Is the business good?
How good a business is SEB?
Seaboard Corporation earns 4.1% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
4.1%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 4.9 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 3.0%
Operating margin · Conglomerates median 12% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- −0.03×
Cash conversion · −0.36× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −1.4%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 3.4% |
| FY2021 | 5.0% |
| FY2022 | 5.8% |
| FY2023 | −0.91% |
| FY2024 | 1.7% |
| FY2025 | 2.5% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 7.8%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 3.0%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 6.0%
- Free cash flow margin
- −0.15%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $9.83B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- −$15M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $589M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 4.1%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.