Northwest Bancshares, Inc.

NWBIdata completeness 88%17 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Northwest Bancshares, Inc. earns about 24% on invested capital, far above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 15% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $9.48 and $13.86 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$418.5M1$448.8M2$587.9M3$669.2M3$749.7M3
Net income$154.3M4$133.7M5$135M6$100.3M6$126M6
Operating cash flow$205.5M7$175.4M8$92.9M9$127.7M9$153.4M9
Capital expenditure$17.5M10$4.32M11$8.56M12$2.31M12$11.6M12
Free cash flow (derived)$187.9M7$171.1M8$84.3M9$125.4M9$141.8M9
Total debt$139.1M13$681.2M14$398.9M15$200.3M15
Cash & equivalents$1.28B16$139.4M17$122.3M17$288.4M17$233.6M17
Diluted shares127.0M126.7M127.0M127.5M146.1M

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
$129.39
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$8.62
Free cash flow it threw off
$9.7
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $129.39 of net worth that earned you $8.62 and generated $9.7 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
24% avg · 5y
FY21 40%FY22 8%FY23 14%FY24 29%FY25 32%

It earned about 24% on invested capital, year after year, against a ~9% cost of capital — the footprint of real pricing power. Competition usually drags returns like this back down; here it hasn't.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+15% shares · 5y

Share count is up 15% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it. Total debt has risen 44% over the same window.

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 $9.48 and $13.86 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
$12.93
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$125.4M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$13.86
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$125.4M
Earnings Power Value
$9.48
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$133.7M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$16.37
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 $13.86
The three cases
Bear0.0%$13.86
Base0.0%$13.86
Bull5.0%$16.83

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 0001471265-24-000009 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001471265-25-000016 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001471265-26-000008 (InterestAndDividendIncomeOperating)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001471265-24-000009 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001471265-25-000016 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001471265-26-000008 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001471265-24-000009 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001471265-25-000016 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001471265-26-000008 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001471265-24-000009 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001471265-25-000016 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001471265-26-000008 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001471265-23-000013 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001471265-24-000009 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001471265-25-000016 (ShortTermBorrowings)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001471265-25-000016 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001471265-26-000008 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)