4.6%1.1%1.3%5.7%1.1%0.3%0.6%0.7%1.5%1.5%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$4M$6M$16M$16M$12M$15M$25M$27M$23M$51M$76MOwner earningsOwner earn.
39.3%42.3%67.2%46.9%51.4%50.6%66.3%57.9%38.6%62.5%82.9%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$4M$6M$16M$16M$12M$15M$25M$27M$23M$51M$76MFree cash flowFCF
39.3%42.3%67.2%46.9%51.4%50.6%66.3%57.9%38.6%62.5%82.9%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0$1M$495K$376KBuybacksBuybacks
48%36%28%39%-69%-21%6%26%13%16%19%Return on equityROE
48%36%28%39%−69%−21%6%26%13%16%19%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$12M$17M$32M$46M$8M$7M$90M$109M$122M$165M$179MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$110K$166K$337K$892K$512K$3M$5M$16M$33M$72M$94MReceivablesReceiv.
$766K$1M$1M$2M$2M$6M$8M$27M$34M$71M$88MAccounts payablePayables
($655K)($980K)($990K)($632K)($2M)($2M)($3M)($10M)($2M)$2M$7MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$12M$18M$33M$48M$58M$74M$98M$129M$159M$240M$277MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$11M$16M$27M$34M$51M$67M$89M$119M$146M$216M$248MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.1×1.2×1.2×1.4×1.1×1.1×1.1×1.1×1.1×1.1×1.1×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$0$4M$4MGoodwillGoodwill
$14M$20M$36M$54M$68M$84M$108M$147M$179M$276M$313MTotal assetsAssets
$152K$0$0$8M$6MTotal debtDebt
($11M)($17M)($122M)($157M)($173M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
$3M$5M$9M$19M$13M$13M$16M$24M$30M$48M$55MShareholders’ equityEquity
0.9%2.0%5.8%7.3%12.3%7.7%6.0%6.0%4.5%5.2%5.3%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
43.9M48.0M52.0M54.6M49.3M51.0M52.9M54.2M55.6M59.6M61.0MShares out (diluted)Shares
$0.24$0.32$0.45$0.64$0.49$0.58$0.72$0.87$1.05$1.38$1.50Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.03$0.04$0.05$0.14$-0.19$-0.05$0.02$0.12$0.07$0.13$0.17EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.09$0.13$0.30$0.30$0.25$0.29$0.48$0.51$0.40$0.86$1.24Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$0.09$0.13$0.30$0.30$0.25$0.29$0.48$0.51$0.40$0.86$1.24Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.00$0.01$0.00$0.01$0.03$0.01$0.00$0.00$0.01$0.02$0.02Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$0.07$0.10$0.17$0.35$0.27$0.25$0.31$0.45$0.55$0.81$0.90Book value / shareBVPS
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+21.5%/yr+22.9%/yr
Owner earnings / share+28.0%/yr+27.8%/yr
EPS+16.5%/yr
Capital spending / share+26.2%/yr−6.3%/yr
Book value / share+32.2%/yr+24.8%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count
60Mpeak FY2025
Gross margin
59%low FY2020

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$51Mowner earningsvs.$8Mnet incomelow FY2016

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2016FY2025

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 $8M of profit into $51M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$8M
Owner earnings$51M · 62% of revenue
FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income$8M$4M$6M$1M($3M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$8M+$6M+$4M+$3M+$2M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$4M+$3M+$3M+$2M+$2M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$32M+$11M+$14M+$19M+$13M
Cash from operations$52M$23M$28M$25M$15M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$1M−$435K−$263K−$105K−$329K
Owner earnings$51M$23M$27M$25M$15M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue62%39%58%66%51%

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 $4M), owner earnings is nearer $47M.

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?

  • Comfortable
    Operating income $7M ÷ interest expense $32K
    What this means

    Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.

  • Net cash
    Cash $165M − debt $8M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $157M, 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 321 + DIO 0 − DPO 773 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. (Little or no inventory, a services / asset-light model, so the inventory leg is ~0.)

Is it a good business?

  • Not meaningful here
    Invested capital ($108M) = debt $8M + equity $48M − cash
    Industry peers: median -4%
    What this means

    Invested capital is near zero or negative, usually years of buybacks pulling equity down. ROIC explodes or flips sign and stops meaning anything. Judge this one on Owner Earnings instead.

  • High through the cycle
    10-yr median margin, range 39%–67%; latest $51M = operating cash $52M − maintenance capex $1M
    Industry peers: median 12%
    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 62% of revenue this year, a 51% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $4M of SBC) leaves $47M.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $52M ÷ net income $8M
    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 $376K ÷ Owner Earnings $51M
    What this means

    Of $51M Owner Earnings, $376K (1%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $376K buybacks. But the buybacks barely exceed stock issued to employees ($4M SBC), net of dilution, little was truly returned. 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? 0.15×
    Harvesting
    Capex $1M ÷ depreciation $8M
    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 6 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 · $82M
    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× · 1.11×
    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 · $8M vs $24M 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) · 2 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 Pass
    Earnings +33% over the record · +208%
    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 $0.11/share (latest year $0.14), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $0.87/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 8 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 2 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Operating margin 12% → 3% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 12% early to 3% lately, median 2% — competition or costs are biting in.

  • Owner earnings growth +24%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 24% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2020 · −34.6% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Share count +3.5%/yr
    What this means

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

Does AI threaten the moat?

Elevated contestability

The product is software or information, the very thing capable AI now produces more cheaply, so the moat is more contestable than the record alone implies.

In its own filing Not named

Despite the structural exposure, the latest 10-K does not name AI as a competitive risk, which is itself worth a question.

AI has collapsed the cost of building a capable substitute for the very thing this business sells. When a credible alternative can be assembled for a fraction of the incumbent's price, it is pricing power that erodes first, not revenue tomorrow. The live question is whether the moat survives that, not whether it held in the past. Whether that question is answerable at all is yours to decide, against your own circle of competence.

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$277M
  • Cash & short-term investments$179M
  • Receivables$94M
  • Other current assets$4M
Current liabilities$248M
  • Debt due within a year$2M
  • Accounts payable$88M
  • Other current liabilities$159M
Current ratio1.12×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.12×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.72×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$29Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$2M due · $179M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+50.8%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.1× → 1.1×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$29Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$20MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$12M$6M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$158Mcustomer 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 $201M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash builder, a large share of cash simply built up on the balance sheet.

  • Reinvested$5M · 3%
  • Buybacks$2M · 1%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$194M · 96%
  • Returned to owners$2M

    1% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $2M as buybacks.

  • Source of fundingOperating cash

    Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $6M and cash and short-term investments rose $168M.

  • 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 count39.1%

    The diluted count rose from 44M to 61M: 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.

  • Return on what it retained137%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($18M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $25M, so each retained $1 added about 1.37 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.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

  • Insider ownership24.5%

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

  • Stock-based compensation$4M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 5% of revenue, equal to 58% of operating profit. 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 Paysign Inc. 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 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?39.1%

    Diluted shares grew 39.1% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $2M on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

  • Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?1% → 103% of sales

    Receivables and inventory grew from $110K to $94M while revenue grew 778%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (1% of revenue then, 103% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did debt outgrow the business?
  • Did reported profit become cash?
  • Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

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.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions, 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, Commercial Services & Supplies

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
RPAYRepay Holdings Corporation$309M76%-20.6%-4%24%
RUMRumble Inc.$101M-125.9%-322%-86%
GLOOGloo Holdings Inc.$95M-209.1%-76%-196%
RDVTRed Violet Inc. Common Stock$90M-3.0%-3%20%
ISSCInnovative Solutions and Support Inc.$84M55%16.9%11%12%
PAYSPaysign Inc.$82M50%5.4%51%
SLPSimulations Plus Inc.$79M74%27.8%9%29%
DVLTDatavault AI Inc.$39M12%-614.8%-735%-657%
Group median55%-11.8%16%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

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

Paysign 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, Paysign Inc. earns about $42M on its 51.0% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 62.5% 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+16%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+24%/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 $76M on 56M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-06; net cash $173M. The if-converted diluted count is 61M, 9% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. 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 ($1M) runs well above depreciation ($9M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $76M, 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, "Paysign Inc. (PAYS), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/PAYS, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← PAYO its page in the Manual PAYX →

Industry order: ← PAYO the Commercial Services & Supplies chapter PBI →