MeritValue

Dolby Laboratories, Inc.

DLBdata completeness 88%18 fiscal years on file

Data notes: no data for concept 'totalDebt'

The thesis, from the filings

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. earns about 15% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 7% of its shares over 5 years — the marks of a durable business run for its owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $27.11 and $82.63 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$1.28B1$1.25B2$1.3B3$1.27B3$1.35B3
Net income$310.2M4$184.1M5$200.7M6$261.8M6$255M6
Operating cash flow$447.8M7$318.6M8$367.1M9$327.3M9$472.2M9
Capital expenditure$54.5M10$47.9M11$30.3M12$30M12$36.3M12
Free cash flow (derived)$393.3M7$270.6M8$336.7M9$297.2M9$435.9M9
Total debt—————
Cash & equivalents$1.23B13$620.1M14$745.4M15$482M16$701.9M16
Diluted shares104.6M102.0M97.7M97.3M97.5M

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
$269.04
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$26.16
Free cash flow it threw off
$44.71
Debt you’d be carrying
—

10 shares is a claim on $269.04 of net worth that earned you $26.16 and generated $44.71 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
15% avg · 5y
FY21 23%FY22 11%FY23 14%FY24 15%FY25 14%

It earned about 15% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — comfortably above the cost of funding, a moderate advantage.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
−7% shares · 5y

Share count is down 7% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice.

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 $27.11 and $82.63 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
$82.63
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth6.7%
  • fcfBase$336.7M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$72.98
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth6.7%
  • fcfBase$336.7M
Earnings Power Value
$27.11
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$255M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$39.82
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 years6.7%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $72.98
The three cases
Bear0.0%$56.56
Base6.7%$72.98
Bull11.7%$88.13

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

Default growth 6.7%= 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 2021-09-24 · accession 0001628280-23-039389 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001628280-24-048519 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001308547-25-000007 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-09-24 · accession 0001628280-23-039389 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001628280-24-048519 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001308547-25-000007 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-09-24 · accession 0001628280-23-039389 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001628280-24-048519 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001308547-25-000007 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-09-24 · accession 0001628280-23-039389 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001628280-24-048519 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001308547-25-000007 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-09-24 · accession 0001628280-22-030390 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001628280-23-039389 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001628280-24-048519 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-09-27 · accession 0001308547-25-000007 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)