# Zhihu (ZH.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/ZH

Analysis as of: 2026-10-15T06:39:06.898Z. Financial observations: FY2019–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: CNY.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $3.50 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 2 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 7 years

- Years with declining revenue: 2

- Years with a net loss: 7

- Operating margin variation: 0.91×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: -1.58×

- FY2020: -0.45×

- FY2021: -0.47×

- FY2022: -0.44×

- FY2023: -0.26×

- FY2024: -0.14×

- FY2025: -0.18×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -16.4%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -22.4%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -5.3 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 54.7%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 59.9%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 6

- Capital spending / revenue: 0.2%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -31.2%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: 0.0%

- FY2020: -16.4%

- FY2021: -15.8%

- FY2022: -22.4%

- FY2023: -18.2%

- FY2024: -9.3%

- FY2025: -79.1%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: CNY -4.0B

- Net income, five-year total: CNY -4.1B

- Return on incremental invested capital: >100%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -2.3 pp

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: CNY -1.3B

- FY2022: CNY -1.6B

- FY2023: CNY -828M

- FY2024: CNY -155M

- FY2025: CNY -175M

### management: fail

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -15.8% vs -18.2%

- Per-share earnings: -10.11 to -2.41 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -2.8%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -2.8%

- Per-share value change: CNY 7.70

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: CNY -10.11

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: CNY -2.41

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.80

- Average buyback yield: 10.1%

- Buyback history: 4 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- ROIC, first three-year median: -15.8%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -18.2%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: CNY -10.11

- FY2020: CNY -5.31

- FY2021: CNY -13.10

- FY2022: CNY -15.83

- FY2023: CNY -8.46

- FY2024: CNY -1.91

- FY2025: CNY -2.41

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: 3.3%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.94×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.01×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: -7.2%

- FY2020: -6.5%

- FY2021: -9.6%

- FY2022: -6.5%

- FY2023: -6.3%

- FY2024: 1.8%

- FY2025: 3.3%

## Holders

- [David Hoeft](https://gigainvestors.com/DAC): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 58% since Oct 2021 · "Earnings call transcript: Zhihu Q1 2025 sees revenue decline, AI focus" (investing.com, Aug 2025) · sales -23.6%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:55.368Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-11-25: Zhihu ADR GAAP EPADS of -$0.08, revenue of $92.6M misses by $6.2M ([seekingalpha.com](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4525692-zhihu-adr-gaap-epads-of-008-revenue-of-926m-misses-by-62m?utm_source=feed_news_all&utm_medium=referral&feed_item_type=news))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales -23.6%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1835724/000110465926044557/zh-20251231x20f.htm; observed 2026-04-17.

- FY2019: CNY 669M 

- FY2020: CNY 1.3B 

- FY2021: CNY 2.9B 

- FY2022: CNY 3.7B 

- FY2023: CNY 4.2B 

- FY2024: CNY 3.6B 

- FY2025: CNY 2.7B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 59.9%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1835724/000110465926044557/zh-20251231x20f.htm; observed 2026-04-17.

- FY2019: 46.6% 

- FY2020: 56.0% 

- FY2021: 52.5% 

- FY2022: 50.2% 

- FY2023: 54.7% 

- FY2024: 61.5% 

- FY2025: 59.9% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in internet content & information; annual sales are CNY 2.7 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1835724/000110465926044557/zh-20251231x20f.htm#000110465926044557 (filed 2026-04-17); FY2025: revenue 2749004000; grossProfit 1647745000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-05); ZH.US: Zhihu Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates an online content community in the People's Republic of China. The company offers contents in various categories, including career development, science and technology, business and finance, consumer decision-making, lifestyle, entertainment, and others. It also provides Yan Selection membership program which provides premium content items, such as fictional stories and novels, other books and magazines, live and recorded lectures, and audio books. In addition, the company offers marketing services comprising online advertising services and content-commerce solutions; and content-related services, including vocational training and other content-based offering. Further, it is involved in the provision of technology, business support, consulting, and internet services, as well as holds audio-visual permit. The company was formerly known as Zhihu Technology Limited and changed its name to Zhihu Inc. in October 2020. Zhihu Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 54.7% to 61.5% during 2023–25; it lost 16.4% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-17); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 54.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-17); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 61.5%.

- Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001835724.json#0001104659-26-044557 (filed 2026-04-17); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 59.9%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-17); 7-year return on capital observations [[2019,0],[2020,-0.1637509062443859],[2021,-0.1582353198307621],[2022,-0.22420160193994945],[2023,-0.18231317114411433],[2024,-0.09275994638354237],[2025,-0.7905173624535463]]; median -0.1637509062443859. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid no dividends in 7 years; bought back CNY 167.1 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-17); Dividend observations: [[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001835724.json#0001104659-26-044557 (filed 2026-04-17); FY2025: cash repurchases 167060000 CNY.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 10.1% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-05); ZH.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 10.075000000000001 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-05.

### What the price says

The price is 0.7 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-04-17); Closing price 3.5 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 0.14944; FY2025 annual sales per share 34.356301590799426; price multiple 0.6817023309696519. FY2025 cash earnings/share -2.189814236659933. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2021-03: $8.11 per share

- 2021-04: $9.56 per share

- 2021-05: $9.31 per share

- 2021-06: $13.56 per share

- 2021-07: $9.23 per share

- 2021-08: $9.58 per share

- 2021-09: $9.23 per share

- 2021-10: $8.26 per share

- 2021-11: $7.31 per share

- 2021-12: $5.54 per share

- 2022-01: $4.27 per share

- 2022-02: $3.34 per share

- 2022-03: $2.42 per share

- 2022-04: $1.55 per share

- 2022-05: $1.55 per share

- 2022-06: $1.79 per share

- 2022-07: $1.25 per share

- 2022-08: $1.29 per share

- 2022-09: $1.06 per share

- 2022-10: $0.99 per share

- 2022-11: $1.06 per share

- 2022-12: $1.30 per share

- 2023-01: $1.63 per share

- 2023-02: $1.43 per share

- 2023-03: $1.27 per share

- 2023-04: $1.10 per share

- 2023-05: $1.00 per share

- 2023-06: $1.13 per share

- 2023-07: $1.24 per share

- 2023-08: $1.01 per share

- 2023-09: $1.04 per share

- 2023-10: $0.99 per share

- 2023-11: $0.73 per share

- 2023-12: $0.94 per share

- 2024-01: $0.78 per share

- 2024-02: $0.80 per share

- 2024-03: $0.68 per share

- 2024-04: $0.68 per share

- 2024-05: $3.26 per share

- 2024-06: $2.73 per share

- 2024-07: $3.30 per share

- 2024-08: $3.31 per share

- 2024-09: $3.85 per share

- 2024-10: $3.57 per share

- 2024-11: $3.59 per share

- 2024-12: $3.54 per share

- 2025-01: $3.49 per share

- 2025-02: $5.11 per share

- 2025-03: $4.27 per share

- 2025-04: $3.86 per share

- 2025-05: $3.82 per share

- 2025-06: $3.98 per share

- 2025-07: $4.23 per share

- 2025-08: $4.80 per share

- 2025-09: $5.07 per share

- 2025-10: $4.35 per share

- 2025-11: $3.69 per share

- 2025-12: $3.28 per share

- 2026-01: $3.77 per share

- 2026-02: $3.32 per share

- 2026-03: $2.84 per share

- 2026-04: $3.20 per share

- 2026-05: $2.95 per share

- 2026-06: $3.13 per share

- 2026-07: $3.27 per share

- 2026-08: $2.76 per share

- 2026-09: $3.57 per share

- 2026-10: $3.47 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 20-F filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1835724/000110465926044557/zh-20251231x20f.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-04-17.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.