DESCARTES SYSTEMS GROUP INC

DSGXdata completeness 88%16 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

DESCARTES SYSTEMS GROUP INC earns about 11% on invested capital, barely covering its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 2% over 5 years — worth asking whether the growth reaches owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $13.71 and $134.28 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 2024FY 2025FY 2026
Revenue$348.7M1$424.7M1$572.9M2$651M2$729M2
Net income$52.1M3$86.3M3$115.9M4$143.3M4$163.8M4
Operating cash flow$131.2M5$176.1M5$207.7M6$219.3M6$266.2M6
Capital expenditure$3.76M7$4.83M7$5.56M8$6.74M8$5.73M8
Free cash flow (derived)$127.5M5$171.3M5$202.1M6$212.5M6$260.5M6
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$133.7M9$213.4M9$236.1M10$356.5M10
Diluted shares85.8M86.2M86.8M87.3M87.6M

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
$184.85
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$18.7
Free cash flow it threw off
$29.75
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $184.85 of net worth that earned you $18.7 and generated $29.75 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
11% avg · 5y
FY21 7%FY22 11%FY24 9%FY25 12%FY26 13%

It earned about 11% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — roughly what it costs to fund the business, so the numbers show no clear edge.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+2% shares · 5y

Share count is up 2% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

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 $13.71 and $134.28 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
$134.28
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth18.6%
  • fcfBase$212.5M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$78.95
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth18.6%
  • fcfBase$212.5M
Earnings Power Value
$13.71
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$115.9M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$27.89
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 years18.6%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $78.95
The three cases
Bear0.0%$38.74
Base18.6%$78.95
Bull20.0%$83.19

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

Default growth 18.6%= 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. 40-F · period ending 2021-01-31 · accession 0001104659-22-045933 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  2. 40-F · period ending 2024-01-31 · accession 0001104659-26-026450 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  3. 40-F · period ending 2021-01-31 · accession 0001104659-22-045933 (NetIncomeLoss)
  4. 40-F · period ending 2024-01-31 · accession 0001104659-26-026450 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 40-F · period ending 2021-01-31 · accession 0001104659-22-045933 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  6. 40-F · period ending 2024-01-31 · accession 0001104659-26-026450 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  7. 40-F · period ending 2021-01-31 · accession 0001104659-22-045933 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  8. 40-F · period ending 2024-01-31 · accession 0001104659-26-026450 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  9. 40-F · period ending 2021-01-31 · accession 0001104659-22-045933 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  10. 40-F · period ending 2025-01-31 · accession 0001104659-26-026450 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)