MeritValue

COOPER COMPANIES, INC.

COOdata completeness 100%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

COOPER COMPANIES, INC. earns about 4% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 302% over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $6.83 and $19.99 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$2.92B1$3.31B2$3.59B3$3.9B3$4.09B3
Net income$2.94B4$385.8M5$294.2M6$392.3M6$374.9M6
Operating cash flow$738.6M7$692.4M8$607.5M9$709.3M9$796.1M9
Capital expenditure$214.4M10$242M11$392.5M12$421.2M12$362.4M12
Free cash flow (derived)$524.2M7$450.4M8$215M9$288.1M9$433.7M9
Total debt$1.48B13$3.16B14$2.61B15$2.61B16$2.55B16
Cash & equivalents$95.9M17$138.2M18$120.8M19$107.6M19$110.6M19
Diluted shares49.8M198.8M199.3M200.4M200.0M

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
$411.95
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$18.74
Free cash flow it threw off
$21.69
Debt you’d be carrying
$127.53

10 shares is a claim on $411.95 of net worth that earned you $18.74 and generated $21.69 of cash last year, against $127.53 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
4% avg · 5y
FY21 6%FY22 4%FY23 4%FY24 4%FY25 4%

It earned about 4% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — below the cost of funding. The numbers show no moat.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+302% shares · 5y

Share count is up 302% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it. Total debt has risen 72% over the same window.

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 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $6.83 and $19.99 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
$6.83
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$288.1M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$8.38
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$288.1M
Earnings Power Value
$19.99
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$385.8M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$41.63
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 $8.38
The three cases
Bear0.0%$8.38
Base0.0%$8.38
Bull5.0%$13.36

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 2021-10-31 · accession 0000711404-23-000072 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-10-31 · accession 0000711404-24-000074 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-10-31 · accession 0001628280-25-055615 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-10-31 · accession 0000711404-23-000072 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-10-31 · accession 0000711404-24-000074 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-10-31 · accession 0001628280-25-055615 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-10-31 · accession 0000711404-23-000072 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-10-31 · accession 0000711404-24-000074 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-10-31 · accession 0001628280-25-055615 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-10-31 · accession 0000711404-23-000072 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-10-31 · accession 0000711404-24-000074 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-10-31 · accession 0001628280-25-055615 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-10-31 · accession 0000711404-22-000053 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-10-31 · accession 0000711404-23-000072 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-10-31 · accession 0000711404-24-000074 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-10-31 · accession 0001628280-25-055615 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-10-31 · accession 0000711404-23-000072 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-10-31 · accession 0000711404-24-000074 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2023-10-31 · accession 0001628280-25-055615 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)