# Zai Lab (ZLAB.US)

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

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:33:22.181Z. Financial observations: FY2018–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## 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: $23.51 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 0 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: 8 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 8

- Operating margin variation: 2.56×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -1,095.14×

- FY2019: -15.65×

- FY2020: -6.16×

- FY2021: -4.85×

- FY2022: -1.88×

- FY2023: -1.37×

- FY2024: -0.71×

- FY2025: -0.49×

### 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)

- Recent gross margin fell 5.5pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: -250.1%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -6010.6%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 5.5 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 63.9%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 58.5%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 2

- Capital spending / revenue: 14.3%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -583.4%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -44.0%

- FY2019: -396.3%

- FY2020: -20714.4%

- FY2021: -39.6%

- FY2022: -555.4%

- FY2023: -6010.6%

- FY2024: -103.8%

- FY2025: -70.6%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$1.9B

- Net income, five-year total: -$1.9B

- Return on incremental invested capital: -37.8%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 2414.3 pp

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

- FY2021: -$704M

- FY2022: -$443M

- FY2023: -$334M

- FY2024: -$257M

- FY2025: -$174M

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2018 to 2025 (7 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -396.3% vs -103.8%

- Per-share earnings: -0.27 to -0.26 (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: 7.1%

- Market cap gain: $5.8B

- Cumulative retained earnings: -$2.4B

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 7.1%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2018

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $0.01

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.27

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$0.26

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.50

- Average buyback yield: 0.0%

- Buyback history: 3 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- ROIC, first three-year median: -396.3%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -103.8%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -$0.24

- FY2019: -$0.27

- FY2020: -$0.35

- FY2021: -$0.76

- FY2022: -$0.46

- FY2023: -$0.35

- FY2024: -$0.26

- FY2025: -$0.16

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -2.1%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.03×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.11×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -13.8%

- FY2019: 2.2%

- FY2020: -4.1%

- FY2021: -9.6%

- FY2022: -6.2%

- FY2023: -13.2%

- FY2024: -3.6%

- FY2025: -2.1%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 77% since Oct 2021 · sales +15.3%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:55.622Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +15.3%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1704292/000170429226000015/zlab-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2018: $129K 

- FY2019: $13M 

- FY2020: $49M 

- FY2021: $144M 

- FY2022: $215M 

- FY2023: $267M 

- FY2024: $399M 

- FY2025: $460M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 58.5%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1704292/000170429226000015/zlab-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2018: 66.3% 

- FY2019: 71.1% 

- FY2021: 63.8% 

- FY2022: 65.6% 

- FY2023: 64.1% 

- FY2024: 62.9% 

- FY2025: 58.5% 

## Owner memo

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

### How it makes money

Operates in biotechnology; annual sales are USD 460.2 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1704292/000170429226000015/zlab-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: revenue 460156000; grossProfit 269075000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 58.5% to 64.1% during 2023–25.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 64.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 62.9%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1704292/000170429226000015/zlab-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 58.5%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); 8-year return on capital observations [[2018,-0.43967839750399346],[2019,-3.9629879970868513],[2020,-207.1440399652476],[2021,-0.39631110372226075],[2022,-5.553774992176362],[2023,-60.10639474753118],[2024,-1.0380547456474556],[2025,-0.7059622840606589]]; median -2.5005213713671535. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Can it raise prices

Kept about a 66% gross margin through 2022 cost inflation.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1704292/000170429226000015/zlab-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); Gross margin observations: [[2021,0.638013470813238],[2022,0.6557942708333333],[2023,0.6407605007517275]]; range within 2 percentage points.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 1 of 8 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Dividend observations: [[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,16055000],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 2.1% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); ZLAB.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 2.12 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-15.

### What the price says

The price is 56 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Closing price 23.51 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 0.42011443525144987; price multiple 55.96094308430185. FY2025 cash earnings/share -0.15881424153205642. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

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

- 2017-09: $27.00 per share

- 2017-10: $27.01 per share

- 2017-11: $26.11 per share

- 2017-12: $21.23 per share

- 2018-01: $26.96 per share

- 2018-02: $22.15 per share

- 2018-03: $21.35 per share

- 2018-04: $18.67 per share

- 2018-05: $23.42 per share

- 2018-06: $23.25 per share

- 2018-07: $21.92 per share

- 2018-08: $22.73 per share

- 2018-09: $19.48 per share

- 2018-10: $16.36 per share

- 2018-11: $19.72 per share

- 2018-12: $23.22 per share

- 2019-01: $26.99 per share

- 2019-02: $28.82 per share

- 2019-03: $29.51 per share

- 2019-04: $26.65 per share

- 2019-05: $26.21 per share

- 2019-06: $34.87 per share

- 2019-07: $32.12 per share

- 2019-08: $32.61 per share

- 2019-09: $32.35 per share

- 2019-10: $33.79 per share

- 2019-11: $39.80 per share

- 2019-12: $41.59 per share

- 2020-01: $50.99 per share

- 2020-02: $54.97 per share

- 2020-03: $51.48 per share

- 2020-04: $62.72 per share

- 2020-05: $74.40 per share

- 2020-06: $82.13 per share

- 2020-07: $76.11 per share

- 2020-08: $79.37 per share

- 2020-09: $83.17 per share

- 2020-10: $82.05 per share

- 2020-11: $110.78 per share

- 2020-12: $135.34 per share

- 2021-01: $160.07 per share

- 2021-02: $147.52 per share

- 2021-03: $133.43 per share

- 2021-04: $166.21 per share

- 2021-05: $177.66 per share

- 2021-06: $176.99 per share

- 2021-07: $144.61 per share

- 2021-08: $144.50 per share

- 2021-09: $105.39 per share

- 2021-10: $104.40 per share

- 2021-11: $69.25 per share

- 2021-12: $62.85 per share

- 2022-01: $49.67 per share

- 2022-02: $54.70 per share

- 2022-03: $43.98 per share

- 2022-04: $39.96 per share

- 2022-05: $29.10 per share

- 2022-06: $34.68 per share

- 2022-07: $40.53 per share

- 2022-08: $46.21 per share

- 2022-09: $34.20 per share

- 2022-10: $22.28 per share

- 2022-11: $38.56 per share

- 2022-12: $30.70 per share

- 2023-01: $42.14 per share

- 2023-02: $37.15 per share

- 2023-03: $33.26 per share

- 2023-04: $34.98 per share

- 2023-05: $32.49 per share

- 2023-06: $27.73 per share

- 2023-07: $30.06 per share

- 2023-08: $25.47 per share

- 2023-09: $24.31 per share

- 2023-10: $25.20 per share

- 2023-11: $27.29 per share

- 2023-12: $27.33 per share

- 2024-01: $21.57 per share

- 2024-02: $20.98 per share

- 2024-03: $16.02 per share

- 2024-04: $15.80 per share

- 2024-05: $17.78 per share

- 2024-06: $17.33 per share

- 2024-07: $19.03 per share

- 2024-08: $19.94 per share

- 2024-09: $24.14 per share

- 2024-10: $30.22 per share

- 2024-11: $28.85 per share

- 2024-12: $26.19 per share

- 2025-01: $27.19 per share

- 2025-02: $34.64 per share

- 2025-03: $36.14 per share

- 2025-04: $31.69 per share

- 2025-05: $30.14 per share

- 2025-06: $34.97 per share

- 2025-07: $37.80 per share

- 2025-08: $33.10 per share

- 2025-09: $33.89 per share

- 2025-10: $26.13 per share

- 2025-11: $20.41 per share

- 2025-12: $17.64 per share

- 2026-01: $16.60 per share

- 2026-02: $19.22 per share

- 2026-03: $18.81 per share

- 2026-04: $21.64 per share

- 2026-05: $17.69 per share

- 2026-06: $19.00 per share

- 2026-07: $18.27 per share

- 2026-08: $25.46 per share

- 2026-09: $26.34 per share

- 2026-10: $23.51 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 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1704292/000170429226000015/zlab-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-26.

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.

## Reported holder observations



# ZLAB — Zai Lab Ltd

Held by 1 investor · USD 47,071,479 total · 2024 Q3 · reported price USD 24.14 (split-adjusted).
Page: https://gigainvestors.com/s/ZLAB

## Holders (2024 Q3)

| Investor | Value | % of their portfolio | This quarter |
|---|---:|---:|---|
| Andreas Halvorsen (https://gigainvestors.com/vg) | USD 47,071,479 | 0.2% | reduce -4.29% |

## Total held by quarter

- 2021 Q1: USD 99,140,758 · 1 holder · USD 133.43
- 2021 Q2: USD 272,433,096 · 1 holder · USD 176.99
- 2021 Q3: USD 309,051,538 · 1 holder · USD 105.39
- 2021 Q4: USD 189,741,510 · 1 holder · USD 62.85
- 2022 Q1: USD 137,802,402 · 1 holder · USD 43.98
- 2022 Q2: USD 114,430,059 · 1 holder · USD 34.68
- 2022 Q3: USD 89,426,741 · 1 holder · USD 34.20
- 2022 Q4: USD 60,589,428 · 1 holder · USD 30.70
- 2023 Q1: USD 77,537,209 · 1 holder · USD 33.26
- 2023 Q2: USD 72,914,510 · 1 holder · USD 27.73
- 2023 Q3: USD 60,556,283 · 1 holder · USD 24.31
- 2023 Q4: USD 51,087,504 · 1 holder · USD 27.33
- 2024 Q1: USD 32,811,027 · 1 holder · USD 16.02
- 2024 Q2: USD 35,307,691 · 1 holder · USD 17.33
- 2024 Q3: USD 47,071,479 · 1 holder · USD 24.14
- 2024 Q4: USD 0 · 0 holders