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BDC, Belden Inc

Electrical Equipment capital-intensive Serial acquirer

Belden Inc is a leading global supplier of complete connection solutions that unlock untold possibilities for our customers, their customers and the world.

We advance ideas and technologies that enable a safer, smarter and more prosperous future.

Belden Inc is organized around two global businesses, Smart Infrastructure Solutions and Automation Solutions, both of which benefit from favorable secular trends which we expect to drive future growth.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

BDC · Belden Inc

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$2.7B

+10.3% YoY · 9% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $2.8B 5-yr avg $2.5B

Gross margin 37% 5-yr avg 36%

Operating margin 11.5% 5-yr avg 12.1%

ROIC 12% 5-yr avg 14%

Owner-earnings margin 6% 5-yr avg 8%

Free cash flow margin 6% 5-yr avg 8%

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 Automation Solutions (55%) and Smart Infrastructure Solutions (45%).
Situation: Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 41% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 7 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 37% and operating margin about 11% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. Inventory runs near 13% 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 commodity price and the cost position. 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 10%). By owner earnings: roughly 8% 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.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 2 segments, the largest Automation Solutions at 55%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

Automation Solutions55%$1.5B
Smart Infrastructure Solutions45%$1.2B

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
$2.4B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.1B	$1.8B	$2.3B	$2.6B	$2.5B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.8B	RevenueRevenue
42%	46%	48%	37%	33%	34%	35%	38%	37%	38%	37%	Gross marginGross mgn
21%	16%	16%	20%	18%	16%	17%	20%	20%	20%	19%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
6%	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%	5%	5%	5%	5%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$232M	$234M	$314M	$207M	$150M	$264M	$363M	$318M	$266M	$316M	$321M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
9.8%	9.8%	12.1%	9.7%	8.6%	11.5%	13.9%	12.6%	10.8%	11.6%	11.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$128M	$93M	$161M	($377M)	($55M)	$64M	$255M	$243M	$198M	$238M	$237M	Net incomeNet inc.
-1%	-5%	28%	—	—	30%	16%	15%	13%	11%	12%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$315M	$255M	$289M	$277M	$173M	$272M	$281M	$320M	$352M	$355M	$329M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$146M	$150M	$149M	$139M	$109M	$88M	$89M	$99M	$116M	$129M	$132M	DepreciationDeprec.
$23M	($2M)	($39M)	$497M	$100M	$95M	($86M)	($44M)	$10M	($42M)	($71M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$54M	$64M	$98M	$110M	$90M	$91M	$105M	$117M	$129M	$136M	$148M	CapexCapex
2.3%	2.7%	3.8%	5.2%	5.1%	4.0%	4.0%	4.6%	5.2%	5.0%	5.3%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$261M	$191M	$191M	$167M	$83M	$181M	$176M	$203M	$223M	$219M	$180M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
11.1%	8.0%	7.4%	7.8%	4.7%	7.9%	6.8%	8.1%	9.1%	8.1%	6.5%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$261M	$191M	$191M	$167M	$83M	$181M	$176M	$203M	$223M	$219M	$180M	Free cash flowFCF
11.1%	8.0%	7.4%	7.8%	4.7%	7.9%	6.8%	8.1%	9.1%	8.1%	6.5%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$19M	$167M	$85M	$74M	$0	$73M	$105M	$107M	$296M	$0	$174K	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$16M	$43M	$43M	$34M	$9M	$9M	$9M	$8M	$8M	$8M	$8M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
10%	10%	9%	8%	7%	10%	19%	15%	11%	13%	12%	ROICROIC
9%	6%	12%	-39%	-7%	7%	22%	21%	15%	19%	18%	Return on equityROE
8%	3%	8%	−43%	−9%	6%	21%	20%	15%	18%	18%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$848M	$541M	$407M	$407M	$501M	$642M	$688M	$597M	$370M	$390M	$272M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$388M	$474M	$336M	$335M	$297M	$383M	$440M	$414M	$410M	$463M	$499M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$190M	$297M	$265M	$231M	$247M	$345M	$342M	$367M	$343M	$402M	$423M	InventoryInvent.
$258M	$376M	$297M	$268M	$244M	$378M	$350M	$343M	$316M	$361M	$327M	Accounts payablePayables
$320M	$395M	$303M	$298M	$300M	$351M	$432M	$438M	$437M	$504M	$595M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$1.5B	$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.1B	$1.9B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	Current assetsCur. assets
$570M	$679M	$717M	$723M	$521M	$753M	$640M	$634M	$623M	$697M	$614M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.6×	2.0×	1.8×	1.9×	2.1×	2.5×	2.4×	2.3×	1.9×	1.9×	2.1×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$1.4B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$790M	$821M	$862M	$907M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.0B	GoodwillGoodwill
$3.8B	$3.8B	$3.8B	$3.4B	$3.1B	$3.4B	$3.2B	$3.2B	$3.3B	$3.5B	$3.5B	Total assetsAssets
$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.4B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.3B	Total debtDebt
$772M	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.0B	$1.1B	$818M	$474M	$607M	$760M	$896M	$988M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
$1.5B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$960M	$751M	$955M	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.8%	0.6%	0.7%	0.8%	1.1%	1.1%	0.9%	0.8%	1.1%	1.1%	1.1%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
42.6M	42.6M	41.0M	42.4M	44.9M	45.4M	44.5M	42.9M	41.3M	40.2M	39.4M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$55.38	$56.01	$63.13	$50.25	$38.99	$50.73	$58.52	$58.61	$59.59	$67.53	$70.74	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$3.01	$2.19	$3.93	$-8.89	$-1.23	$1.41	$5.72	$5.66	$4.80	$5.91	$6.01	EPS (diluted)EPS
$6.13	$4.48	$4.67	$3.93	$1.85	$3.99	$3.96	$4.73	$5.40	$5.44	$4.58	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$6.13	$4.48	$4.67	$3.93	$1.85	$3.99	$3.96	$4.73	$5.40	$5.44	$4.58	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.38	$1.02	$1.05	$0.81	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$1.27	$1.51	$2.39	$2.59	$2.01	$2.01	$2.36	$2.72	$3.13	$3.39	$3.77	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$34.31	$33.63	$33.87	$22.63	$16.70	$21.06	$25.66	$27.21	$31.35	$31.45	$32.57	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+2.2%/yr	+11.6%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−1.3%/yr	+24.1%/yr
EPS	+7.8%/yr	—
Dividends / share	−6.9%/yr	−0.3%/yr
Capital spending / share	+11.5%/yr	+11.0%/yr
Book value / share	−1.0%/yr	+13.5%/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.

Operating income+18.5%
“Operating income increased $49.2 million from 2024 to 2025 primarily due to the increase in gross profit, partially offset by the increases in selling, general and administrative expenses and research and development expenses discussed above.”
✓ 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

40Mpeak FY2021

ROIC

13%low FY2020

Gross margin

38%low FY2020

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

4.1×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.

$219Mowner earningsvs.$238Mnet incomelow FY2020

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 $238M of profit but $219M of owner earnings: $19M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$238M

Owner earnings$219M · 8% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$238M	$198M	$243M	$255M	$64M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$129M	+$116M	+$99M	+$89M	+$88M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$30M	+$28M	+$21M	+$24M	+$25M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$42M	+$10M	−$44M	−$86M	+$95M
Cash from operations	$355M	$352M	$320M	$281M	$272M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$136M	−$129M	−$117M	−$105M	−$91M
Owner earnings	$219M	$223M	$203M	$176M	$181M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	8%	9%	8%	7%	8%

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 $30M), owner earnings is nearer $189M.

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? 3.8×

Adequate

Operating income $316M ÷ interest expense $82M

What this means
Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $896M · 2.8× operating profit

Meaningful net debt

Cash $390M − debt $1.3B

What this means
Netting $390M of cash and short-term investments against $1.3B of debt leaves $896M owed, about 2.8× a year's operating profit (4.1× 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? 71d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 62 + DIO 87 − DPO 78 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 10%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median, range 7%–19%; 13% latest = NOPAT $281M ÷ invested capital $2.2B

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 10 years (it ran 13% 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 8%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 5%–11%; latest $219M = operating cash $355M − maintenance capex $136M

Industry peers: median 5%

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 8% of revenue this year, a 8% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $30M of SBC) leaves $189M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.49×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $355M ÷ net income $238M

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? 15%

Reinvests most of it

Dividends + buybacks $33M ÷ Owner Earnings $219M

What this means
Of $219M Owner Earnings, $33M (15%) went back to shareholders, $8M dividends, $25M buybacks. But the buybacks barely exceed stock issued to employees ($30M 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? 1.05×

Maintaining

Capex $136M ÷ depreciation $129M

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 · 3 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 Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $2.7B

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 Near

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.93×

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 Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $1.3B vs $652M 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) · 2 loss years

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

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

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 Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +78%

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 $5.81/share (latest year $6.10), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $32.47/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 8 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 2 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 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 11% → 12% (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 11% early, 12% lately, median 11%.
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.
Owner earnings growth −0%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 0% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · 8.6% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count −0.6%/yr

What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
Dividend record paid

What this means
Paid a dividend in 10 of the years on record.

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 A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“Our ability to remain competitive will be determined, in part, by our ability to successfully implement AI into our product offerings and back office processes.”

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, and the company is using it that way.

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 29, 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$1.3B

Cash & short-term investments$272M
Receivables$499M
Inventory$423M
Other current assets$86M

Current liabilities$614M

Accounts payable$327M
Other current liabilities$287M

Current ratio2.09×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.40×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.44×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$666Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+11.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.7× → 2.1×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($143M)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$1.4B$107M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$42Mcustomer 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 $2.9B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$994M · 34%
Dividends$189M · 7%
Buybacks$25M · 1%
Retained (debt / cash)$1.7B · 58%

Returned to owners$214M
11% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $189M as dividends and $25M as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $25M over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count−7.4%
The diluted count fell from 43M to 39M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$0.20/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 7% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Return on what it retained0%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($733M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $448K, so each retained $1 added about 0.00 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.

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$1.4B41% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity82%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$934Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $994M of capital spent building

$2M written down across 1 year (2021): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.

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	Dr. Ashish Chand	$6.8M	$11.9M	$181M
2022	Dr. Ashish Chand	$6.9M	$15.4M	$176M
2023	Dr. Ashish Chand	$12.8M	$9.7M	$203M
2023	Dr. Ashish Chand	$169k	−$13.2M	$203M
2024	Dr. Ashish Chand	$8.0M	$21.0M	$223M
2025	Dr. Ashish Chand	$7.6M	$5.1M	$219M

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 ownership1.1%
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$30M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 10% 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 Belden 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.

1 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 5 came back clean.

Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?25% → 33% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $578M to $922M while revenue grew 18%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (25% of revenue then, 33% 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?
Did the share count rise anyway?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did reported profit become cash?
Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

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 Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, Income taxes, Acquisitions 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, Electrical 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
MLIMueller Industries	$4.2B	16%	13.8%	25%	8%
KALUKaiser Aluminum Corporation	$3.4B	16%	6.3%	8%	5%
WSWorthington Steel Inc.	$3.1B	11%	5.2%	12%	3%
CRSCarpenter Technology	$2.9B	17%	6.0%	5%	5%
BDCBelden Inc	$2.7B	38%	11.1%	10%	8%
CENXCentury Aluminum Company	$2.5B	3%	-0.9%	-1%	-1%
NXQuanex Building Products Corporation	$1.8B	23%	4.2%	6%	5%
SXCSunCoke Energy Inc.	$1.8B	—	7.8%	8%	6%
Group median	—	16%	6.1%	8%	5%

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 Belden Inc has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Belden Inc earns about $215M on its 7.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 8.1% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($215M) Net of stock comp (−$31M)

—

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 · ’21→’25+5%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25−0%/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.

Owner earnings $180M on 39M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-23; net debt $988M. 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.

Weigh BDC against another business →

The owners of BDC: the meeting and the votes →

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

Manual order: ← BCYC its page in the Manual BDN →

Industry order: ← AYI the Electrical Equipment chapter BE →