MeritValue

COUSINS PROPERTIES INC

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

COUSINS PROPERTIES INC earns about 3% on equity, below its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 13% over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $5.1 and $27.97 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$755.1M1$762.3M2$802.9M3$856.8M3$993.8M3
Net income$278.6M4$166.8M5$83M6$46M6$40.5M6
Operating cash flow$389.5M7$365.2M8$368.4M9$400.2M9$402.3M9
Capital expenditure—$342.2M10$279.5M11$252.7M11$267.2M11
Free cash flow (derived)—$22.9M8$88.8M9$147.5M9$135M9
Total debt$2.24B12$2.33B13$2.46B14$3.1B15$3.34B15
Cash & equivalents$8.94M16$5.15M16$6.05M17$7.35M18$5.72M18
Diluted shares148.9M150.4M152.0M154.0M168.7M

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
$277.36
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$2.4
Free cash flow it threw off
$8
Debt you’d be carrying
$198.01

10 shares is a claim on $277.36 of net worth that earned you $2.4 and generated $8 of cash last year, against $198.01 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on equity
3% avg · 5y
FY21 6%FY22 4%FY23 2%FY24 1%FY25 1%

It earned about 3% on equity 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
+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 risen 49% 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 $5.1 and $27.97 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
$27.97
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$135M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$6.33
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$135M
Earnings Power Value
$5.1
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$83M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$12.24
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 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $6.33
The three cases
Bear0.0%−$8.33
Base20.0%$6.33
Bull20.0%$6.33

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

Default growth 20.0%= 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 0000025232-24-000004 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000025232-25-000012 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000025232-26-000014 (Revenues)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000025232-24-000004 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000025232-25-000012 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000025232-26-000014 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000025232-24-000004 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000025232-25-000012 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000025232-26-000014 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000025232-25-000012 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000025232-26-000014 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000025232-23-000003 (LongTermDebt)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000025232-24-000004 (LongTermDebt)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000025232-25-000012 (LongTermDebt)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000025232-26-000014 (LongTermDebt)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000025232-24-000004 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000025232-25-000012 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000025232-26-000014 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)