Owner Scorecard


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WTO, UTime Limited

Electrical Equipment capital-intensive Unprofitable

A capital-intensive business, run on heavy physical assets that must be kept working and earn a return above what they cost to maintain.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · figures as filed, in CNY
WTO · UTime Limited
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
CN¥212M
+23.2% YoY · 2% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM
Cash & investments CN¥293M
Cash burn · annual CN¥12M
Runway 10+ yrs

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.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has run around −13% through the cycle on a 7.4% gross margin, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −123 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.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −39%, above 15% in 0 of 4 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2019–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMSep 2025
Income statement
CN¥238MCN¥193MCN¥247MCN¥276MCN¥198MCN¥172MCN¥251MCN¥212MRevenueRevenue
10%10%7%5%15%5%3%3%Gross marginGross mgn
(CN¥10M)(CN¥20M)(CN¥15M)(CN¥35M)(CN¥78M)(CN¥30M)(CN¥665M)(CN¥528M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
−4.2%−10.2%−5.9%−12.5%−39.3%−17.5%−264.8%−248.9%Operating marginOp. mgn
(CN¥12M)(CN¥22M)(CN¥17M)(CN¥39M)(CN¥90M)(CN¥62M)(CN¥670M)(CN¥533M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
CN¥2M(CN¥17M)(CN¥3M)(CN¥21M)(CN¥24M)(CN¥374M)(CN¥32M)(CN¥12M)Operating cash flowOp. cash
CN¥3MCN¥4MCN¥4MCN¥4MCN¥6MCN¥7MCN¥6MCN¥6MDepreciationDeprec.
CN¥11MCN¥549KCN¥10MCN¥14MCN¥60M(CN¥318M)CN¥633MCN¥516MWorking capital & otherWC & other
CN¥23MCN¥3MCN¥6MCN¥3MCN¥971KCN¥971KCapexCapex
9.5%1.6%2.1%1.3%0.6%0.5%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
(CN¥20M)(CN¥20M)(CN¥27M)(CN¥27M)(CN¥375M)(CN¥12M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
−8.6%−10.5%−9.7%−13.7%−217.6%−5.9%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
(CN¥20M)(CN¥20M)(CN¥27M)(CN¥27M)(CN¥375M)(CN¥12M)Free cash flowFCF
−8.6%−10.5%−9.7%−13.7%−217.6%−5.9%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
-38%-43%-41%-8%ROICROIC
-54%-66%-61%-204%-17%-1188%Return on equityROE
−54%−66%−61%−204%−17%n/mRetained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
CN¥8MCN¥1MCN¥9MCN¥72MCN¥77MCN¥109MCN¥293MCash & investmentsCash+inv
CN¥41MCN¥18MCN¥22MCN¥52MCN¥30MCN¥51MCN¥51MReceivablesReceiv.
CN¥29MCN¥32MCN¥36MCN¥16MCN¥11MCN¥6MCN¥5MInventoryInvent.
CN¥66MCN¥49MCN¥75MCN¥125MCN¥106MCN¥139MCN¥183MAccounts payablePayables
CN¥4MCN¥127K(CN¥16M)(CN¥57M)(CN¥65M)(CN¥81M)(CN¥127M)Operating working capitalOper. WC
CN¥117MCN¥131MCN¥193MCN¥237MCN¥578MCN¥162MCN¥399MCurrent assetsCur. assets
CN¥121MCN¥148MCN¥163MCN¥246MCN¥273MCN¥334MCN¥392MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.0×0.9×1.2×1.0×2.1×0.5×1.0×Current ratioCurr. ratio
CN¥168MCN¥174MCN¥251MCN¥313MCN¥650MCN¥206MCN¥440MTotal assetsAssets
CN¥2MCN¥11MCN¥2MCN¥8MCN¥6MCN¥7MTotal debtDebt
CN¥1MCN¥2MCN¥2M(CN¥64M)(CN¥103M)(CN¥287M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-6.7×-11.3×-5.9×-7.1×-12.6×-8.3×-169.2×-139.2×Interest coverageInt. cov.
CN¥40MCN¥25MCN¥65MCN¥44MCN¥368M(CN¥133M)CN¥45MShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
4.4M4.5M4.5M8.2M54K1.7M3.6M3.6MShares out (diluted)Shares
CN¥54.36CN¥42.84CN¥54.65CN¥33.74CN¥3640.32CN¥104.02CN¥69.64CN¥58.86Revenue / shareRev/sh
CN¥-2.73CN¥-4.81CN¥-3.68CN¥-4.82CN¥-1658.75CN¥-37.59CN¥-185.93CN¥-148.01EPS (diluted)EPS
CN¥-4.67CN¥-4.49CN¥-3.27CN¥-496.93CN¥-226.34CN¥-3.46Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
CN¥-4.67CN¥-4.49CN¥-3.27CN¥-496.93CN¥-226.34CN¥-3.46Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
CN¥5.17CN¥0.69CN¥0.72CN¥47.78CN¥0.59CN¥0.27Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
CN¥8.86CN¥5.57CN¥7.96CN¥812.39CN¥222.22CN¥-36.81CN¥12.46Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.81 into 2022 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1/150.44 into 2023 — shares retired, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×30.5 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×2.18 into 2025 — 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
6-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+4.2%/yr+10.2%/yr
Capital spending / share−35.3%/yr (5-yr)−35.3%/yr

The record, charted

FY2019–2025

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

Share count
4Mpeak FY2022
ROIC
−8%low FY2021
Gross margin
3%low FY2025

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¥375M)owner earningsvs.(CN¥62M)net incomelow FY2024

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 2024 the business reported a CN¥62M loss but (CN¥375M) of owner earnings: CN¥312M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2020FY2019
Reported net income(CN¥62M)(CN¥90M)(CN¥39M)(CN¥22M)(CN¥12M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+CN¥7M+CN¥6M+CN¥4M+CN¥4M+CN¥3M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−CN¥318M+CN¥60M+CN¥14M+CN¥549K+CN¥11M
Cash from operations(CN¥374M)(CN¥24M)(CN¥21M)(CN¥17M)CN¥2M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−CN¥971K−CN¥3M−CN¥6M−CN¥3M−CN¥23M
Owner earnings(CN¥375M)(CN¥27M)(CN¥27M)(CN¥20M)(CN¥20M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-218%-14%-10%-10%-9%

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 →
Material weakness in financial controls
“In connection with the audits of our consolidated financial statements included in this annual report, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.”

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

Will it survive?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income (CN¥528M) ÷ interest expense CN¥4M
    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 cash
    Cash CN¥293M − debt CN¥7M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by CN¥287M, 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 88 + DIO 8 − DPO 326 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 here
    Invested capital (CN¥242M) = debt CN¥7M + equity CN¥45M − cash
    Industry peers: median 3%
    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.

  • Consumes cash through the cycle
    5-yr median margin, range -218%–-9%; latest (CN¥12M) = operating cash (CN¥12M) − maintenance capex CN¥971K
    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 -6% of revenue this year, a -10% median across 5 years.

  • Loss, and burning cash
    Net income (CN¥533M) · cash from operations (CN¥12M)

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

    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.

How is the cash used?

  • Not enough data
    What this means

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

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.17×
    Harvesting
    Capex CN¥971K ÷ depreciation CN¥6M
    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 4 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¥212M
    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 Miss
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.02×
    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¥7M vs CN¥7M 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 (7-yr record) · 7 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 CN¥-3316.46/share (latest year CN¥-6453.91), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥543.47/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, 2019–2025

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

  • Profitable years 0 of 7
    What this means

    Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 3 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 −7% → −107% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about −7% early to −107% lately, median −13% — 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.

  • Worst year 2025 · −264.8% op. margin
    What this means

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

  • Share count −3.2%/yr
    What this means

    The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.

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 fiscal year-end, Sep 30, 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¥399M
  • Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥293M
  • ReceivablesCN¥51M
  • InventoryCN¥5M
  • Other current assetsCN¥50M
Current liabilitiesCN¥392M
  • Debt due within a yearCN¥1M
  • Accounts payableCN¥183M
  • Other current liabilitiesCN¥207M
Current ratio1.02×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.01×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.75×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capitalCN¥7Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cashCN¥1M due · CN¥293M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Sep 30, 2025 balance sheet
Cash runway23.5 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Deeper floors
Tangible book valueCN¥45Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value(CN¥1M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leasesCN¥8MCN¥1M of it operating leases
Deferred revenueCN¥1Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
    ≈CN¥22M · 11% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
    “For the year ended March 31, 2025, our top three customers accounted for approximately 10.6%, 8.9%, and 8.9% of our net revenue.”verify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Electrical Equipment

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
HLITHarmonic Inc.$361M50%3.5%3%2%
AMSCAmerican Superconductor Corporation$299M15%-23.0%-31%-15%
WTOUTime LimitedCN¥212M7%-12.5%-39%-10%
NRGVEnergy Vault Holdings Inc.$204M18%-39.9%-66%-22%
NSSCNAPCO Security Technologies Inc.$182M43%13.4%23%9%
MXMagnachip Semiconductor Corporation$179M24%2.5%8%-5%
FCELFuelCell Energy Inc.$158M-14%-101.7%-26%-85%
CLFDClearfield Inc.$150M40%8.1%9%6%
Group median21%-5.0%-12%-8%
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. UTime Limited 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.

UTime Limited 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.

CN¥
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered−0%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−6%

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, "UTime Limited (WTO), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/WTO, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← WTF its page in the Manual WXM →

Industry order: ← WBX the Electrical Equipment chapter WWD →