MeritValue

Cohen & Co Inc.

COHNdata completeness 100%17 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Cohen & Co Inc. earns about 115% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 13% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $22.15 and $23.63 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$146.4M1$44.4M2$83M3$79.6M3$275.6M3
Net income$11.8M4−$13.4M5−$5.11M6−$129,0006$14.4M6
Operating cash flow$18.3M7−$23.5M8−$39.7M9$9.48M9$27.4M9
Capital expenditure$1.03M10$573,00011$373,00012$1.25M12$1.25M12
Free cash flow (derived)$17.3M7−$24.1M8−$40M9$8.23M9$26.1M9
Total debt$43.4M13$29M14$29.7M15$34.9M16$32.9M16
Cash & equivalents$50.6M17$29.1M18$10.7M19$19.6M20$56.8M20
Diluted shares5.3M1.4M1.5M5.7M6.0M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$85.36
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$24.12
Free cash flow it threw off
$43.61
Debt you’d be carrying
$54.97

10 shares is a claim on $85.36 of net worth that earned you $24.12 and generated $43.61 of cash last year, against $54.97 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
115% avg · 5y
FY21 204%FY22 -34%FY23 51%FY24 81%FY25 275%

It earned about 115% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+13% shares · 5y

Share count is up 13% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it. Total debt has fallen 24% — deleveraging.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 2 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $22.15 and $23.63 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$22.15
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$8.23M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$23.63
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$8.23M
Earnings Power Value
not applicable
normalized (5y-median) earnings non-positive — EPV undefined
Graham Number
$28.9
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $23.63
The three cases
Bear0.0%$23.63
Base0.0%$23.63
Bull5.0%$28.38

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001437749-24-006827 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001437749-25-007158 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001437749-26-007157 (Revenues)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001437749-24-006827 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001437749-25-007158 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001437749-26-007157 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001437749-24-006827 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001437749-25-007158 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001437749-26-007157 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001437749-24-006827 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001437749-25-007158 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001437749-26-007157 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001437749-23-005908 (LongTermDebt)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001437749-24-006827 (LongTermDebt)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001437749-25-007158 (LongTermDebt)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001437749-26-007157 (LongTermDebt)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001437749-23-005908 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001437749-24-006827 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001437749-25-007158 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001437749-26-007157 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)