MeritValue

LEGGETT & PLATT INC

LEGdata completeness 100%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

LEGGETT & PLATT INC earns about 15% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 2% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $17.46 and $32.93 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$5.07B1$5.15B2$4.73B3$4.38B3$4.06B3
Net income$402.4M4$309.8M5−$136.8M6−$511.5M6$235.4M6
Operating cash flow$271.3M7$441.4M8$497.2M9$305.7M9$338.2M9
Capital expenditure$106.6M10$100.3M11$113.8M12$81.6M12$57.2M12
Free cash flow (derived)$164.7M7$341.1M8$383.4M9$224.1M9$281M9
Total debt$013$291.9M14$494M15$369.3M15$1.5M16
Cash & equivalents$361.7M17$316.5M18$365.5M19$350.2M20$587.4M20
Diluted shares136.7M136.5M136.3M137.3M139.7M

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
$73.16
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$16.85
Free cash flow it threw off
$20.11
Debt you’d be carrying
$0.11

10 shares is a claim on $73.16 of net worth that earned you $16.85 and generated $20.11 of cash last year, against $0.11 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
15% avg · 5y
FY21 36%FY22 23%FY23 -5%FY24 -47%FY25 68%

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
+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 $17.46 and $32.93 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
$30.77
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$281M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$32.93
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$281M
Earnings Power Value
$17.46
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$235.4M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$16.68
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 $32.93
The three cases
Bear0.0%$32.93
Base0.0%$32.93
Bull5.0%$39.89

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 · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000058492-24-000174 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000058492-25-000136 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000058492-26-000107 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000058492-24-000174 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000058492-25-000136 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000058492-26-000107 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000058492-24-000174 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000058492-25-000136 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000058492-26-000107 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000058492-24-000174 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000058492-25-000136 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000058492-26-000107 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000058492-23-000003 (CommercialPaper)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000058492-24-000174 (CommercialPaper)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000058492-25-000136 (CommercialPaper)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2025-12-31 · accession 0000058492-26-000107 (DebtCurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000058492-23-000003 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000058492-24-000174 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000058492-25-000136 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000058492-26-000107 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)