One-glance verdict
$22.26 our estimate vs market $275.61
Wall Street consensus: $288.70 (1,197.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
1138% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
ARM · NMS · Technology · Semiconductors
Current price
$275.61
52-week range
$100.02 - $452.70
Market cap
$294.35B
One-glance verdict
Wall Street consensus: $288.70 (1,197.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
1138% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Balance sheet
Net cash $3.40B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
What this company does
Arm creates and licenses the essential blueprints for the computer chips that power most of the world's smartphones and many other electronic devices. The company makes money from design fees and by collecting a royalty (a small payment for each chip a customer sells using its technology). Because its energy-efficient designs are used in billions of products, Arm is a key player in the technology supply chain (the network of companies that create and distribute electronics).
Founded in England in 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple, and VLSI Technology, Arm started by designing processors that were powerful yet very energy-efficient. This focus on low power consumption was perfect for the new wave of mobile devices. Its big break came as its technology was adopted for early cell phones, and today its designs are in over 99% of smartphones worldwide. After being a publicly traded company, it was bought by SoftBank Group in 2016 and then returned to the public stock market in 2023.
Arm is a company that designs the essential blueprints for computer chips, known as processors (the 'brains' of a device). Unlike other big names in the chip world, Arm doesn't manufacture or sell any physical chips itself. Instead, it licenses its designs and technology—its intellectual property (IP)—to over 1,000 other companies, like Apple and Samsung, who then use these plans to build their own processors for everything from smartphones to cars and data centers.
This is one of the two main ways the company makes money. Companies pay Arm an upfront fee to get access to its intellectual property (IP), which is the library of chip designs and technology. This allows other companies to save time and money by using Arm's proven, power-efficient designs as the foundation for their own chips. This part of the business provides immediate revenue and has been growing as more companies want to create custom chips for things like artificial intelligence.
This is the second major way Arm earns money and it creates a steady, long-term stream of income. After a company licenses Arm's design and manufactures a chip, it pays Arm a small fee, called a royalty, for every single chip it sells that contains Arm's technology. While the fee per chip is small, it adds up because billions of Arm-based chips are shipped every year. This part of the business is the larger contributor to Arm's revenue and grows as more and more electronic devices are sold worldwide.
Arm is focused on expanding beyond its dominance in smartphones into new, fast-growing areas. A major priority is the market for data centers and cloud computing, where its energy-efficient designs are attractive to large tech companies. The company is also heavily investing in designs for artificial intelligence (AI), automotive technology, and the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes everyday connected devices. Management sees a large opportunity in providing the foundational technology for these expanding markets, which could lead to significant future growth.
Price history
Earnings history
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Is it cheap or expensive?
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $288.70 (1,197.2% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $22.26 a share — about 91.9% below today's price of $275.61, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Net cash $3.4B - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 8.2x.
Arm Holdings plc's profit covers its interest bill about 8.2 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Total debt $485.00M Interest coverage 8.18x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $15.27B Interest coverage 18.67x +128% vs ARM Carries about 2.3x more debt cushion than ARM.
Total debt $59.42B Interest coverage 8.12x -1% vs ARM Has roughly the same debt cushion as ARM.
Total debt $4.28B Interest coverage 28.20x +245% vs ARM Carries about 3.4x more debt cushion than ARM.
Total debt $5.29B Interest coverage 6.61x -19% vs ARM Carries about 1.2x less debt cushion than ARM.
Total debt $10.84B Interest coverage 2.05x -75% vs ARM Carries about 4.0x less debt cushion than ARM.
What you should know
The numbers
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Valuation
Profitability
Health
Growth
Cash flow
Dividend
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Debt comparison
What you should know