Opera Ltd
🔔 Watch stock
Assessment
Our Rating
A journalistic assessment by our editorial team at the time of the deep dive — it rates the company, not the entry point. Not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell.
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
Why this colour
Yellow, because the business fundamentally works while one material operating question stays open: a growing share of the revenue growth is purchased. Third-party ad inventory cost rose 73 percent to $205.1 million in 2025 and thus to 33 percent of revenue; all cost-of-revenue lines together climbed from 23.5 percent in 2023 to 35.9 percent in 2025 and 38 percent in the second quarter of 2026. That the operating margin nevertheless held at 15 to 16 percent is down to falling marketing and personnel ratios — an offset that cannot be repeated indefinitely. Add the concentration on a handful of partners with Google at the top, and a $300.9 million investment whose value comes solely from a model spanning $0.2 billion to $6.0 billion. Red is out of the question: the balance sheet as of June 30, 2026 carries no financial debt, $1,013.4 million of equity and $145.2 million of cash, and operations are consistently profitable and cash-generative. Green is out of reach while the margin question is this large, and in case of doubt the more cautious grade applies. The decision is yours.
What the thesis turns on
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Opera Limited earns its money from advertising and referrals around a browser family with 288 million monthly users. The business is growing faster, not slower — up 28 percent in 2025 and 24 percent in the first half of 2026 — throws off cash and carries no financial debt; two dividends of $0.40 per share and a $300 million repurchase program flow back to shareholders. Against that stand three documented points: a quarter of the balance sheet consists of an investment that only a Level 3 model can price; cost of revenue climbed from 23.5 percent to 35.9 percent in two years because growth is bought; and 68.0 percent of the shares sit with a Chinese majority owner. Not investment advice.
Growth and earning power
Revenue rose from $396.8 million in 2023 through $480.6 million in 2024 to $614.8 million in 2025, then grew another 24 percent to $353.8 million in the first half of 2026. Adjusted EBITDA reached $142.5 million in 2025, a 23 percent margin; on August 19, 2026 the company raised full-year guidance to $734 million to $742 million of revenue and $172 million to $175 million of adjusted EBITDA.
Balance sheet and liquidity
As of June 30, 2026, total assets of $1,162.1 million and equity of $1,013.4 million faced just $148.8 million of total liabilities — without a single bank loan or bond. Cash stood at $145.2 million, and operating cash flow in the first half came to $64.3 million, or 76 percent of adjusted EBITDA.
Quality of reported earnings
A substantial part of net income comes from unrealized fair value gains on the OPay stake: $89.8 million in 2023 (against $62.9 million of operating profit), $5.0 million in 2024, $36.3 million in 2025 and $6.3 million in the second quarter of 2026. The carrying amount of $300.9 million as of June 30, 2026 rests on a Level 3 model with scenarios spanning $0.2 billion to $6.0 billion of equity value.
Margin and the cost of growth
Cost of inventory sold rose 73 percent to $205.1 million in 2025 and reached 33 percent of revenue, up from 25 percent in 2024. All cost-of-revenue lines together climbed from 23.5 percent in 2023 to 35.9 percent in 2025 and 38 percent in the second quarter of 2026. The offset came from falling marketing and personnel ratios — a lever with a limited reservoir.
Ownership and shareholder voice
Kunlun Tech, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, indirectly holds roughly 68.0 percent of the ordinary shares according to the 20-F for 2025; Opera is its consolidated subsidiary and the executive chairman is also a controlling shareholder of Kunlun. As a controlled company Opera uses exemptions from Nasdaq board independence rules, and the float stands at roughly 28.8 million shares (data as of August 23, 2026).
Partner concentration and the AI shift
The annual report names Google as the largest partner, representing a material share of total revenues, and at the same time describes how synthesized AI answers can make conventional browsing — and with it ad space and referrals — unnecessary, explicitly including within its own products. Against that stand Opera’s own AI revenues: the subscription browser Opera Neon since late 2025 and query revenue that, per Note 3, also comes from AI platforms.
Worth Noting
The starting point was a sweep of our U.S. universe on August 23, 2026: growth, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.7, a 4.2 percent dividend yield and no financial debt rarely appear together.
Data status: full-year figures from the annual report on Form 20-F for 2025 (filed March 27, 2026), half-year and balance sheet figures from the interim report on Form 6-K of August 19, 2026 (as of June 30, 2026), price and valuation data as of August 23, 2026, valuation anchor $18.96 from August 21, 2026.
Do not confuse Opera Limited (Nasdaq: OPRA) with Opera Software ASA, the predecessor listed in Oslo whose browser business was sold to a Chinese consortium in 2016. Nor with the Options Price Reporting Authority, which uses the same OPRA acronym in U.S. options trading.
As a foreign private issuer Opera files no quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and no annual report on Form 10-K; every figure in this analysis comes from the annual report on Form 20-F and the interim reports on Form 6-K.
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of August 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at OPRA since then.
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Price history
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
52-week range: 11.80 $ to 20.60 $ · Last price: 17.60 $ (As of: September 29, 2026)
Key figures
Key figures at a glance
Every figure we hold for this stock, grouped by topic. The question mark next to a label explains what the number means.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 09/29/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Comparison
Industry comparison
The stock alongside the largest companies in the same group. The median row is the middle value of the companies shown above — not of the whole industry.
Industry: Internet Content & Information
| Company | Market cap ($B) | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross Margin % | EBIT Margin % | Sales Growth (Year) % | Perf. 1Y % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opera Ltd OPRA | 1.6 | 12.8 | 8.6 | 50.4 | 16.4 | 28.3 | -3.1 |
| Alphabet Inc Class A GOOGL | 4,159.9 | 25.6 | 12.7 | 60.9 | 36.1 | 15.1 | 40.1 |
| Alphabet Inc Class C GOOG | 4,148.0 | 25.3 | 12.7 | 60.9 | 36.1 | 15.1 | 38.4 |
| Meta Platforms Inc. META | 1,880.9 | 27.5 | 16.9 | 81.8 | 40.6 | 22.2 | -0.3 |
| Spotify Technology SA SPOT | 101.5 | 36.7 | 22.3 | 32.8 | 15.8 | 9.7 | -32.2 |
| Nebius Group N.V. NBIS | 52.3 | – | 55.1 | 74.3 | – | – | 115.4 |
| Reddit, Inc. RDDT | 29.6 | 42.0 | 33.0 | 91.4 | 27.6 | 69.4 | -39.9 |
| Baidu Inc BIDU | 29.4 | – | 48.4 | 40.9 | 10.0 | -3.0 | -33.8 |
| Tencent Music Entertainment Group TME | 13.1 | 9.5 | 6.4 | 44.3 | 30.4 | 15.9 | -63.6 |
| Median of companies shown | 52.3 | 25.6 | 16.9 | 60.9 | 29.0 | 15.5 | -3.1 |
Based on the most recently reported figures. Only stocks from the same trading venue are lined up, so the market caps are counted in one currency. Compare in a chart →
Fiscal years
Annual Figures
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Revenue, operating income and net income per fiscal year $M
Revenue Operating income Net income
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 107 | -3 | -16 | -0.14 | 1 | 568 | 640 |
| 2017 | 129 | 10 | 6 | 0.06 | 12 | 584 | 636 |
| 2018 | 172 | 45 | 35 | 0.34 | 34 | 775 | 825 |
| 2019 | 177 | -1 | 58 | 0.52 | -41 | 912 | 1,061 |
| 2020 | 165 | -2 | 179 | 1.51 | 93 | 1,049 | 1,110 |
| 2021 | 251 | -6 | -44 | -0.38 | 27 | 1,013 | 1,092 |
| 2022 | 331 | 67 | 15 | 0.14 | 57 | 888 | 965 |
| 2023 | 397 | 63 | 153 | 1.69 | 83 | 920 | 1,011 |
| 2024 | 481 | 92 | 81 | 0.90 | 105 | 940 | 1,056 |
| 2025 | 617 | 93 | 109 | 1.19 | 121 | 1,011 | 1,143 |
Quarters
Quarterly Figures
Each bar is one quarter, the last one is the most recent. Use the switch to step through the individual figures.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
None of the selected stocks reports this metric. Pick another metric or switch between annual and quarterly.
· Total · per year
These companies report in different currencies — switch on “Indexed” or pick a margin for a fair comparison.
The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q2 | 0.24 | 50.00 | 110 | 16.60 | 17.60 | 17 | 15 |
| 2026: Q2 | 0.26 | 0.00 | 178 | 24.20 | 15.50 | 23 | 22 |
| 2024: Q3 | 0.51 | 8.50 | 123 | 20.00 | 14.60 | 35 | 31 |
| 2024: Q4 | 0.28 | -80.40 | 146 | 44.70 | 19.70 | 22 | 22 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.27 | -20.60 | 143 | 40.10 | 12.80 | 16 | 15 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.26 | 8.30 | 143 | 30.30 | 11.00 | 33 | 30 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.30 | -41.20 | 152 | 23.30 | 12.30 | 29 | 23 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.23 | -17.90 | 177 | 21.40 | 31.40 | 41 | 40 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.34 | 25.90 | 176 | 23.20 | 14.10 | 42 | 37 |
What Do These Terms Mean?
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Screening
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 5 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Growth
Quality & Balance Sheet
Research
Value & GARP
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Outlook
Analysts & Price Target
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Distribution of Recommendations
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 1.45 | 1.37 – 1.58 | 740 | 29.7% | 5 |
| 12/31/2027 | 1.79 | 1.62 – 2.09 | 853 | 23.1% | 5 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Valuation
What is priced in?
Instead of guessing what the stock is worth, we turn the question around: what free cash flow growth has to happen for today’s market value to add up? The assumptions behind it can be moved.
Today’s market value implies roughly 1.9% growth in free cash flow per year over ten years (assumptions: discount rate 10.0%, terminal growth 2.5%).
| Free cash flow (last twelve months) | $120.7M |
|---|---|
| Market cap | $1.58B |
| Free cash flow in year ten | $145.3M |
| Terminal value as a share of market value | 48.6% |
For comparison: over the past five years free cash flow grew by 7.0% per year.
It shows which assumption is built into today’s price, not whether that assumption will hold. Every assumption can be changed with the sliders; the figures move with them.
A simplified model calculation — not a forecast and not a recommendation.
AI classification
AI Rating
Opera verkauft KI als eigenes Produkt: Der Ende 2025 eingeführte Browser Opera Neon ist ein kostenpflichtiges Abonnement für einen agentischen KI-Browser, die hauseigene Browser-KI Opera AI (früher Aria) läuft auf der eigenen Composer-Engine, und die Query-Erlöse stammen laut Jahresbericht ausdrücklich auch von KI-Plattformen.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„In late 2025, we introduced Opera Neon, a premium, subscription-based agentic AI browser designed for productivity-oriented users, which automates complex web-based tasks."
Ende 2025 haben wir Opera Neon eingeführt, einen kostenpflichtigen, abonnementbasierten agentischen KI-Browser für produktivitätsorientierte Nutzer, der komplexe webbasierte Aufgaben automatisiert.
20-F · 2026-03-27 · View SEC filing
„Opera AI, formerly known as Aria, is a browsing AI based on our own Composer AI engine. Composer is LLM agnostic - meaning it uses multiple LLM models, including OpenAI’s GPT, Google’s Gemini, and self-hosted open source models like LLAMA."
Opera AI, früher bekannt als Aria, ist eine Browser-KI auf Basis unserer eigenen Composer-KI-Engine. Composer ist modellunabhängig — das heißt, er nutzt mehrere Sprachmodelle, darunter OpenAIs GPT, Googles Gemini und selbst gehostete quelloffene Modelle wie LLAMA.
20-F · 2026-03-27 · View SEC filing
„Query revenue is generated from traffic referral arrangements with search engine providers, e-commerce platforms, AI platforms and other partners, and is earned when users submit qualifying queries or access partner services through our integrated browser features."
Query-Erlöse entstehen aus Vereinbarungen über die Weiterleitung von Datenverkehr an Suchmaschinenanbieter, E-Commerce-Plattformen, KI-Plattformen und andere Partner; sie werden verdient, wenn Nutzer qualifizierende Anfragen stellen oder über unsere integrierten Browser-Funktionen Partnerdienste aufrufen.
20-F · 2026-03-27 · View SEC filing
„Through our open ecosystem strategy, highlighted by our new Browser Connector for leading AI services like Claude and ChatGPT, we are facilitating user choice while converting elevated browser utility into immediate commercial momentum."
Über unsere Strategie eines offenen Ökosystems — sichtbar an unserem neuen Browser Connector für führende KI-Dienste wie Claude und ChatGPT — ermöglichen wir Nutzern die freie Wahl und setzen den gestiegenen Nutzwert des Browsers unmittelbar in kommerzielle Dynamik um.
6-K · 2026-08-19 · View SEC filing
Filings Reviewed: 6-K 2026-08-19 · 6-K 2026-06-10 · 6-K 2026-04-28 · 20-F 2026-03-27 · 6-K 2026-02-26 · 6-K 2025-10-10
Rated on August 23, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Growth
Growth Score
Ten checks against the annual reports — each one passed counts a point.
- Revenue grows by more than 15% a year over three years 23.0%
- More than 10% revenue growth is expected for the coming year -70.4%
- Share count grows by less than 3% a year -6.2%
- Revenue growth plus cash-flow margin add up to at least 40 ("Rule of 40") 47.0%
- Gross margin at 40% or higher and without meaningful erosion 43.1%
- Goodwill from acquisitions does not grow faster than revenue 37.6%
- Net debt below twice EBITDA 143 m net cash
- Operating cash flow covers the profits of the last three years -34 m
- Return on capital at 15% or higher, or up versus two years ago 9.1%
- Insiders hold at least 10% or are net buyers 7.6%
A criterion without figures counts neither as passed nor as failed; a score is only produced from 7 judgeable criteria upwards. Source: fundamental data. All ten criteria in detail
Quality check
AAQS
6/10The AAQS (AlleAktien Quality Score) checks 10 quality criteria on growth, profitability, and balance-sheet strength — per the methodology developed and published by AlleAktien, calculated by us from our own fundamental data. A stock counts as a quality stock from 9 out of 10 points. Where a company has a shorter listing history, we calculate over the fiscal years available (at least five).
- Sales growth 10Y > 5% 21.4%
- Exp. sales growth 3Y > 5% 17.6%
- EBIT growth 10Y > 5% –
- Exp. EBIT growth 3Y > 5% 22.4%
- Net debt < 4x EBIT -1.5x
- EBIT positive, 10Y straight 6
- Max. EBIT decline < 50% 100.0%
- Return on equity > 15% 22.6%
- ROCE > 15% 9.0%
- Expected return > 10% 31.3%
View stocks with the full AAQS score · Read the methodology at AlleAktien
Source: fundamental data
Insiders
Insider Transactions
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 22, 2026 | Zhou Yahui | Executive Chairman | Other | 1,134,770 | 18.82 | 21,356,371 |
| Aug 30, 2026 | Riiber Knudsen Trond | Director | Other | 4,079 | 0.00 | – |
| Aug 30, 2026 | Naess Lori Wheeler | Director | Other | 4,079 | 0.00 | – |
| Aug 30, 2026 | Liu James Jian | Director | Other | 4,079 | 0.00 | – |
The company
About the Company
Opera Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile and PC web browsers and related products and services in Ireland, Singapore, the United States, and internationally. The company offers specialized browsers, including Opera One browser, Opera AI, Opera GX; Opera Neon, a subscription-based agentic AI browser designed for productivity-oriented users; and offers Web3 and e-commerce services. It also operates Opera Ads, an online advertising platform; GameMaker, a 2D gaming development platform; and Opera News, an AI-powered personalized news discovery and aggregation service. Opera Limited was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Opera Limited is a subsidiary of Kunlun Tech Co., Ltd.
- Employees
- 605
- Headquarters
- Oslo, Norway
- Address
- Vitaminveien 4, 0485 Oslo, Norway
- Phone
- 47 2369 2400
- Website
- opera.com
- IPO Date
- 07/27/2018
- ISIN
- US68373M1071
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Yahui Zhou | Executive Chairman | 1978 |
| Lin Song | CEO & Director | 1982 |
| Frode Fleten Jacobsen | Chief Financial Officer | 1984 |
| Matthew Wolfson | Head of Investor Relations | – |
| Aaron McParlan | General Counsel | – |
| Krystian Kolondra | Executive Vice President of Browsers & European Fintech | – |
| Jorgen Arnesen | Executive Vice President of Mobile | – |
| Per Wetterdal | Executive Vice President of Commercial | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Data as of: September 29, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.