ADVANCED DRAINAGE SYSTEMS, INC.

WMSdata completeness 100%14 fiscal years on file

Data notes: no data for concept 'interestExpense'

The thesis, from the filings

ADVANCED DRAINAGE SYSTEMS, INC. earns about 13% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 8% over 5 years — a real edge showing up in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $59.52 and $196.05 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$2.77B1$3.07B2$2.87B3$2.9B3$3.05B3
Net income$271.3M4$507.1M5$509.9M6$450.2M6$426.5M6
Operating cash flow$274.9M7$707.8M8$717.9M9$581.5M9$819.1M9
Capital expenditure$149.1M10$166.9M11$183.8M12$212.9M12$249.8M12
Free cash flow (derived)$125.8M7$540.9M8$534.1M9$368.5M9$569.3M9
Total debt$1.86B13$2.58B14$2.55B15$2.53B16$3.24B16
Cash & equivalents$20.1M17$217.1M18$490.2M19$463.3M19$223M19
Diluted shares72.9M83.3M79.0M78.2M78.4M

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
$237.13
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$54.41
Free cash flow it threw off
$72.63
Debt you’d be carrying
$413.62

10 shares is a claim on $237.13 of net worth that earned you $54.41 and generated $72.63 of cash last year, against $413.62 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
13% avg · 5y
FY22 10%FY23 16%FY24 16%FY25 12%FY26 9%

It earned about 13% 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
+8% shares · 5y

Share count is up 8% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it. Total debt has risen 74% 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 $59.52 and $196.05 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
$196.05
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth12.7%
  • fcfBase$534.1M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$127.77
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth12.7%
  • fcfBase$534.1M
Earnings Power Value
$59.52
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$450.2M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$53.88
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 years12.7%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $127.77
The three cases
Bear0.0%$58.84
Base12.7%$127.77
Bull17.7%$164.4

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

Default growth 12.7%= 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 0001604028-24-000011 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001604028-25-000012 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001604028-26-000019 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001604028-24-000011 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001604028-25-000012 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001604028-26-000019 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001604028-24-000011 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001604028-25-000012 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001604028-26-000019 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001604028-24-000011 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001604028-25-000012 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001604028-26-000019 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001604028-23-000015 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001604028-24-000011 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001604028-25-000012 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2025-03-31 · accession 0001604028-26-000019 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2022-03-31 · accession 0001604028-23-000015 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2023-03-31 · accession 0001604028-24-000011 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2024-03-31 · accession 0001604028-26-000019 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)