Share count
379Mpeak FY2025
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UCL, uCloudlink Group Inc.
A telecom carrier, renting access to a network that must be constantly rebuilt.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$81M
−11.1% YoY · −2% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $81M 5-yr avg $81M
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- 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
- Operating margin has run around −18% through the cycle on a 41% 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. Read this kind of business on subscribers, revenue per user, and network capex. 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 −145%, above 15% in 0 of 3 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 20-F →Revenue spreads across 7 regions, the largest Japan at 38%.
Revenue by geography, FY2025
- Japan38%$31M
- China31%$26M
- North America14%$11M
- Hong Kong SAR China5%$4M
- Southeast Asia5%$4M
- Europe5%$4M
- Other2%$2M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2018–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||
| $126M | $158M | $90M | $74M | $71M | $86M | $92M | $81M | $81M | RevenueRevenue |
| 37% | 41% | 32% | 30% | 46% | 49% | 48% | 52% | 52% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| ($23M) | $6M | ($63M) | ($46M) | ($19M) | $3M | $4M | $8M | $8M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −18.3% | 3.5% | −70.3% | −62.2% | −26.9% | 3.0% | 4.8% | 9.8% | 9.8% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($27M) | $5M | ($63M) | ($46M) | ($20M) | $3M | $5M | $1M | $1M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | 1% | — | — | — | 2% | 1% | 52% | 52% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||
| ($19M) | $6M | ($2M) | ($22M) | $4M | $7M | $9M | $3M | $3M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $5M | $3M | $2M | $2M | $839K | $985K | $2M | $3M | $3M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $2M | ($2M) | $59M | $22M | $23M | $3M | $2M | ($872K) | ($872K) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $5M | $3M | $1M | $787K | $411K | $2M | $4M | $924K | $924K | CapexCapex |
| 3.6% | 1.7% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 2.4% | 4.4% | 1.1% | 1.1% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| ($24M) | $3M | ($3M) | ($23M) | $4M | $4M | $5M | $2M | $2M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −19.0% | 1.9% | −3.7% | −30.5% | 5.6% | 5.2% | 5.7% | 2.8% | 2.8% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| ($24M) | $3M | ($3M) | ($23M) | $4M | $4M | $5M | $2M | $2M | Free cash flowFCF |
| −19.0% | 1.9% | −3.7% | −30.5% | 5.6% | 5.2% | 5.7% | 2.8% | 2.8% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| -110% | — | -145% | -297% | — | — | — | — | — | ROICROIC |
| -160% | 27% | -112% | -229% | -214% | 18% | 21% | 5% | 5% | Return on equityROE |
| −160% | 27% | −112% | −229% | −214% | 18% | 21% | 5% | 5% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||
| — | $37M | $22M | $20M | $15M | $23M | $30M | $33M | $33M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $26M | $7M | $15M | $6M | $6M | $8M | $4M | $4M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | $11M | $6M | $6M | $4M | $2M | $1M | $4M | $4M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | $17M | $9M | $13M | $7M | $5M | $7M | $7M | $7M | Accounts payablePayables |
| — | $20M | $4M | $8M | $3M | $3M | $2M | $2M | $2M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | $85M | $72M | $49M | $41M | $49M | $56M | $61M | $61M | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | $48M | $41M | $47M | $36M | $39M | $42M | $37M | $37M | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 1.8× | 1.8× | 1.0× | 1.1× | 1.3× | 1.3× | 1.7× | 1.7× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | $90M | $97M | $67M | $46M | $57M | $65M | $68M | $68M | Total assetsAssets |
| -6.8× | 12.6× | -221.0× | -244.2× | -43.5× | 19.5× | 22.4× | 40.6× | 59.9× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $17M | $19M | $56M | $20M | $9M | $16M | $22M | $29M | $29M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||
| 124M | 155M | 173M | 191M | 208M | 248M | 251M | 252M | 232M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $1.02 | $1.02 | $0.52 | $0.39 | $0.34 | $0.35 | $0.37 | $0.32 | $0.35 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $-0.21 | $0.03 | $-0.37 | $-0.24 | $-0.10 | $0.01 | $0.02 | $0.01 | $0.01 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $-0.19 | $0.02 | $-0.02 | $-0.12 | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.01 | $0.01 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $-0.19 | $0.02 | $-0.02 | $-0.12 | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.01 | $0.01 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.04 | $0.02 | $0.01 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.01 | $0.02 | $0.00 | $0.00 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $0.13 | $0.13 | $0.33 | $0.11 | $0.04 | $0.06 | $0.09 | $0.11 | $0.12 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Share counts before TTM are restated ×1/1.5 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 7-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | −15.2%/yr | −9.0%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −28.1%/yr | −12.7%/yr |
| Book value / share | −2.3%/yr | −18.9%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2018–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
−297%low FY2021
Gross margin
52%low FY2021
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
$2Mowner earningsvs.$1Mnet incomelow FY2018
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
FY2019FY2025
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 $1M of profit into $2M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $1M | $5M | $3M | ($20M) | ($46M) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$3M | +$2M | +$985K | +$839K | +$2M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$872K | +$2M | +$3M | +$23M | +$22M |
| Cash from operations | $3M | $9M | $7M | $4M | ($22M) |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$924K | −$4M | −$2M | −$411K | −$787K |
| Owner earnings | $2M | $5M | $4M | $4M | ($23M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 3% | 6% | 5% | 6% | -31% |
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 .
Much of fiscal 2025's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.
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.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →
Material weakness in financial controls
“We have been implementing and will continue to implement the following measures to remedy the identified material weaknesses, including: (i) hiring additional competent and qualified accounting and reporting personnel with appropriate knowledge and experience…”
The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? 59.9×ComfortableOperating income $8M ÷ interest expense $133K
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 cashCash $33M + ST investments $197K − debt $2M
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $31M, 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 othersDSO 20 + DIO 41 − DPO 67 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?
- Not meaningful hereInvested capital ($2M) = debt $2M + equity $29M − cashIndustry peers: median -2%
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.
- Thin, recently turned positivelatest $2M = operating cash $3M − maintenance capex $924K; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (8-yr median 2%)Industry peers: median 5%
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 3% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 8 years.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $3M ÷ net income $1M
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
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?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.34×HarvestingCapex $924K ÷ depreciation $3M
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 · 1 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 MissRevenue ≥ $2B · $81M
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 NearCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.67×
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 PassDebt ≤ working capital · $2M 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 MissA profit every year (8-yr record) · 4 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record MissUninterrupted 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 $0.01/share (latest year $0.00), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $0.08/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 4 of 8
What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin −28% → 6% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The margin widened even though the filing names price competition — the gain came from volume or cost, not pricing power. Read where.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −28% early to 6% lately, median −18% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Worst year 2020 · −70.3% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
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.
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025Can 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$61M
- Cash & short-term investments$33M
- Receivables$4M
- Inventory$4M
- Other current assets$19M
Current liabilities$37M
- Debt due within a year$68K
- Accounts payable$7M
- Other current liabilities$30M
Current ratio1.67×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.55×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.90×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$24Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$68K due · $33M cash
covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$28Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$22MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$3M$1M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$3Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Peers, Telecom Operators
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALXCalix | $1.0B | 50% | -0.8% | -2% | 3% |
| GOGOGogo Inc. | $910M | 93% | 28.4% | 5% | 7% |
| IRDMIridium Communications Inc | $872M | 95% | 10.5% | 2% | 35% |
| GSATGlobalstar Inc. | $273M | 96% | -47.3% | -6% | 10% |
| NMAXNewsmax Inc. | $189M | — | -52.8% | -92% | -57% |
| ADArray Digital Infrastructure Inc. | $163M | 72% | 1.4% | 1% | 5% |
| UCLuCloudlink Group Inc. | $81M | 43% | -7.7% | -145% | 2% |
| SPIRSpire Global Inc. | $72M | 40% | -101.4% | -44% | -83% |
| Group median | — | 72% | -4.2% | -4% | 4% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American depositary shares, each of which represents ten Class”; uCloudlink Group Inc. reports in USD, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.
Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what uCloudlink Group Inc. has delivered.
uCloudlink Group 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, uCloudlink Group Inc. earns about $2M on its 2.4% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 2.8% 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.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2022−17%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2022−17%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
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 yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $2M on 38M shares outstanding (a weighted average, the only count this filer tags); net cash $31M. 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. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "uCloudlink Group Inc. (UCL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/UCL, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← UCAR its page in the Manual UFG →
Industry order: ← TU the Telecom Operators chapter UNIT →