TAL Education Group

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

TAL Education Group earns about -0% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 10% of its shares over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $34.22 and $36.46 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$4.39B1$1.02B2$1.49B3$2.25B3$3.01B3
Net income−$1.14B4−$135.6M5−$3.57M6$84.6M6$530.8M6
Operating cash flow−$939.2M7$7.36M8$306.2M9$397.9M9$601.5M9
Capital expenditure$246.3M10$110.3M11$112.7M12$111.7M12$93.2M12
Free cash flow (derived)−$1.19B7−$103M8$193.4M9$286.2M9$508.3M9
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$1.64B13$2.02B14$2.21B15$1.77B16$1.52B16
Diluted shares214.8M212.6M203.3M205.2M192.9M

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
$195.64
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$27.51
Free cash flow it threw off
$26.35
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $195.64 of net worth that earned you $27.51 and generated $26.35 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
-0% avg · 5y
FY22 -25%FY23 -5%FY24 1%FY25 5%FY26 24%

It earned about -0% 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
−10% shares · 5y

Share count is down 10% 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 2 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $34.22 and $36.46 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
$36.46
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth5.0%
  • fcfBase$286.2M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$34.22
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth5.0%
  • fcfBase$286.2M
Earnings Power Value
not applicable
normalized (5y-median) earnings non-positive — EPV undefined
Graham Number
$34.79
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 years5.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $34.22
The three cases
Bear0.0%$29.09
Base5.0%$34.22
Bull10.0%$40.36

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

Default growth 5.0%= 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. 20-F · period ending 2022-02-28 · accession 0001104659-24-067123 (Revenues)
  2. 20-F · period ending 2023-02-28 · accession 0001410578-25-001415 (Revenues)
  3. 20-F · period ending 2024-02-29 · accession 0001104659-26-073410 (Revenues)
  4. 20-F · period ending 2022-02-28 · accession 0001104659-24-067123 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 20-F · period ending 2023-02-28 · accession 0001410578-25-001415 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 20-F · period ending 2024-02-29 · accession 0001104659-26-073410 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 20-F · period ending 2022-02-28 · accession 0001104659-24-067123 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 20-F · period ending 2023-02-28 · accession 0001410578-25-001415 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 20-F · period ending 2024-02-29 · accession 0001104659-26-073410 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 20-F · period ending 2022-02-28 · accession 0001104659-24-067123 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 20-F · period ending 2023-02-28 · accession 0001410578-25-001415 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 20-F · period ending 2024-02-29 · accession 0001104659-26-073410 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 20-F · period ending 2022-02-28 · accession 0001410578-23-001399 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  14. 20-F · period ending 2023-02-28 · accession 0001104659-24-067123 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 20-F · period ending 2024-02-29 · accession 0001410578-25-001415 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 20-F · period ending 2025-02-28 · accession 0001104659-26-073410 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)