MeritValue

Covista Inc.

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

Covista Inc. earns about 6% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 26% of its shares over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $36.97 and $360.48 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$899.2M1$1.38B2$1.45B3$1.58B3$1.79B3
Net income$70M4$311M5$93.4M6$136.8M6$237.1M6
Operating cash flow$192.2M7$10.6M8$191.9M9$295.8M9$337.9M9
Capital expenditure$39.9M10$31.1M11$26M12$48.9M12$50.3M12
Free cash flow (derived)$152.3M7−$20.5M8$165.9M9$246.9M9$287.6M9
Total debt$2.14B13$1.68B14$1.39B15$1.3B16$1.11B16
Cash & equivalents$476.4M17$347M18$272.2M19$219.3M20$199.6M20
Diluted shares51.6M48.4M45.6M40.3M38.3M

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
$373.98
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$61.84
Free cash flow it threw off
$75.02
Debt you’d be carrying
$288.34

10 shares is a claim on $373.98 of net worth that earned you $61.84 and generated $75.02 of cash last year, against $288.34 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
6% avg · 5y
FY21 3%FY22 2%FY23 6%FY24 8%FY25 12%

It earned about 6% 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
−26% shares · 5y

Share count is down 26% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice. Total debt has fallen 48% — 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 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $36.97 and $360.48 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
$360.48
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$246.9M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$186.35
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$246.9M
Earnings Power Value
$36.97
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$136.8M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$72.11
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 $186.35
The three cases
Bear0.0%$68.39
Base20.0%$186.35
Bull20.0%$186.35

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 2021-06-30 · accession 0001558370-23-014509 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-06-30 · accession 0001558370-24-011099 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-06-30 · accession 0001558370-25-010780 (Revenues)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-06-30 · accession 0001558370-23-014509 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-06-30 · accession 0001558370-24-011099 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-06-30 · accession 0001558370-25-010780 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-06-30 · accession 0001558370-23-014509 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-06-30 · accession 0001558370-24-011099 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-06-30 · accession 0001558370-25-010780 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-06-30 · accession 0001558370-23-014509 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-06-30 · accession 0001558370-24-011099 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-06-30 · accession 0001558370-25-010780 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-06-30 · accession 0001558370-22-013289 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-06-30 · accession 0001558370-23-014509 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-06-30 · accession 0001558370-24-011099 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-06-30 · accession 0001558370-25-010780 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-06-30 · accession 0001558370-22-013289 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-06-30 · accession 0001558370-23-014509 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2023-06-30 · accession 0001558370-24-011099 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2024-06-30 · accession 0001558370-25-010780 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)