Owner Scorecard


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SJ, SCIENJOY HOLDING CORPORATION

A software business, earning high margins on code once it is written.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · figures as filed, in CNY
SJ · SCIENJOY HOLDING CORPORATION
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
CN¥1.2B
−8.9% YoY · 0% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue CN¥1.2B 5-yr avg CN¥1.5B
Gross margin 18% 5-yr avg 16%
Operating margin −6.4% 5-yr avg 3.2%
ROIC −20% 5-yr avg 5%
Owner-earnings margin 6% 5-yr avg 5%
Free cash flow margin 6% 5-yr avg 5%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 18% and operating margin about 3.0% through the cycle, a thin spread that turns the result on volume and the cost of what it sells far more than on the price it sets. On a spread this thin the operating result swings hard on small moves in cost or volume — it has ranged from −6.4% to 10% over the years, so the cost line is where the needle moves. Read this kind of business on retention and the cost of growth. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on debt terms & refinancing, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 3%, above 15% in 1 of 5 years). The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 7% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. 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.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2018–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMDec 2025
Income statement
CN¥743MCN¥915MCN¥1.2BCN¥1.7BCN¥2.0BCN¥1.5BCN¥1.4BCN¥1.2BCN¥1.2BRevenueRevenue
20%21%21%18%14%13%18%18%18%Gross marginGross mgn
CN¥166MCN¥150MCN¥23MCN¥41M(CN¥79M)(CN¥79M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
9.9%7.7%1.6%3.0%−6.4%−6.4%Operating marginOp. mgn
CN¥107MCN¥150MCN¥176MCN¥170MCN¥195M(CN¥35M)CN¥27M(CN¥595M)(CN¥595M)Net incomeNet inc.
4%4%4%3%8%32%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
CN¥107MCN¥229MCN¥155MCN¥116MCN¥58MCN¥103MCN¥69MCN¥71MCN¥71MOperating cash flowOp. cash
CN¥1MCN¥655KCN¥555KCN¥745KCN¥1MCN¥1MCN¥1MCN¥1MCN¥1MDepreciationDeprec.
(CN¥621K)CN¥78M(CN¥21M)(CN¥54M)(CN¥139M)CN¥136MCN¥41MCN¥664MCN¥664MWorking capital & otherWC & other
CN¥553KCN¥457KCN¥1MCN¥1MCN¥2MCN¥493KCN¥988KCN¥837KCN¥837KCapexCapex
0.1%0.0%0.1%0.1%0.1%0.0%0.1%0.1%0.1%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
CN¥107MCN¥228MCN¥155MCN¥116MCN¥56MCN¥102MCN¥68MCN¥70MCN¥70MOwner earningsOwner earn.
14.4%25.0%12.7%6.9%2.9%7.0%5.0%5.6%5.6%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
CN¥107MCN¥228MCN¥154MCN¥115MCN¥55MCN¥102MCN¥68MCN¥70MCN¥70MFree cash flowFCF
14.4%25.0%12.6%6.9%2.8%7.0%5.0%5.6%5.6%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
CN¥16MCN¥3MCN¥736KBuybacksBuybacks
28%14%2%3%-20%-20%ROICROIC
187%86%38%21%17%-3%2%-97%-97%Return on equityROE
187%86%38%21%17%−3%2%−97%−97%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
CN¥65MCN¥137MCN¥225MCN¥280MCN¥216MCN¥237MCN¥290MCN¥316MCN¥316MCash & investmentsCash+inv
CN¥120MCN¥228MCN¥206MCN¥317MCN¥261MCN¥226MCN¥43MCN¥43MReceivablesReceiv.
CN¥27MCN¥67MCN¥86MCN¥116MCN¥73MCN¥36MCN¥17MCN¥17MAccounts payablePayables
CN¥93MCN¥161MCN¥121MCN¥200MCN¥188MCN¥190MCN¥27MCN¥27MOperating working capitalOper. WC
CN¥270MCN¥467MCN¥653MCN¥649MCN¥577MCN¥545MCN¥383MCN¥383MCurrent assetsCur. assets
CN¥105MCN¥277MCN¥221MCN¥266MCN¥234MCN¥161MCN¥107MCN¥107MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.6×1.7×3.0×2.4×2.5×3.4×3.6×3.6×Current ratioCurr. ratio
CN¥92MCN¥92MCN¥173MCN¥182MCN¥183MCN¥183MCN¥183MGoodwillGoodwill
CN¥280MCN¥812MCN¥1.1BCN¥1.5BCN¥1.4BCN¥1.4BCN¥710MCN¥710MTotal assetsAssets
CN¥8MCN¥15MCN¥16MCN¥3MCN¥3MTotal debtDebt
(CN¥272M)(CN¥201M)(CN¥221M)(CN¥287M)(CN¥313M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
CN¥57MCN¥175MCN¥460MCN¥809MCN¥1.2BCN¥1.2BCN¥1.2BCN¥615MCN¥615MShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
20.0M20.0M26.8M30.8M39.3M40.6M41.6M41.8M34.74BShares out (diluted)Shares
CN¥37.15CN¥45.73CN¥45.56CN¥54.13CN¥49.75CN¥36.04CN¥32.80CN¥29.72CN¥0.04Revenue / shareRev/sh
CN¥5.34CN¥7.50CN¥6.56CN¥5.51CN¥4.97CN¥-0.86CN¥0.64CN¥-14.24CN¥-0.02EPS (diluted)EPS
CN¥5.34CN¥11.42CN¥5.77CN¥3.75CN¥1.44CN¥2.51CN¥1.63CN¥1.67CN¥0.00Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
CN¥5.34CN¥11.42CN¥5.75CN¥3.73CN¥1.41CN¥2.51CN¥1.63CN¥1.67CN¥0.00Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
CN¥0.03CN¥0.02CN¥0.04CN¥0.05CN¥0.05CN¥0.01CN¥0.02CN¥0.02CN¥0.00Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
CN¥2.85CN¥8.73CN¥17.13CN¥26.24CN¥29.56CN¥28.30CN¥28.85CN¥14.73CN¥0.02Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×831.65 into TTM — 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
7-yr5-yr
Revenue / share−3.1%/yr−8.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share−15.3%/yr−22.0%/yr
Capital spending / share−4.5%/yr−13.1%/yr
Book value / share+26.5%/yr−3.0%/yr

The record, charted

FY2018–2025

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

Share count
42Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
−20%low FY2025
Gross margin
18%low FY2023

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

CN¥70Mowner earningsvs.(CN¥595M)net incomelow FY2022

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2018FY2025

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 a CN¥595M loss into CN¥70M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income(CN¥595M)CN¥27M(CN¥35M)CN¥195MCN¥170M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+CN¥1M+CN¥1M+CN¥1M+CN¥1M+CN¥745K
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+CN¥664M+CN¥41M+CN¥136M−CN¥139M−CN¥54M
Cash from operationsCN¥71MCN¥69MCN¥103MCN¥58MCN¥116M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−CN¥837K−CN¥988K−CN¥493K−CN¥1M−CN¥745K
Owner earningsCN¥70MCN¥68MCN¥102MCN¥56MCN¥116M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−CN¥1M−CN¥644K
Free cash flowCN¥70MCN¥68MCN¥102MCN¥55MCN¥115M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue6%5%7%3%7%

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

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

III

Quality & stewardship

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

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • No meaningful interest burden
    Little or no interest expense reported
    What this means

    Little or no interest expense reported, the business isn't leaning on lenders to operate.

  • Net cash
    Cash CN¥308M + ST investments CN¥9M − debt CN¥3M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by CN¥313M, 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.

  • Tight
    DSO 13 + DIO 0 − DPO 6 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. (Little or no inventory, a services / asset-light model, so the inventory leg is ~0.)

Is it a good business?

  • Below average through the cycle
    5-yr median, range -20%–28%; -20% latest = NOPAT (CN¥62M) ÷ invested capital CN¥311M
    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 5 years (it ran -20% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Solid through the cycle
    8-yr median margin, range 3%–25%; latest CN¥70M = operating cash CN¥71M − maintenance capex CN¥837K
    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 6% of revenue this year, a 7% median across 8 years.

  • Loss, but cash-generative
    Net income (CN¥595M) · cash from operations CN¥71M
    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?

  • Not enough data
    What this means

    The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.70×
    Harvesting
    Capex CN¥837K ÷ depreciation CN¥1M
    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
    Revenue ≥ $2B (a dollar floor) · CN¥1.2B
    What this means

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

  • Strong liquidity Pass
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 3.60×
    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 · CN¥3M vs CN¥277M 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 (8-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 Miss
    Earnings +33% over the record · −239%
    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 CN¥-4.81/share (latest year CN¥-14.24), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥14.73/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, 2018–2025

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

  • Profitable years 6 of 8
    What this means

    Lost money in 2 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 9% → −2% (2-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 9% early to −2% lately, median 3% — competition or costs are biting in.

  • 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 −12%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings shrank about 12% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2025 · −6.4% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2025, understand why before trusting the good years.

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 Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product; it frames AI mainly as a capability.

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 fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025

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

Current assetsCN¥383M
  • Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥316M
  • ReceivablesCN¥43M
  • Other current assetsCN¥24M
Current liabilitiesCN¥107M
  • Accounts payableCN¥17M
  • Other current liabilitiesCN¥90M
Current ratio3.60×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio3.60×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio2.97×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capitalCN¥277Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Deeper floors
Tangible book valueCN¥30Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset valueCN¥266MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leasesCN¥7MCN¥4M of it operating leases
Deferred revenueCN¥50Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2018–2025

Over the record, the business generated CN¥907M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash builder, a large share of cash simply built up on the balance sheet.

  • ReinvestedCN¥8M · 1%
  • BuybacksCN¥20M · 2%
  • Retained (debt / cash)CN¥879M · 97%
  • Returned to ownersCN¥20M

    2% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, CN¥0 as dividends and CN¥20M as buybacks.

  • Source of fundingOperating cash

    Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span cash and short-term investments rose CN¥251M.

  • Average price paid for buybacks

    Buybacks ran CN¥20M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.

  • Net change in share count173598.4%

    The diluted count rose from 20M to 34743M: 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 retained−48%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out (CN¥175M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) fell CN¥83M, so each retained CN¥1 gave back about 0.48 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.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 8-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangiblesCN¥585M82% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equity30%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiringCN¥0over 8 years buying other businesses, against CN¥8M of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 8-year record, from the company's own filings.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why SCIENJOY HOLDING CORPORATION 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 2018–2025.

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

  • Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?5.9% vs 17.3%

    The owner-earnings margin averaged 17.3% early in the record and 5.9% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?173598.4%

    Diluted shares grew 173598.4% over 2018–2025, even as the company spent CN¥20M 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.

And these came back clean
  • Did reported profit become cash?

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

Peers, IT Services & Consulting

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
PEGAPegasystems$1.7B71%1.9%3%7%
FAFirst Advantage Corporation$1.6B9.8%4%17%
SJSCIENJOY HOLDING CORPORATIONCN¥1.2B18%3.0%3%7%
TASKTaskUs Inc.$1.2B10.2%10%8%
FIVNFive9$1.1B57%-3.4%-5%9%
SSTKShutterstock Inc.$990M59%7.7%24%13%
EVTCEvertec Inc.$932M100%26.5%15%33%
CARGCarGurus Inc. Class A Common Stock$907M11.1%32%12%
Group median59%8.8%7%11%
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. SCIENJOY HOLDING CORPORATION reports in CNY, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that CNY, ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share in CNY. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio and the exchange rate, so it will not reconcile with these figures and would throw the multiple off.

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

CN¥

Through the cycle, SCIENJOY HOLDING CORPORATION earns about CN¥86M on its 6.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 5.6% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

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→’25−5%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’18→’25−12%/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.

Owner earnings CN¥70M on 42M shares outstanding (a weighted average, the only count this filer tags); net cash CN¥313M. The if-converted diluted count is 34743M, 83065% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

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

Manual order: ← SIMO its page in the Manual SKM →

Industry order: ← SHAZ the IT Services & Consulting chapter SOHU →