MeritValue

STERIS plc

STEdata completeness 100%10 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

STERIS plc earns about 5% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, with a roughly flat share count — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $39.71 and $436.64 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 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025FY 2026
Revenue$4.22B1$4.54B2$5.14B3$5.46B3$5.94B3
Net income$243.9M4$107M5$378.2M6$614.6M6$782.3M6
Operating cash flow$684.8M7$756.9M8$973.3M9$1.15B9$1.34B9
Capital expenditure$287.6M10$362M11$360.3M12$370.1M12$369M12
Free cash flow (derived)$397.2M7$395M8$613M9$778M9$972.4M9
Total debt$6.03B13$6.1B14$6.33B15$3.96B16$3.74B16
Cash & equivalents$348.3M17$208.4M18$207M18$171.7M18$439.6M18
Diluted shares98.3M100.2M99.4M99.1M98.7M

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
$727.82
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$79.26
Free cash flow it threw off
$98.52
Debt you’d be carrying
$379.38

10 shares is a claim on $727.82 of net worth that earned you $79.26 and generated $98.52 of cash last year, against $379.38 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
5% avg · 5y
FY22 3%FY23 5%FY24 5%FY25 6%FY26 7%

It earned about 5% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — below the cost of funding. The numbers show no moat.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+0% shares · 5y

Share count is roughly flat over 5 years — little dilution, little buyback. Total debt has fallen 38% — deleveraging.

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 $39.71 and $436.64 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
$436.64
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$778M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$223.51
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$778M
Earnings Power Value
$39.71
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$378.2M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$113.96
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 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $223.51
The three cases
Bear0.0%$79.14
Base20.0%$223.51
Bull20.0%$223.51

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

Default growth 20.0%= 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 2022-03-31 · accession 0001757898-24-000008 (Revenues)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001757898-25-000005 (Revenues)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001628280-26-039136 (Revenues)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001757898-24-000008 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001757898-25-000005 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001628280-26-039136 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001757898-24-000008 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001757898-25-000005 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001628280-26-039136 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001757898-24-000008 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001757898-25-000005 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001628280-26-039136 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001757898-23-000005 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001757898-24-000008 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001757898-25-000005 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2025-03-31 · accession 0001628280-26-039136 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001757898-25-000005 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001628280-26-039136 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)