MeritValue

STEWART INFORMATION SERVICES CORP

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

STEWART INFORMATION SERVICES CORP earns about 12% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 5% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $41.92 and $58.86 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$3.26B1$3.05B1$2.21B1$2.49B2$2.92B2
Net income$323.2M3$162.3M4$30.4M5$73.3M5$115.5M5
Operating cash flow$390.3M6$191.9M7$83M8$135.6M8$205.7M8
Capital expenditure$39.8M9$47.9M10$37.8M11$40.5M11$73.4M11
Free cash flow (derived)$350.5M6$143.9M7$45.3M8$95.1M8$132.3M8
Total debt$483.5M12$447M13$445.3M14$445.8M14—
Cash & equivalents$485.9M15$248.4M16$233.4M17$216.3M18$321.8M18
Diluted shares27.2M27.3M27.5M28.1M28.6M

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
$574.61
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$40.45
Free cash flow it threw off
$46.32
Debt you’d be carrying
—

10 shares is a claim on $574.61 of net worth that earned you $40.45 and generated $46.32 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
12% avg · 5y
FY21 27%FY22 13%FY23 4%FY24 5%FY25 10%

It earned about 12% 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
+5% shares · 5y

Share count is up 5% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it. Total debt has held roughly steady.

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 $41.92 and $58.86 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
$55.28
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$95.1M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$58.86
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$95.1M
Earnings Power Value
$41.92
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$115.5M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$72.36
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 $58.86
The three cases
Bear0.0%$58.86
Base0.0%$58.86
Bull5.0%$70.38

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 0000094344-24-000005 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000094344-26-000007 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000094344-24-000005 (NetIncomeLoss)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000094344-25-000004 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000094344-26-000007 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000094344-24-000005 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000094344-25-000004 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000094344-26-000007 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000094344-24-000005 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000094344-25-000004 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000094344-26-000007 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000094344-23-000005 (LongTermDebt)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000094344-24-000005 (LongTermDebt)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000094344-25-000004 (LongTermDebt)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000094344-23-000005 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000094344-24-000005 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000094344-25-000004 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0000094344-26-000007 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)