MeritValue

DEL MONTE CORP

DMCdata completeness 88%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

DEL MONTE CORP earns about 5% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, with a roughly flat share count — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $19.52 and $162.75 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$4.25B1$4.44B2$4.32B3$4.28B3$4.32B3
Net income$80M4$98.6M5−$11.4M6$142.2M6$90.7M6
Operating cash flow$128.5M7$61.8M8$177.9M9$182.5M9$245.1M9
Capital expenditure$98.5M10$48.1M11$57.7M12$51.7M12$63.8M12
Free cash flow (derived)$30M7$13.7M8$120.2M9$130.8M9$181.3M9
Total debt—————
Cash & equivalents$16.1M13$17.2M14$33.8M15$32.6M16$35.7M16
Diluted shares47.7M47.9M48.0M48.0M48.2M

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
$418.71
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$18.84
Free cash flow it threw off
$37.65
Debt you’d be carrying
—

10 shares is a claim on $418.71 of net worth that earned you $18.84 and generated $37.65 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
5% avg · 5y
FY21 6%FY22 6%FY23 1%FY24 8%FY25 5%

It earned about 5% 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
+1% shares · 5y

Share count is roughly flat over 5 years — little dilution, little buyback.

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 $19.52 and $162.75 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
$162.75
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$130.8M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$89.3
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$130.8M
Earnings Power Value
$19.52
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$90.7M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$42.08
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 $89.3
The three cases
Bear0.0%$39.55
Base20.0%$89.3
Bull20.0%$89.3

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 0001047340-24-000017 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-30 · accession 0001047340-25-000009 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-29 · accession 0001047340-26-000015 (Revenues)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001047340-24-000017 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-30 · accession 0001047340-25-000009 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-29 · accession 0001047340-26-000015 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001047340-24-000017 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-30 · accession 0001047340-25-000009 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-29 · accession 0001047340-26-000015 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001047340-24-000017 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-30 · accession 0001047340-25-000009 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-29 · accession 0001047340-26-000015 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001047340-23-000012 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-30 · accession 0001047340-24-000017 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-29 · accession 0001047340-25-000009 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-27 · accession 0001047340-26-000015 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)