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ALTO, Alto Ingredients Inc.

Chemicals capital-intensive Distress / turnaroundRevenue in runoff

Ingredients markets include dried yeast, corn protein meal, corn protein feed, corn germ, distillers grains, gas and liquid CO 2 and liquid feed used in commercial animal feed and pet foods.

Three of our production facilities are located in Illinois, one is located in Oregon, and another is located in Idaho.

We have an annual alcohol production capacity of 330 million gallons, including both renewable fuels and specialty alcohols ranging from industrial-, pharmaceutical-, and high-quality food- and beverage-grade alcohols.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

ALTO · Alto Ingredients Inc.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$918M

−4.9% YoY · 0% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $916M 5-yr avg $1.1B

Gross margin 5% 5-yr avg 2%

Operating margin 2.1% 5-yr avg −1.6%

ROIC 6% 5-yr avg −4%

Owner-earnings margin 3% 5-yr avg −1%

Free cash flow margin 3% 5-yr avg −1%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

Situation: Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock. Revenue in runoff. Revenue has shrunk about 6% a year across the record while operations still generate cash.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run around −2.0% through the cycle on a 1.0% gross margin, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. Read this kind of business on the spread and utilization. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −7%, above 15% in 0 of 8 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.4B	$897M	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.2B	$965M	$918M	$916M	RevenueRevenue
3%	0%	−1%	−1%	6%	6%	−2%	1%	1%	4%	5%	Gross marginGross mgn
2%	2%	2%	2%	4%	2%	2%	2%	3%	3%	3%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$24M	($26M)	($52M)	($75M)	$10M	$40M	($61M)	($24M)	($52M)	$7M	$19M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
1.4%	−1.6%	−3.4%	−5.2%	1.1%	3.3%	−4.6%	−2.0%	−5.4%	0.8%	2.1%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$1M	($35M)	($60M)	($89M)	($15M)	$46M	($42M)	($28M)	($59M)	$13M	$29M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	—	—	—	3%	—	—	—	-5%	-2%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$37M	$37M	$2M	($31M)	$72M	$27M	$6M	$22M	($4M)	$13M	$36M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$35M	$39M	$41M	$48M	$30M	$23M	$25M	$23M	$24M	$25M	$25M	DepreciationDeprec.
($2M)	$29M	$18M	$7M	$54M	($45M)	$19M	$23M	$27M	($28M)	($22M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$19M	$21M	$15M	$3M	$7M	$16M	$38M	$30M	$11M	$5M	$5M	CapexCapex
1.2%	1.3%	1.0%	0.2%	0.7%	1.4%	2.8%	2.4%	1.1%	0.5%	0.5%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$18M	$16M	($14M)	($35M)	$65M	$10M	($32M)	($8M)	($15M)	$9M	$31M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
1.1%	1.0%	−0.9%	−2.4%	7.3%	0.9%	−2.4%	−0.6%	−1.5%	0.9%	3.4%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$18M	$16M	($14M)	($35M)	$65M	$10M	($32M)	($8M)	($15M)	$9M	$31M	Free cash flowFCF
1.1%	1.0%	−0.9%	−2.4%	7.3%	0.9%	−2.4%	−0.6%	−1.5%	0.9%	3.4%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	$30M	—	—	—	—	$15M	—	—	$7M	$7M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
—	-4%	-8%	-13%	—	11%	-14%	-6%	-14%	2%	6%	ROICROIC
0%	-10%	-19%	-39%	-5%	13%	-14%	-10%	-26%	5%	12%	Return on equityROE
0%	−10%	−19%	−39%	−5%	13%	−14%	−10%	−26%	5%	12%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$64M	$49M	$27M	$19M	$48M	$51M	$36M	$30M	$35M	$23M	$20M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$86M	$80M	$68M	$74M	$43M	$87M	$69M	$59M	$58M	$55M	$60M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$60M	$62M	$58M	$61M	$38M	$54M	$67M	$53M	$50M	$62M	$53M	InventoryInvent.
$37M	$40M	$48M	$29M	$13M	$23M	$28M	$21M	$20M	$15M	$19M	Accounts payablePayables
$109M	$102M	$77M	$106M	$68M	$118M	$107M	$91M	$88M	$102M	$93M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$235M	$203M	$169M	$232M	$214M	$230M	$199M	$169M	$153M	$156M	$159M	Current assetsCur. assets
$79M	$91M	$232M	$160M	$87M	$70M	$78M	$65M	$58M	$59M	$42M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
3.0×	2.2×	0.7×	1.4×	2.5×	3.3×	2.6×	2.6×	2.6×	2.6×	3.8×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$708M	$720M	$660M	$612M	$477M	$485M	$478M	$454M	$401M	$389M	$386M	Total assetsAssets
$199M	$241M	$231M	$245M	$98M	$50M	$78M	$82M	$93M	$80M	$91M	Total debtDebt
$134M	$192M	$205M	$226M	$50M	($211K)	$42M	$52M	$57M	$56M	$71M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
1.0×	-2.0×	-3.0×	-3.7×	0.5×	11.2×	-33.6×	-3.2×	-6.8×	0.7×	1.8×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$388M	$356M	$319M	$227M	$296M	$345M	$308M	$280M	$225M	$245M	$250M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
42.3M	42.7M	43.4M	47.4M	58.6M	72.2M	71.9M	73.3M	73.5M	75.7M	76.6M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$38.45	$38.19	$34.94	$30.07	$15.31	$16.73	$18.56	$16.68	$13.14	$12.13	$11.95	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.03	$-0.82	$-1.39	$-1.88	$-0.26	$0.64	$-0.58	$-0.38	$-0.80	$0.18	$0.38	EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.43	$0.37	$-0.31	$-0.73	$1.11	$0.14	$-0.44	$-0.10	$-0.20	$0.11	$0.40	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$0.43	$0.37	$-0.31	$-0.73	$1.11	$0.14	$-0.44	$-0.10	$-0.20	$0.11	$0.40	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.45	$0.49	$0.35	$0.07	$0.11	$0.23	$0.52	$0.40	$0.15	$0.06	$0.06	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$9.18	$8.34	$7.36	$4.79	$5.05	$4.78	$4.28	$3.81	$3.06	$3.24	$3.26	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−12.0%/yr	−4.5%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−13.6%/yr	−36.5%/yr
EPS	+20.2%/yr	—
Capital spending / share	−20.0%/yr	−11.6%/yr
Book value / share	−10.9%/yr	−8.5%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

Net income+122.6%
“Our net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders increased by $72.4 million to $12.1 million for 2025 from a net loss of $60.3 million for 2024.”
✓ figure matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

76Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

2%low FY2024

Gross margin

4%low FY2022

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

6.5×peak FY2017

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$9Mowner earningsvs.$13Mnet incomelow FY2019

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business reported $13M of profit but $9M of owner earnings: $5M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$13M

Owner earnings$9M · 1% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$13M	($59M)	($28M)	($42M)	$46M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$25M	+$24M	+$23M	+$25M	+$23M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$3M	+$4M	+$4M	+$3M	+$3M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$28M	+$27M	+$23M	+$19M	−$45M
Cash from operations	$13M	($4M)	$22M	$6M	$27M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$5M	−$11M	−$30M	−$38M	−$16M
Owner earnings	$9M	($15M)	($8M)	($32M)	$10M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	1%	-2%	-1%	-2%	1%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $3M), owner earnings is nearer $6M.

Much of fiscal 2025's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 0.7×

Does not cover its interest

Operating income $7M ÷ interest expense $11M

What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $56M · 7.6× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $23M − debt $80M

What this means
Netting $23M of cash and short-term investments against $80M of debt leaves $56M owed, about 7.6× a year's operating profit (10.8× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 41d

Tight

DSO 22 + DIO 25 − DPO 6 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital -8%

Below average through the cycle

8-yr median, range -14%–11%; 2% latest = NOPAT $7M ÷ invested capital $301M

Industry peers: median 11%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 8 years (it ran 2% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 1%

Positive this year, negative across the cycle

latest $9M = operating cash $13M − maintenance capex $5M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median -1%)

Industry peers: median 11%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 1% of revenue this year, a -1% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $3M of SBC) leaves $6M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 0.99×

Mostly cash-backed

Cash from ops $13M ÷ net income $13M

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 42%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $4M ÷ Owner Earnings $9M

What this means
Of $9M Owner Earnings, $4M (42%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $4M buybacks. Net of $3M stock comp, the real buyback was about $652K. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 0.18×

Harvesting

Capex $5M ÷ depreciation $25M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $918M

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.64×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Pass

Debt ≤ working capital · $80M vs $97M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 7 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Miss

Uninterrupted dividends · none paid

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-0.32/share (latest year $0.17), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $3.17/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 3 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin −1% → −2% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about −1% early, −2% lately, median −2%.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Worst year 2024 · −5.4% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2024, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +6.7%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$159M

Cash & short-term investments$20M
Receivables$60M
Inventory$53M
Other current assets$26M

Current liabilities$42M

Debt due within a year$17M
Accounts payable$19M
Other current liabilities$6M

Current ratio3.81×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio2.54×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.49×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$117Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$17M due · $20M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−0.8%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters3.1× → 3.8×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$236Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value$22MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$108M$18M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $180M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$164M · 91%
Buybacks$5M · 3%
Retained (debt / cash)$11M · 6%

Returned to owners$5M
31% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $5M as buybacks.
Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt fell $107M and cash and short-term investments fell $44M.
Average price paid for buybacks$2.46
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 2M shares were bought for $5M, about $2.46 each.
Net change in share count81.4%
The diluted count rose from 42M to 77M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	$1.9M	$1.7M	$10M
2022	$1.5M	$1.2M	($32M)
2023	$1.4M	$1.2M	($8M)
2023	$1.1M	$1.4M	($8M)
2024	$1.3M	$868k	($15M)
2025	$1.5M	$2.3M	$9M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership4.3%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$3M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 41% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Alto Ingredients Inc. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?81.4%
Diluted shares grew 81.4% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $5M on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?6 of 10 years
Management took an impairment or write-down in 6 of the last 10 years, $95M in all. Taken across the majority of the record, the "one-time" label is wearing thin — ask whether these are past deals coming due rather than genuinely isolated events. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Income taxes as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Chemicals

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
NEUNewMarket Corp	$2.7B	29%	15.5%	20%	11%
SXTSensient Technologies	$1.6B	33%	12.3%	9%	6%
WLKPWestlake Chemical Partners LP Common	$1.2B	35%	32.0%	—	32%
CSWCSW Industrials Inc.	$1.1B	45%	16.3%	12%	14%
BCPCBalchem	$1.0B	32%	16.4%	10%	15%
ALTOAlto Ingredients Inc.	$918M	1%	-1.8%	-7%	0%
ROGRogers Corporation	$811M	35%	12.3%	8%	9%
REXREX American Resources Corporation	$650M	11%	6.8%	13%	8%
Group median	—	33%	13.9%	10%	10%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Alto Ingredients Inc. has delivered.

Alto Ingredients Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Alto Ingredients Inc. earns about $1M on its 0.1% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 0.9% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1M) Net of stock comp (−$3M)

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The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth, delivered—

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $31M on 77M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-07; net debt $71M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh ALTO against another business →

The owners of ALTO: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Alto Ingredients Inc. (ALTO), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ALTO, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← ALTI its page in the Manual ALV →

Industry order: ← ALB the Chemicals chapter ASH →