Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V.

VLRSdata completeness 75%8 fiscal years on file

Data notes: no data for concept 'revenue'; no data for concept 'totalDebt'

The thesis, from the filings

Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. earns about -20% on equity, below its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 15% over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $0.07 and $4.1 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 2020FY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024
Revenue
Net income−$191.7M1$106.5M2−$80.2M3$7.82M3$126.4M3
Operating cash flow$213.7M4$785.4M5$613.6M6$729.8M6$1.09B6
Capital expenditure$157.1M7$186.1M8$347.1M9$480.8M9$583.1M9
Free cash flow (derived)$56.6M4$599.2M5$266.5M6$249.1M6$506.7M6
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$506.5M10$741.1M11$711.9M11$774.2M11$908M11
Diluted shares1.00B1.15B1.16B1.15B1.15B

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
$3.17
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$1.1
Free cash flow it threw off
$4.4
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $3.17 of net worth that earned you $1.1 and generated $4.4 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on equity
-20% avg · 5y
FY20 -137%FY21 34%FY22 -34%FY23 3%FY24 35%

It earned about -20% on equity 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
+15% shares · 5y

Share count is up 15% 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 $0.07 and $4.1 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
$3.85
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$266.5M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$4.1
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$266.5M
Earnings Power Value
$0.07
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$7.82M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$0.88
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 $4.1
The three cases
Bear0.0%$4.1
Base0.0%$4.1
Bull5.0%$4.9

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. 20-F · period ending 2020-12-31 · accession 0001104659-23-053342 (ProfitLoss)
  2. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001104659-24-054211 (ProfitLoss)
  3. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001292814-25-001765 (ProfitLoss)
  4. 20-F · period ending 2020-12-31 · accession 0001104659-23-053342 (CashFlowsFromUsedInOperatingActivities)
  5. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001104659-24-054211 (CashFlowsFromUsedInOperatingActivities)
  6. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001292814-25-001765 (CashFlowsFromUsedInOperatingActivities)
  7. 20-F · period ending 2020-12-31 · accession 0001104659-23-053342 (PurchaseOfPropertyPlantAndEquipmentClassifiedAsInvestingActivities)
  8. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001104659-24-054211 (PurchaseOfPropertyPlantAndEquipmentClassifiedAsInvestingActivities)
  9. 20-F · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001292814-25-001765 (PurchaseOfPropertyPlantAndEquipmentClassifiedAsInvestingActivities)
  10. 20-F · period ending 2020-12-31 · accession 0001104659-24-054211 (CashAndCashEquivalents)
  11. 20-F · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001292814-25-001765 (CashAndCashEquivalents)