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APT, Alpha Pro Tech Ltd.
Alpha Pro Tech Ltd. is the parent company of Alpha Pro Tech, Inc. and Alpha ProTech Engineered Products, Inc.
Alpha Pro Tech is in the business of protecting people, products and environments.
We accomplish this by developing, manufacturing and marketing a line of high-value, disposable protective apparel and infection control products for the cleanroom, industrial, pharmaceutical, medical and dental markets through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Alpha Pro Tech, Inc.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Gross margin has run about 38% and operating margin about 6.7% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. The operating margin has swung widely — from 6.0% to 31% — on a steadier 38% gross margin, so what moves it sits below the gross line, in operating spend and one-off charges more than in the cost of the product itself. Inventory runs near 33% 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 customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 9%). By owner earnings: roughly 6% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. 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, 2017–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| $44M | $47M | $47M | $103M | $69M | $62M | $61M | $58M | $59M | $60M | RevenueRevenue |
| 40% | 38% | 36% | 49% | 37% | 35% | 37% | 40% | 38% | 38% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 32% | 29% | 29% | 18% | 24% | 26% | 29% | 32% | 30% | 30% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| $3M | $4M | $3M | $32M | $8M | $5M | $4M | $3M | $4M | $4M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 6.6% | 8.3% | 6.5% | 30.8% | 11.5% | 7.5% | 6.7% | 6.0% | 6.5% | 6.6% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $3M | $4M | $3M | $27M | $7M | $3M | $4M | $4M | $4M | $4M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 28% | 18% | 18% | 17% | 21% | 25% | 23% | 22% | 24% | 24% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||||||||
| $4M | $2M | $3M | $18M | ($480K) | $4M | $8M | $6M | $2M | $6M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $571K | $525K | $602K | $729K | $817K | $814K | $925K | $873K | $925K | $932K | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $508K | ($3M) | ($952K) | ($10M) | ($8M) | $34K | $3M | $433K | ($3M) | $1M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $1M | $606K | $1M | $1M | $3M | $492K | $792K | $4M | $639K | $621K | CapexCapex |
| 2.8% | 1.3% | 2.8% | 1.1% | 3.7% | 0.8% | 1.3% | 6.6% | 1.1% | 1.0% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $3M | $1M | $2M | $18M | ($1M) | $4M | $8M | $5M | $2M | $6M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 7.8% | 3.0% | 5.4% | 17.1% | −1.9% | 6.1% | 12.5% | 8.3% | 2.9% | 9.5% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $3M | $1M | $2M | $17M | ($3M) | $4M | $8M | $2M | $2M | $6M | Free cash flowFCF |
| 6.3% | 3.0% | 3.9% | 16.7% | −4.4% | 6.1% | 12.5% | 3.3% | 2.9% | 9.5% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $4M | $4M | $3M | $3M | $4M | $4M | $4M | $4M | $3M | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| 9% | 13% | 9% | 74% | 14% | 8% | 8% | 6% | 6% | 7% | ROICROIC |
| 8% | 11% | 9% | 46% | 11% | 5% | 7% | 6% | 6% | 6% | Return on equityROE |
| 8% | 11% | 9% | 46% | 11% | 5% | 7% | 6% | 6% | 6% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||||||||
| $9M | $7M | $7M | $23M | $16M | $16M | $20M | $19M | $17M | $17M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $5M | $5M | $4M | $8M | $3M | $5M | $7M | $5M | $8M | $8M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $10M | $10M | $11M | $17M | $25M | $24M | $20M | $23M | $24M | $22M | InventoryInvent. |
| $1M | $578K | $501K | $2M | $528K | $674K | $802K | $1M | $2M | $934K | Accounts payablePayables |
| $14M | $14M | $14M | $23M | $28M | $29M | $26M | $26M | $30M | $29M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $27M | $26M | $26M | $55M | $53M | $53M | $53M | $51M | $53M | $52M | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $3M | $2M | $2M | $6M | $3M | $2M | $3M | $3M | $4M | $3M | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 9.6× | 13.8× | 11.3× | 9.4× | 19.9× | 21.8× | 20.7× | 16.2× | 12.9× | 19.8× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | $55K | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $34M | $34M | $38M | $69M | $67.6B | $65M | $69M | $74M | $74M | $73M | Total assetsAssets |
| ($9M) | ($7M) | ($7M) | ($23M) | ($16M) | ($16M) | ($20M) | ($19M) | ($17M) | ($17M) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| $31M | $32M | $33M | $59M | $62M | $61M | $62M | $62M | $62M | $63M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.9% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| Per share | ||||||||||
| 15.0M | 14.0M | 13.2M | 14.0M | 13.5M | 12.8M | 11.9M | 11.2M | 10.6M | 10.3M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $2.94 | $3.34 | $3.54 | $7.35 | $5.08 | $4.85 | $5.16 | $5.15 | $5.61 | $5.80 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.18 | $0.26 | $0.23 | $1.92 | $0.50 | $0.26 | $0.35 | $0.35 | $0.33 | $0.35 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $0.23 | $0.10 | $0.19 | $1.26 | $-0.10 | $0.30 | $0.65 | $0.43 | $0.16 | $0.55 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $0.19 | $0.10 | $0.14 | $1.23 | $-0.22 | $0.30 | $0.65 | $0.17 | $0.16 | $0.55 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.08 | $0.04 | $0.10 | $0.08 | $0.19 | $0.04 | $0.07 | $0.34 | $0.06 | $0.06 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $2.09 | $2.31 | $2.50 | $4.21 | $4.57 | $4.75 | $5.19 | $5.54 | $5.92 | $6.10 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 8-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +8.4%/yr | −5.3%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | −4.1%/yr | −33.4%/yr |
| EPS | +8.4%/yr | −29.5%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −3.6%/yr | −5.7%/yr |
| Book value / share | +13.9%/yr | +7.1%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2017–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
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 $4M of profit but $2M of owner earnings: $2M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $4M | $4M | $4M | $3M | $7M |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$925K | +$873K | +$925K | +$814K | +$817K |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$540K | +$463K | +$170K | +$147K | +$315K |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$3M | +$433K | +$3M | +$34K | −$8M |
| Cash from operations | $2M | $6M | $8M | $4M | ($480K) |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$639K | −$873K | −$792K | −$492K | −$817K |
| Owner earnings | $2M | $5M | $8M | $4M | ($1M) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | — | −$3M | — | — | −$2M |
| Free cash flow | $2M | $2M | $8M | $4M | ($3M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 3% | 8% | 13% | 6% | -2% |
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 $540K), owner earnings is nearer $1M.
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.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- No meaningful interest burdenLittle or no interest expense reported
What this means
Little or no interest expense reported, the business isn't leaning on lenders to operate.
- Net cash, debt-freeCash $17M − debt $0
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $17M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Long (60+ days)DSO 50 + DIO 235 − DPO 20 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?
- Not enough dataIndustry peers: median -16%
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Solid through the cycle9-yr median margin, range -2%–17%; latest $2M = operating cash $2M − maintenance capex $639KIndustry peers: median -25%
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 3% of revenue this year, a 6% median across 9 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $540K of SBC) leaves $1M.
- Mostly cash-backedCash from ops $2M ÷ net income $4M
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?
- Returned more than it generatedDividends + buybacks $3M ÷ Owner Earnings $2M
What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $2M of Owner Earnings, $3M (193%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $3M buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Net of $540K stock comp, the real buyback was about $3M. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.69×HarvestingCapex $639K ÷ depreciation $925K
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 MissRevenue ≥ $2B · $59M
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 PassCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 12.94×
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.
- Earnings stability PassA profit every year (9-yr record) · no losses
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record MissUninterrupted 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 NearEarnings +33% over the record · +26%
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 $0.38/share (latest year $0.35), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $6.12/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, 2017–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 9 of 9
What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
- Operating margin 7% → 6% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The filing ties gains to its own pricing, but names price competition too — pricing power that is real yet contested, not unopposed. The margin shows who is winning.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 7% early, 6% lately, median 7%.
- Owner earnings growth +4%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 4% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2024 · 6.0% op. margin
What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
- Share count −4.3%/yr
What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.
“Additionally, the Company's competitors may adopt new technologies and technological advancements, such as using artificial intelligence and machine learning to pursue new products and approaches more quickly, successfully and effectively than the Company.”
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, 2026Can 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.
- Cash & short-term investments$17M
- Receivables$8M
- Inventory$22M
- Other current assets$5M
- Accounts payable$934K
- Other current liabilities$2M
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2017–2025
Over the record, the business generated $48M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.
- Reinvested$13M · 26%
- Buybacks$33M · 69%
- Retained (debt / cash)$2M · 4%
- Returned to owners$33M
80% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $33M as buybacks.
- Average price paid for buybacks$4.76
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 7M shares were bought for $33M, about $4.76 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $3.43 (2017) to $11.95 (2020); its heaviest year, 2024, paid $5.36 ($4M).
- Net change in share count−31.1%
The diluted count fell from 15M to 10M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
- Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
- Return on what it retained9%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($25M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $2M, so each retained $1 added about 0.09 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.
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 | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Lloyd Hoffman | $1.2M | $1.2M | $8M |
| 2024 | Lloyd Hoffman | $987k | $987k | $5M |
| 2025 | Lloyd Hoffman | $971k | $919k | $2M |
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.
- Stock-based compensation$540K
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 14% 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 Alpha Pro Tech Ltd. 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 2017–2025.
2 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.
- Look hereDid reported profit become cash?0.82×
Across the record the business reported $58M of net income but generated $48M of operating cash, a 0.82-to-one conversion. Profit that does not turn into cash over many years is the classic mark of earnings that are softer than they look. Ask where the gap sits, receivables, inventory, or costs being capitalized rather than expensed.
- Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?34% → 50% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $15M to $30M while revenue grew 36%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (34% of revenue then, 50% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.
- Is it less profitable than it was?
- Did the share count rise anyway?
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 →- How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?≈$14M · 24% of revenue on the largest customer (TTM)
“For example, sales to one customer represented 24%, and 20% of our total revenue, and sales to another customer represented 15% and 15% of our total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.”verify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BFLYButterfly Network Inc. | $98M | 37% | -263.0% | -134% | -179% |
| BLFSBioLife Solutions Inc. | $96M | 66% | -9.6% | -3% | 4% |
| IRMDiRadimed Corporation | $84M | 77% | 26.4% | 51% | 25% |
| FOCLEDAP TMS S.A. | $71M | 43% | -35.0% | -115% | -25% |
| FEIMFrequency Electronics Inc. | $63M | 26% | -8.6% | -6% | 2% |
| APTAlpha Pro Tech Ltd. | $59M | 38% | 6.7% | 9% | 6% |
| SIShoulder Innovations Inc. | $47M | 77% | -55.6% | -16% | -67% |
| SSIISS Innovations International Inc. | $42M | 27% | -149.0% | -86% | -156% |
| Group median | — | 40% | -22.3% | -11% | -12% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Alpha Pro Tech Ltd. has delivered.
Through the cycle, Alpha Pro Tech Ltd. earns about $4M on its 6.1% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 2.9% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
—
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.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
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.
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 $6M on 10M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-01; net cash $17M. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). 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.
Manual order: ← APPS its page in the Manual APTV →
Industry order: ← AORT the Medical Devices & Equipment chapter ATEC →