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YOUL, Youlife Group Inc.

We are a leading blue-collar lifetime service platform in China, dedicating to serve the needs throughout the entire life cycle of the blue-collar talent.

We provide blue-collar lifetime services to students, blue-collar talent and corporate customers, which comprises vocational education services, HR recruitment services, employee management services and market services.

As one of our main business segments, we primarily enter into cooperation agreements with our customers to manage secondary vocational schools.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · figures as filed, in CNY · 1 ADS = 1 ordinary share

YOUL · Youlife Group Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

CN¥1.9B

+16.9% YoY

Vital signs · TTM, with 3-yr average

Revenue CN¥1.9B 3-yr avg CN¥1.6B

Gross margin 10% 3-yr avg 13%

Operating margin 0.4% 3-yr avg 0.5%

ROIC 1% 3-yr avg 1%

Owner-earnings margin 1% 3-yr avg 0%

Free cash flow margin 1% 3-yr avg −2%

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 14% and operating margin about 0.4% 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. That margin has held in a narrow −1.4%–2.6% band over the years, so steadiness itself is the evidence — the lever is unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line. 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.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2023–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMDec 2025
				Income statement
CN¥1.4B	CN¥1.6B	CN¥1.9B	CN¥1.9B	RevenueRevenue
15%	14%	10%	10%	Gross marginGross mgn
(CN¥19M)	CN¥41M	CN¥7M	CN¥7M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−1.4%	2.6%	0.4%	0.4%	Operating marginOp. mgn
CN¥97M	(CN¥52M)	CN¥43M	CN¥43M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	15%	15%	Effective tax rateTax rate
				Cash flow & returns
CN¥12M	CN¥6M	CN¥12M	CN¥12M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
CN¥8M	CN¥10M	CN¥11M	CN¥11M	DepreciationDeprec.
(CN¥94M)	CN¥49M	(CN¥42M)	(CN¥42M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
CN¥95M	CN¥1M	CN¥27K	CN¥27K	CapexCapex
6.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
CN¥3M	CN¥5M	CN¥12M	CN¥12M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
0.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.6%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
(CN¥83M)	CN¥5M	CN¥12M	CN¥12M	Free cash flowFCF
−6.1%	0.3%	0.6%	0.6%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	1%	1%	ROICROIC
—	-9%	6%	6%	Return on equityROE
—	−9%	6%	6%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
				Balance sheet
—	CN¥127M	CN¥144M	CN¥144M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	CN¥288M	CN¥343M	CN¥343M	ReceivablesReceiv.
—	CN¥4M	CN¥2M	CN¥2M	InventoryInvent.
—	CN¥292M	CN¥345M	CN¥345M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
—	CN¥667M	CN¥937M	CN¥937M	Current assetsCur. assets
—	CN¥290M	CN¥464M	CN¥464M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
—	2.3×	2.0×	2.0×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
CN¥20M	CN¥20M	—	CN¥20M	GoodwillGoodwill
—	CN¥908M	CN¥1.2B	CN¥1.2B	Total assetsAssets
—	CN¥49M	CN¥126M	CN¥126M	Total debtDebt
—	(CN¥78M)	(CN¥18M)	(CN¥18M)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-6.0×	18.6×	2.6×	2.6×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
—	CN¥570M	CN¥734M	CN¥734M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
				Per share
70.0M	70.0M	72.9M	76.0M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
CN¥19.51	CN¥22.65	CN¥25.44	CN¥24.38	Revenue / shareRev/sh
CN¥1.39	CN¥-0.75	CN¥0.59	CN¥0.56	EPS (diluted)EPS
CN¥0.05	CN¥0.07	CN¥0.16	CN¥0.16	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
CN¥-1.19	CN¥0.07	CN¥0.16	CN¥0.16	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
CN¥1.35	CN¥0.02	CN¥0.00	CN¥0.00	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
—	CN¥8.14	CN¥10.07	CN¥9.66	Book value / shareBVPS

The record, charted

FY2023–2025

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

Share count

73Mpeak FY2025

Gross margin

10%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¥12Mowner earningsvs.CN¥43Mnet incomelow FY2023

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2023FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2023–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

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 reported CN¥43M of profit but CN¥12M of owner earnings: CN¥31M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net incomeCN¥43M

Owner earningsCN¥12M · 1% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023
Reported net income	CN¥43M	(CN¥52M)	CN¥97M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+CN¥11M	+CN¥10M	+CN¥8M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−CN¥42M	+CN¥49M	−CN¥94M
Cash from operations	CN¥12M	CN¥6M	CN¥12M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−CN¥27K	−CN¥1M	−CN¥8M
Owner earnings	CN¥12M	CN¥5M	CN¥3M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	—	−CN¥86M
Free cash flow	CN¥12M	CN¥5M	(CN¥83M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	1%	0%	0%

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.

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 audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2025, we identified one material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025.”

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

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 2.6×

Adequate

Operating income CN¥7M ÷ interest expense CN¥3M

What this means
Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +CN¥18M

Net cash

Cash CN¥144M − debt CN¥126M

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by CN¥18M, 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.
How long is cash tied up? —

Not enough data

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

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 1%

Below average

NOPAT CN¥6M ÷ invested capital CN¥716M (debt + equity − cash)

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. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 0%

Thin through the cycle

3-yr median margin, range 0%–1%; latest CN¥12M = operating cash CN¥12M − maintenance capex CN¥27K

Industry peers: median 10%

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 1% of revenue this year, a 0% median across 3 years.
Are earnings backed by cash? 0.28×

Thinly cash-backed

Cash from ops CN¥12M ÷ net income CN¥43M

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?

Where do the earnings go? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Investing or harvesting? 0.00×

Harvesting

Capex CN¥27K ÷ depreciation CN¥11M

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 2 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¥1.9B

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× · 2.02×

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¥126M vs CN¥473M 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.
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¥0.38/share (latest year CN¥0.56), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥9.66/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.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

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.

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

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¥937M

Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥144M
ReceivablesCN¥343M
InventoryCN¥2M
Other current assetsCN¥448M

Current liabilitiesCN¥464M

Debt due within a yearCN¥126M
Other current liabilitiesCN¥338M

Current ratio2.02×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio2.01×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.31×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capitalCN¥473Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cashCN¥126M due · CN¥144M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book valueCN¥706Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset valueCN¥448MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leasesCN¥133MCN¥7M of it operating leases

Deferred revenueCN¥35Mcustomer 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¥473M · 26% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
“In 2023, 2024 and 2025, revenue generated from our five largest customers accounted for approximately 25.5%, 30.8% and 27.8% of our total revenue, respectively. 62 SALES AND MARKETING Branding We have a centralized marketing team at our headquarters focusing on the formulation of our branding strate…”verify →

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

Peers, Education Services

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
GHCGraham Holdings Company	$4.9B	—	4.6%	3%	5%
LRNStride Inc.	$2.4B	35%	5.8%	11%	11%
YOULYoulife Group Inc.	CN¥1.9B	14%	0.4%	1%	0%
STRAStrategic Education Inc.	$1.3B	—	10.9%	6%	9%
LOPEGrand Canyon Education Inc.	$1.1B	—	28.1%	27%	24%
PRDOPerdoceo Education Corporation	$846M	—	19.7%	16%	17%
UTIUniversal Technical Institute Inc	$836M	—	1.5%	2%	4%
Group median	—	—	5.8%	6%	9%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American depositary shares, each representing one Class”; Youlife Group Inc. reports in CNY, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS and translated at CNY 1 = $0.147 (2026-07-17, reference rate) so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed, in CNY.

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

Today’s price $

Base Normalize · through-cycle (($3M)) Net of stock comp

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

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 · since FY2024+133%/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 $2M on 76M shares outstanding, the balance-sheet count at 2025-12-31; net cash $3M. 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.

Weigh YOUL against another business →

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

Manual order: ← YOOV its page in the Manual YQ →

Industry order: ← UTI the Education Services chapter YQ →