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AORT, Artivion Inc.

Medical Devices & Equipment capital-intensive Distress / turnaroundCyclical

Artivion Inc. markets, Products, Services, and Competition Our medical devices and preservation services are primarily used by cardiac and vascular surgeons to treat patients with aortic disease, including heart valve disease, aortic aneurysms and dissections, and, to a lesser extent, other conditions in cardiac and vascular surgery.

We have four major product families: aortic stent grafts, On-X mechanical heart valves and related surgical products ("On-X" products), surgical sealants, and implantable cardiac and vascular human tissues.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

AORT · Artivion Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$441M

+13.6% YoY · 12% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $459M 5-yr avg $359M

Gross margin 65% 5-yr avg 65%

Operating margin 8.2% 5-yr avg 4.8%

ROIC 4% 5-yr avg 4%

Owner-earnings margin 8% 5-yr avg −0%

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.

What it is: Revenue is led by North America (50%) and EMEA (34%), with 2 more segments behind.
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. Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 66% and operating margin about 3.5% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. The margin is cyclical, swinging between 1.0% and 12% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Inventory runs near 21% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. Read this kind of business on the installed base and what follows it. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, 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 4%, above 15% in 0 of 4 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.

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

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 4 segments, the largest North America at 50%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

North America50%$222M
EMEA34%$151M
APAC10%$44M
LATAM5%$24M

By geographyInternational51%United States49%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

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
$180M	$190M	$263M	$276M	$253M	$299M	$314M	$354M	$389M	$441M	$459M	RevenueRevenue
66%	68%	66%	66%	66%	66%	65%	65%	64%	64%	65%	Gross marginGross mgn
51%	53%	53%	52%	56%	57%	50%	59%	47%	51%	51%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
7%	10%	9%	8%	10%	12%	12%	8%	7%	7%	7%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$22M	$8M	$9M	$17M	$2M	$8M	$6M	$6M	$39M	$34M	$37M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
12.1%	4.2%	3.5%	6.2%	1.0%	2.7%	2.0%	1.6%	10.0%	7.6%	8.2%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$11M	$4M	($3M)	$2M	($17M)	($15M)	($19M)	($31M)	($13M)	$10M	$12M	Net incomeNet inc.
41%	-4%	—	-5%	—	—	—	—	—	34%	33%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$20M	$11M	$10M	$16M	$12M	($3M)	($5M)	$19M	$22M	$40M	$58M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$8M	$10M	$18M	$18M	$21M	$24M	$22M	$23M	$24M	$22M	$23M	DepreciationDeprec.
($6M)	($10M)	($12M)	($13M)	$1M	($22M)	($21M)	$12M	($3M)	($17M)	($2M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$6M	$7M	$6M	$8M	$7M	$13M	$11M	$10M	$11M	$39M	$43M	CapexCapex
3.4%	3.5%	2.2%	2.9%	2.9%	4.4%	3.4%	2.8%	2.9%	8.8%	9.5%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$14M	$4M	$4M	$8M	$5M	($16M)	($16M)	$9M	$11M	$17M	$35M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
7.5%	2.2%	1.6%	2.8%	2.0%	−5.2%	−5.1%	2.6%	2.8%	3.9%	7.6%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$14M	$4M	$4M	$8M	$5M	($16M)	($16M)	$9M	$11M	$839K	$15M	Free cash flowFCF
7.5%	2.2%	1.6%	2.8%	2.0%	−5.2%	−5.1%	2.6%	2.8%	0.2%	3.2%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$91M	$409K	—	—	$59M	$0	$0	—	—	—	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
6%	2%	—	4%	—	—	—	—	—	4%	4%	ROICROIC
5%	1%	-1%	1%	-5%	-5%	-7%	-11%	-5%	2%	3%	Return on equityROE
											Balance sheet
$57M	$40M	$41M	$34M	$61M	$55M	$39M	$59M	$53M	$65M	$56M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$28M	$48M	$47M	$53M	$46M	$53M	$62M	$72M	$79M	$90M	$92M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$26M	$47M	$45M	$53M	$73M	$77M	$74M	$82M	$80M	$92M	$98M	InventoryInvent.
$6M	$10M	$8M	$10M	$10M	$10M	$12M	$13M	$18M	$16M	$18M	Accounts payablePayables
$48M	$84M	$85M	$96M	$109M	$120M	$124M	$140M	$141M	$166M	$172M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$147M	$179M	$179M	$187M	$235M	$248M	$247M	$281M	$290M	$358M	$358M	Current assetsCur. assets
$30M	$43M	$35M	$45M	$60M	$45M	$50M	$58M	$67M	$102M	$93M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
4.9×	4.2×	5.2×	4.1×	3.9×	5.5×	5.0×	4.9×	4.3×	3.5×	3.9×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$78M	$188M	$189M	$187M	$260M	$250M	$244M	$247M	$241M	$254M	$252M	GoodwillGoodwill
$316M	$590M	$571M	$606M	$789M	$793M	$763M	$792M	$789M	$885M	$883M	Total assetsAssets
$72M	$219M	$217M	$216M	$292M	$309M	$308M	$307M	$314M	$215M	$215M	Total debtDebt
$15M	$179M	$175M	$182M	$230M	$254M	$269M	$248M	$261M	$150M	$160M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
7.3×	1.6×	0.6×	1.1×	0.1×	0.5×	0.3×	0.2×	1.1×	1.3×	1.5×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$209M	$277M	$275M	$286M	$329M	$301M	$284M	$282M	$276M	$448M	$450M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
3.5%	3.6%	2.4%	3.2%	2.7%	3.6%	3.9%	4.1%	3.7%	5.5%	5.4%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
32.8M	34.2M	36.4M	37.9M	37.9M	39.0M	40.0M	40.7M	41.7M	47.2M	49.7M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$5.50	$5.55	$7.22	$7.30	$6.69	$7.67	$7.84	$8.69	$9.32	$9.36	$9.22	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.33	$0.11	$-0.08	$0.05	$-0.44	$-0.38	$-0.48	$-0.75	$-0.32	$0.21	$0.24	EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.41	$0.12	$0.11	$0.20	$0.13	$-0.40	$-0.40	$0.22	$0.27	$0.37	$0.70	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$0.41	$0.12	$0.11	$0.20	$0.13	$-0.40	$-0.40	$0.22	$0.27	$0.02	$0.29	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.19	$0.19	$0.16	$0.21	$0.19	$0.34	$0.27	$0.24	$0.27	$0.83	$0.87	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$6.37	$8.11	$7.55	$7.55	$8.68	$7.71	$7.10	$6.92	$6.63	$9.50	$9.06	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+6.1%/yr	+6.9%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−1.2%/yr	+22.6%/yr
EPS	−5.0%/yr	—
Capital spending / share	+17.8%/yr	+33.7%/yr
Book value / share	+4.6%/yr	+1.8%/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.

Revenue+13.6%
“Revenues increased 14% for the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2024. The increase in revenues for the year ended December 31, 2025 was due to an increase in revenues from aortic stent grafts, On-X products, and surgical sealants, partially offset by a decrease in revenues from other products and preservation services.”
✓ 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

47Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

4%low FY2017

Gross margin

64%low FY2024

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

8.6×peak FY2020

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$17Mowner earningsvs.$10Mnet incomelow FY2022

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 earned $17M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $22M it takes just to hold its position. It put $17M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $839K.

Reported net income$10M

Owner earnings$17M · 4% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$10M	($13M)	($31M)	($19M)	($15M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$22M	+$24M	+$23M	+$22M	+$24M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$24M	+$14M	+$14M	+$12M	+$11M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$17M	−$3M	+$12M	−$21M	−$22M
Cash from operations	$40M	$22M	$19M	($5M)	($3M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$22M	−$11M	−$10M	−$11M	−$13M
Owner earnings	$17M	$11M	$9M	($16M)	($16M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$17M	—	—	—	—
Free cash flow	$839K	$11M	$9M	($16M)	($16M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	4%	3%	3%	-5%	-5%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $22M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $17M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. 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 $24M), owner earnings is nearer ($7M).

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? 1.3×

Thin

Operating income $34M ÷ interest expense $27M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $150M · 4.5× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $65M − debt $215M

What this means
Netting $65M of cash and short-term investments against $215M of debt leaves $150M owed, about 4.5× a year's operating profit (6.4× 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? 252d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 74 + DIO 215 − DPO 37 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 4%

Below average through the cycle

4-yr median, range 2%–6%; 4% latest = NOPAT $22M ÷ invested capital $598M

Industry peers: median 8%

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 4 years (it ran 4% 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 4%

Thin, recently turned positive

latest $17M = operating cash $40M − maintenance capex $22M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 2%)

Industry peers: median 7%

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 4% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 10 years. It chose to put $17M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was $839K — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $24M of SBC) leaves ($7M).
Are earnings backed by cash? 4.08×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $40M ÷ net income $10M

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? 52%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $9M ÷ Owner Earnings $17M

What this means
Of $17M Owner Earnings, $9M (52%) went back to shareholders, $3M dividends, $6M buybacks. But the buybacks barely exceed stock issued to employees ($24M SBC), net of dilution, little was truly returned. 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? 1.74×

Expanding

Capex $39M ÷ depreciation $22M

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 6 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 · $441M

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× · 3.53×

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 · $215M vs $257M 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) · 6 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 Miss

Earnings +33% over the record · −394%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
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 $-0.24/share (latest year $0.20), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $9.23/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 4 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 6 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 7% → 6% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 7% early, 6% lately, median 4%.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 6%

What this means
Reinvested capital came back at only a modest incremental return — near the cost of capital, where extra growth adds little per dollar. The record shows whether it is a soft stretch or a thinning moat.
Owner earnings growth +5%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 5% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · 1.0% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +4.1%/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.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product.

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$358M

Cash & short-term investments$56M
Receivables$92M
Inventory$98M
Other current assets$112M

Current liabilities$93M

Accounts payable$18M
Other current liabilities$74M

Current ratio3.86×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio2.80×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.60×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$265Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+17.5%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters5.6× → 3.9×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$79Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($75M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$254M$39M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$362Kcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $142M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$118M · 83%
Retained (debt / cash)$24M · 17%

Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $144M and cash and short-term investments fell $878K.
Net change in share count51.5%
The diluted count rose from 33M to 50M: 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.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$378M43% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity57%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$151Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $118M of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

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	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Mr. Mackin	$4.6M	$3.7M	($16M)
2022	Mr. Mackin	$7.2M	$4.7M	($16M)
2023	Mr. Mackin	$3.2M	$7.2M	$9M
2024	Mr. Mackin	$5.5M	$12.3M	$11M
2025	Mr. Mackin	$6.9M	$17.4M	$17M

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 ownership<1%
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$24M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 6% of revenue, equal to 72% 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 Artivion 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.

3 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 1 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?51.5%
Diluted shares grew 51.5% over 2016–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$72M → $215M
Debt rose from $72M to $215M while owner earnings went from about $7M to $13M — about 9.9 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 17 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.
Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?30% → 41% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $54M to $190M while revenue grew 154%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (30% of revenue then, 41% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?

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.

Peers, Medical Devices & Equipment

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
MMSIMerit Medical Systems	$1.5B	45%	6.2%	4%	7%
CDRECadre Holdings Inc.	$610M	41%	11.7%	11%	9%
TMDXTransMedics Group	$605M	63%	-63.3%	-18%	-75%
UFPTUFP Technologies Inc.	$603M	25%	11.4%	12%	8%
ALNTAllient Inc.	$554M	30%	7.4%	8%	5%
COHUCohu Inc	$453M	39%	0.8%	1%	7%
AORTArtivion Inc.	$441M	66%	3.9%	4%	2%
IRMDiRadimed Corporation	$84M	77%	26.4%	51%	25%
Group median	—	43%	6.8%	6%	7%

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 Artivion Inc. has delivered.

Artivion 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, Artivion Inc. earns about $11M on its 2.4% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 3.9% 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 ($11M) Net of stock comp (−$25M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($36M)

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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 · ’16→’25−4%/yr

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.

Free cash flow $15M on 49M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-01; net debt $160M. 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. Capex ($43M) runs well above depreciation ($23M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $36M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh AORT against another business →

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

Manual order: ← AON its page in the Manual AOS →

Industry order: ← ANGO the Medical Devices & Equipment chapter APT →