What does gross margin mean?
Gross margin is what is left of revenue after the direct cost of the goods or services sold. That cost is called cost of sales or cost of revenue. The SEC's guide calls the result gross profit, or sometimes gross margin.[S1]
How is gross margin worked out?
Start with net revenues: sales after returns and allowances. Subtract the cost of sales to get gross profit.[S1]
As a percentage: gross profit divided by revenue, times 100.
Costco works it out on net sales, which leave out its membership fees.[S8] On its Cityfort page, that GAAP gross margin is 11.1% (FY2026).
Cityfort stores a GAAP gross margin only beside a company's own gross margin measure, adjusted or for part of the business, so few pages carry one.
The block below shows each company's biggest cost per $100 that came in (revenue plus other income). Where that is cost of sales, gross margin comes after it.
See it in real companies
Biggest cost per $100 that came in at companies on Cityfort
87 companies on Cityfort, listed A–Z (not ranked).
- Accelevation
- Materials: $35.7 of every $100FY2025 · source S1
- Berkshire Hathaway
- Goods, services and leasing: $40.9 of every $100FY2025 · source S1
- Block
- Bitcoin ecosystem costs (mostly bitcoin bought to resell): $33.2 of every $100FY2025 · source S1
- Bloom Energy
- Cost of revenue: $69.7 of every $100FY2025 · source S1
- Booking Holdings
- Marketing: $29.2 of every $100FY2025 · source S1
- Caterpillar
- Cost of goods sold: $65.3 of every $100FY2025 · source S1
And 63 more companies on Cityfort; each stock page shows it in context.
From each company's filings, as cited on its Cityfort stock page. These figures change when a stock page is updated.
Where do you find it in a 10-K or 10-Q?
Look at the income statement: 10-K Item 8, or 10-Q Part I, Item 1.[S3][S4] Management's discussion (10-K Item 7, 10-Q Part I, Item 2) explains the results in words.[S3][S4]
SEC rules ask for the cost of goods sold and the cost of services as separate lines. They list no gross profit line.[S2] So some income statements skip it; subtract the cost line yourself.