MeritValue

Vestis Corp

VSTSdata completeness 100%4 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Vestis Corp 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 $0.55 and $6.4 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 2025
Revenue$2.69B1$2.83B2$2.81B2$2.73B2
Net income$141.7M3$213.2M4$21M4−$40.2M4
Operating cash flow$232.8M5$257M6$471.8M6$64.2M6
Capital expenditure$76.4M7$77.9M8$78.9M8$58.5M8
Free cash flow (derived)$156.4M5$179.1M6$392.9M6$5.77M6
Total debt—$1.49B9$2.31B10$2.32B10
Cash & equivalents$23.7M11$36.1M12$31M13$29.7M13
Diluted shares130.7M130.7M131.8M131.8M

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
$65.7
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
−$3.05
Free cash flow it threw off
$0.44
Debt you’d be carrying
$176.37

10 shares is a claim on $65.7 of net worth that earned you −$3.05 and generated $0.44 of cash last year, against $176.37 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
5% avg · 4y
FY22 6%FY23 9%FY24 3%FY25 1%

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
+1% shares · 4y

Share count is roughly flat over 4 years — little dilution, little buyback. Total debt has risen 56% 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 $0.55 and $6.4 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$0.55
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$179.1M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$2.01
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$179.1M
Earnings Power Value
$6.4
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$81.3M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
not applicable
diluted EPS missing or non-positive — Graham Number undefined

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 $2.01
The three cases
Bear0.0%$2.01
Base0.0%$2.01
Bull5.0%$6.71

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 2022-09-30 · accession 0001967649-24-000060 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001967649-24-000060 (NetIncomeLoss)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001967649-24-000060 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001967649-24-000060 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001967649-24-000060 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2024-09-27 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-09-30 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (CashCashEquivalentsRestrictedCashAndRestrictedCashEquivalents)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-09-29 · accession 0001967649-24-000060 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2024-09-27 · accession 0001628280-25-054597 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)