>Isn't that a bit misleading?

In practice yes, but technically no. If a "non-profit" brings in 100 million dollars, and pays all 100 employees a million dollar salary, then that "non-profit" has made no profit. But when someone hears that a "non-profit" made "100 million" dollars, they think it is some kind of scam or something.

Compensation, even in the form of equity, has an equivalent cash price that is owed at the time it is awarded. The receiver has to pay income tax for this compensation, even if it is not cash, and the business has to record it as an expense.

>and dividends i assume would be part of that profit margin.

Dividends and share buybacks are not expenses. They are not money spent for the purposes of operating the business, they are awards to the shareholders. As such, they are not an expense. Dividends and share buybacks happen with the profit, so they will never be included in expenses used to calculate profit margin.

There are lots of highly qualified people at the SEC and FASB working to ensure some semblance of accountability. There is a reason why people from all over the world want to invest in a developed countries’ public equity markets, and that is a belief that most of the time, the numbers are very close to the truth.