Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.

ESRTdata completeness 88%15 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. earns about 17% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 3% of its shares over 5 years — the marks of a durable business run for its owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $2.8 and $3.84 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$624.1M1$725.7M2$738.2M3$766.8M3$766.8M3
Net income−$13M4$63.2M5$84.4M6$80.4M6$73M6
Operating cash flow$212.5M7$211.2M8$232.5M9$260.9M9$249.1M9
Capital expenditure$398.4M10$86M10$169.2M10$172.9M11$198.5M11
Free cash flow (derived)−$185.9M7$125.2M8$63.3M9$88M9$50.6M9
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$423.7M12$264.4M13$346.6M13$385.5M13$132.7M13
Diluted shares277.4M269.9M265.6M269.0M270.0M

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
$39.25
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$2.7
Free cash flow it threw off
$1.87
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $39.25 of net worth that earned you $2.7 and generated $1.87 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
17% avg · 5y
FY21 11%FY22 23%FY23 29%FY24 12%FY25 8%

It earned about 17% 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
−3% shares · 5y

Share count is down 3% 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 $2.8 and $3.84 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
$3.59
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$63.3M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$3.84
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$63.3M
Earnings Power Value
$2.8
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$73M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$4.7
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 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $3.84
The three cases
Bear0.0%$3.84
Base0.0%$3.84
Bull5.0%$4.65

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

Default growth 0.0%= 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/A · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001541401-24-000033 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001541401-25-000003 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001541401-26-000008 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K/A · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001541401-24-000033 (ProfitLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001541401-25-000003 (ProfitLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001541401-26-000008 (ProfitLoss)
  7. 10-K/A · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001541401-24-000033 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001541401-25-000003 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001541401-26-000008 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K/A · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001541401-24-000033 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001541401-26-000008 (PaymentsForCapitalImprovements)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001541401-25-000003 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001541401-26-000008 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)