Dimitry Nakhla | Babylon Capital®
$FICO incremental operating margins since Q1 2024 (QoQ)🏦

Q4 2023 → Q1 2024: 187%
Q1 2024 → Q2 2024: 84%
Q2 2024 → Q3 2024: -33%
Q3 2024 → Q4 2024: 116%
Q4 2024 → Q1 2025: 128%
Q1 2025 → Q2 2025: 113%
Q2 2025 → Q3 2025: 45%
Q3 2025 → Q4 2025: 123%
Q4 2025 → Q1 2026: 82% https://t.co/Q8Q7x7rRcy

Chris Hohn, founder of TCI, views high incremental margins as one of the strongest signals of a company’s moat & pricing power💸

Incremental operating margin tells you how much additional operating income a business generates for every additional $1 of revenue.

Here’s how to calculate it:

Pick two periods (Year 1 → Year 2)

Year 1 Revenue: $10B
Year 2 Revenue: $12B
Δ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞: $𝟐𝐁

Year 1 Operating Income: $2B
Year 2 Operating Income: $3B
Δ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞: $𝟏𝐁

𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧 = Δ 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 / Δ 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞

So: $1B / $2B = 50%

𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨: 50 cents of every new $1 of revenue fell to operating profit.
___

Why this matters: High incremental margins usually signal low incremental costs, pricing power, & structural operating leverage — the traits that allow a great business to compound faster as it scales. It’s one of the cleanest ways to see whether a company’s moat is strengthening & efficiently scaling.

I’ve included 4 high-quality stocks with their incremental operating margins since 2021 for further example 👇🏽

$FICO $MSFT $MA $NFLX - Dimitry Nakhla | Babylon Capital®
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Video source: @david_perell (2024)
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