NRDS

NerdWallet has decisively crossed from a cash-burning growth story into a profitable, self-funding one, and the market is still pricing it like the former. Revenue climbed to $837M (+21.7%), but the real inflection is on the bottom line: operating income leapt to $65.2M (+593.6%), net income to $48.7M (+60.2%), and diluted EPS to $0.64 (+68.4%). The four-year revenue arc — $380M → $539M → $599M → $688M → $837M — pairs with net income going from -$42.5M in FY2021 to +$48.7M in FY2025, so this is durable operating leverage, not a one-off. Operating cash flow of $132M (+83.3%) dwarfs reported net income and, against just $1.3M of capex, implies a ~$130M free-cash-flow stream — roughly a 19% FCF yield on the $675M market cap. Management is returning that cash: $70.2M of buybacks shrank the share count 3.8%.

The balance sheet removes most of the downside. Zero long-term debt, $98.3M cash (+48.3%), current assets of $245M against $70.9M current liabilities (3.5x current ratio), and liabilities/equity of just 0.23x. ROE is a respectable 13.0%. At 14.8x trailing EPS growing ~68% and 0.8x sales, valuation is undemanding for a business throwing off this much cash; even a modest re-rating toward 20x earnings supports the low-$13 target while you effectively get paid to wait via the FCF and buyback.