At a glance
Donnelley Financial Solutions Inc is worth $1.29B, about 46 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue fell 1.9% to $767.0M in fiscal 2025, with 4.2% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 3.0% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $512.5M buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +2.7% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +6.9% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 54.6% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 45.4% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 4 months and 9 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN) helps companies and investment funds follow securities filing rules, mainly those of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It offers software, tech-enabled services (expert staff using DFIN's own tools), and printing and distribution of documents. Public and private companies use it for deal documents, such as IPO and merger paperwork, and for routine filings like the annual 10-K. Mutual fund firms, insurers and fund administrators use it for their regulatory reports. R.R. Donnelley & Sons spun DFIN off as a separate public company on October 1, 2016.
In FY2025 (the year ended December 31, 2025), revenue was $767.0 million across four segments. The largest, at 38.6%, was capital markets compliance and communications management, which is the services and print work DFIN does for companies. Capital markets software followed at 30%, then investment companies software at 16.7% and investment companies compliance and communications management at 14.7%. The main products are ActiveDisclosure for preparing and filing reports, the Venue virtual data room (a secure online space for sharing deal documents) and the Arc Suite platform for fund companies.
Clients are moving away from printed documents and toward software, which made up 46.7% of FY2025 revenue. Tech-enabled services brought in 38.9% and print and distribution 14.4%. The US supplied 89.3% of revenue, and Europe, Canada and Asia each supplied under 4%.
Price history
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DFIN +2.7% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Software Solutions | $358.4M | 46.7% |
| Technology Service | $298.3M | 38.9% |
| Print And Distribution Service | $110.3M | 14.4% |
By business segment
| Capital Markets Compliance And Communications Management | $296.2M | 38.6% |
| Capital Markets Software Solutions | $230.0M | 30% |
| Investment Companies Software Solutions | $128.4M | 16.7% |
| Investment Companies Compliance And Communications Management | $112.4M | 14.7% |
By geography
| US | $684.8M | 89.3% |
| Europe | $29.5M | 3.8% |
| CA | $26.1M | 3.4% |
| Asia | $24.7M | 3.2% |
| Other Geographic Area | $1.9M | 0.2% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $185.0M, up 5.5% from a year earlier, and net income was $21.3M.
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $767.0M (-1.9% year over year; -3.0% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 4.2% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | -3.0% weak |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 18.4% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 14.1% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 8.5% watch |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 4% watch |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-99.8M weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $894.5M | $-25.9M | $123.1M |
| FY2021 | $993.3M | $145.9M | $137.7M |
| FY2022 | $833.6M | $102.5M | $96.0M |
| FY2023 | $797.2M | $82.2M | $62.2M |
| FY2024 | $781.9M | $92.4M | $105.2M |
| FY2025 | $767.0M | $32.4M | $107.8M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $1.29B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 46.2 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Donnelley Financial Solutions’s market value went from $749.1M at the end of 2016 to $1.29B on Oct 28, 2026, up 73%; since the end of 2025 it is up 4%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $1.29B | +4.4% |
| 2025 | $1.24B | -31.6% |
| 2024 | $1.81B | -0.3% |
| 2023 | $1.82B | +61.4% |
| 2022 | $1.12B | -28.0% |
| 2021 | $1.56B | +175.9% |
| 2020 | $566.4M | +57.7% |
| 2019 | $359.1M | -24.9% |
| 2018 | $478.4M | -27.2% |
| 2017 | $656.8M | -12.3% |
| 2016 | $749.1M |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFIN price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +13.8% | +2.7% | -0.1% | +6.9% | +9.2% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +13.8% |
| 2025 | -25.6% |
| 2024 | +0.6% |
| 2023 | +61.4% |
| 2022 | -18.0% |
| 2021 | +177.8% |
| 2020 | +62.1% |
| 2019 | -25.4% |
| 2018 | -28.0% |
| 2017 | -15.2% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Before this security existed |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 54.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 54.6%, back to its old high 4.4 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 20.8% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 45.4%, back to its old high 8.8 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-31 to 2026-10-31 (23 read): 3 open-market purchases ($1000K) and 7 sales ($3.4M), 1 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 6, 2026 | Eric J Johnson President, GIC | sell | $1.0M |
| Sep 3, 2026 | Robert Kirk Williams Chief People & Intl Officer | sell | $802K |
| Feb 26, 2026 | Daniel Leib Chief Executive Officer, Director | sell (plan) | $504K |
| Aug 19, 2026 | Daniel Leib Chief Executive Officer, Director | sell | $489K |
| Sep 1, 2026 | Joseph Leo Binz Director | buy | $485K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 15.2% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.05% | Sep 30, 2026 |
| Mawer Investment Management Ltd. | 4.67% | Mar 31, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in DFIN
| JPSV JPMorgan Active Small Cap Value ETF | 1.15% |
| SCDS JPMorgan Fundamental Data Science Small Core ETF | 0.56% |
| DSMC Distillate Small/Mid Cash Flow ETF | 0.47% |
| XSHQ Invesco S&P SmallCap Quality ETF | 0.44% |
| FYT First Trust Small Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund | 0.39% |
| BUYO KraneShares Man Buyout Beta Index ETF | 0.36% |
| PSCF Invesco S&P SmallCap Financials ETF | 0.35% |
| SQLV Royce Quant Small‑Cap Quality Value ETF | 0.27% |
What could go wrong
- Fewer IPOs and mergers mean less revenue. A large part of DFIN's revenue comes from IPOs, mergers, debt offerings and similar deals. When deal activity slows, demand for its data rooms and transaction services can fall.
- Hackers target sensitive pre-release information. DFIN holds confidential, market-moving information about companies and planned mergers before it becomes public. The company says it has been a hacking target and has had security breaches before. A major leak could cost clients.
- Falling behind on technology and AI. More clients now handle their own disclosure work with software. If DFIN fails to keep pace with new technology, including AI, clients could switch providers or need less of its help.
- Rule changes could reduce demand. DFIN's business exists largely because of SEC and other filing rules. Changes that reduce or simplify what clients must file, or must print and mail, could shrink demand for its services.
- Price pressure in a crowded market. DFIN competes in a crowded, fragmented market, and its clients work within tight budgets. Together these can push prices down, which would weigh on revenue and profit margins.
- Debt could limit flexibility. As of June 30, 2026, DFIN had $204.0 million of debt and $25.3 million of cash. Loan terms can restrict what the company does, and it is allowed to borrow more.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results; Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
Donnelley Financial Solutions pays no dividend and paid none from FY2021 through FY2025. An income investor gets no regular cash payments from it. All of the return comes from changes in the share price, so drawing income would mean trimming shares. The company returns cash through buybacks instead, which shrink the share count. It spent $512.5 million on them over those five years, including $185.0 million in FY2025. That was well above that year's $107.8 million of free cash flow (the cash left after running and investing in the business). Shares outstanding fell 26.8% between July 2021 and July 2026.
The stock has swung sharply. In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 54.6% in about a month, then recovered by August 2020. In 2022 it dropped 45.4% from January 3 to May 9 and got back to its peak by February 2023. Its deepest fall since the 2016 spin-off was 84.4%. Because it is a single company, DFIN carries more risk than a diversified fund that spreads money across many stocks.
Questions investors ask
Does Donnelley Financial (DFIN) pay a dividend?
No. Donnelley Financial Solutions paid no dividends from FY2021 through FY2025 and had no dividend yield as of October 28, 2026. It returns cash through share buybacks instead. It spent $512.5 million on them over those five years, including $185.0 million in FY2025. Buybacks shrink the share count, so each remaining share owns a bigger slice of profits. However, they put no cash in shareholders' pockets, so the stock provides no regular income.
How does Donnelley Financial make money?
DFIN earns money by helping companies and investment funds follow securities filing rules. In FY2025, its software brought in 46.7% of its $767.0 million revenue. That software includes ActiveDisclosure, the Venue data room and Arc Suite. Tech-enabled services, where DFIN's experts prepare and file documents with its own tools, added 38.9%. Printing and distributing documents made up 14.4%. Clients include public and private companies, mutual fund firms, insurers and fund administrators. The US accounted for 89.3% of revenue.
Does DFIN depend on IPOs and mergers?
Partly. DFIN supports IPOs, mergers, debt offerings and other deals, and its 10-K warns that a drop in deal volume can reduce demand. In FY2025, about 59% of its capital markets services and print revenue was tied to transactions. Venue, a data room used mainly for deals, made up about 62% of capital markets software revenue. The investment companies side depends more on routine work: about 93% of its services and print revenue came from compliance.
Is Donnelley Financial's revenue growing?
No. Revenue fell 1.9% in FY2025 to $767.0 million. That was down from $993.3 million in FY2021, and revenue has shrunk about 3% a year since FY2020. Net income dropped 64.9% to $32.4 million. That helps explain why the stock traded at 46.2 times FY2025 earnings per share as of October 28, 2026. The quarter ended June 30, 2026 was steadier, with revenue up 2.8% from a year earlier to $224.2 million.
How has DFIN stock performed over the long term?
It has gained over the long run, but with large swings. As of October 28, 2026, the share price had risen about 9.2% a year over 10 years and 6.9% a year over five years. Over three years it was roughly flat. Calendar-year results ranged from a 177.78% gain in 2021 to a 28.01% loss in 2018, and the stock dropped 25.57% in 2025. The year-to-date gain through October 28, 2026 was 13.77%.