Which US companies manage three things at once: grow quickly, turn a large share of every dollar of revenue into free cash, and still reduce their share count? Our screen of SEC filings asks exactly that. It keeps only businesses growing at double-digit rates, converting at least a quarter of their revenue into free cash flow, and showing a lower diluted share count than a year earlier. It then ranks what is left by free-cash-flow margin, highest first. Fourteen companies cleared all three tests. The six with the richest cash conversion are below, each with the figures that earned its place and one honest caveat.
| Company | Revenue (TTM) | Revenue growth | FCF margin | Diluted shares, YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doximity (DOCS) | $656m | 11.2% | 49.9% | -2.5% |
| NVIDIA (NVDA) | $303bn | 83.4% | 41.9% | -1.0% |
| Adobe (ADBE) | $26.0bn | 12.0% | 40.8% | -6.2% |
| Veeva Systems (VEEV) | $3.46bn | 16.5% | 40.3% | -0.1% |
| Autodesk (ADSK) | $7.79bn | 17.9% | 36.4% | -1.5% |
| CarGurus (CARG) | $967m | 13.9% | 32.6% | -8.1% |
Trailing-twelve-month figures from each company’s most recent filing, ranked by free-cash-flow margin.
Doximity (DOCS)
Doximity runs a professional network for US physicians and clinicians, earning its money from pharmaceutical marketing, hiring and telehealth tools sold into the healthcare industry. It tops the list on cash conversion: a free-cash-flow margin of 49.9% on revenue of $656m, with trailing growth of 11.2% and a diluted share count down 2.5% over the year. The caveat is where that cash comes from and goes. Stock-based compensation ran at 20.8% of revenue, the heaviest load in this group, and buybacks absorbed 136% of free cash flow, meaning the company spent more on repurchases than it generated in free cash and drew on its balance sheet to do so. Reported operating margin also fell 10.5 percentage points year on year.
NVIDIA (NVDA)
NVIDIA designs the graphics and accelerated-computing chips that now power most large-scale AI systems, and its data-centre business dwarfs the rest. Its figures sit in a different league: revenue of $303bn growing 83.4%, with that growth rate itself 12.7 percentage points faster than a year earlier, and an operating margin of 65.2%. Free cash flow still reached a 41.9% margin. The caveat is a modest share-count reduction, down just 1.0%, because buybacks took only 43.6% of free cash flow, with stock-based compensation a slim 2.4% of revenue. Growth this steep, accelerating from an already vast base, is the hardest thing on this page to sustain, and a single year’s filing cannot tell you whether it will.
Adobe (ADBE)
Adobe sells creative, document and marketing software on subscription, from Photoshop and Acrobat to its marketing cloud. It is the steady member of the group: revenue of $26.0bn growing 12.0%, a free-cash-flow margin of 40.8%, and the second-largest share-count reduction here, with diluted shares down 6.2%, funded by buybacks equal to 87.8% of free cash flow. Stock-based compensation is a moderate 8.0% of revenue. The caveat is momentum rather than quality: growth is among the slowest of the six, and the operating margin edged down 0.5 percentage points over the year. Even a cash-rich franchise faces pressure on the top line.
Veeva Systems (VEEV)
Veeva builds cloud software made specifically for the life-sciences industry: the systems drug companies use to run clinical trials, regulatory submissions and commercial operations. It is strong on both growth and cash: revenue of $3.46bn growing 16.5%, a free-cash-flow margin of 40.3%, and an operating margin that rose 3.0 percentage points year on year. The caveat is the share count. Diluted shares fell just 0.1% over the year, so Veeva clears the screen’s shrinking-share-count rule by the narrowest margin of any name here, while stock-based compensation of 14.3% of revenue means that simply holding the count flat is itself the achievement.
Autodesk (ADSK)
Autodesk sells subscription design software for architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing, with AutoCAD, Revit and Fusion among them. It is the fastest grower of the software names here: revenue of $7.79bn up 17.9%, with the operating margin expanding 5.2 percentage points, a 36.4% free-cash-flow margin and diluted shares down 1.5% on buybacks worth 56% of free cash flow. The caveat is relative: at 36.4% its free-cash-flow margin is the thinnest of the software names on the list, comfortably above the screen’s threshold but below the software peers ranked above it, so Autodesk earns its place on growth and margin direction as much as on raw conversion.
CarGurus (CARG)
CarGurus runs an online marketplace that connects US car shoppers with dealers. It made the largest dent in its share count of any name here: diluted shares fell 8.1% over the year, driven by buybacks that consumed 117% of free cash flow. Underneath that sit revenue of $967m growing 13.9% and a 32.6% free-cash-flow margin. The caveat is the operating line: operating margin dropped 10.9 percentage points year on year, the steepest fall in the group, and spending 117% of free cash flow on repurchases means the share-count cut was part-funded from beyond the year’s free cash rather than out of it.
How the screen was built, and what it can’t tell you
The screen reads trailing-twelve-month figures straight from each company’s SEC filings and applies three mechanical tests: double-digit revenue growth, free cash flow worth at least a quarter of revenue, and a diluted share count lower than a year earlier. The fourteen that passed are ranked by free-cash-flow margin, which is why Doximity’s 49.9% puts it first and CarGurus’ 32.6% last among the six shown here.
What the screen cannot do is value these businesses. It uses no share prices and makes no forecasts; it says nothing about whether any figure is sustainable, what competition or the economic cycle might do next, or what you would pay for any of it. The alternative reading matters: a falling share count flatters every per-share number, and as Doximity and CarGurus show, buybacks funded beyond free cash flow are a choice with trade-offs, not a free good, just as a high free-cash-flow margin can sit alongside heavy stock-based compensation that the headline share count only partly reveals. Treat the list as a starting point for research, a set of filings worth reading in full, rather than a verdict on any of them.
