Share count
2Bpeak FY2020
← All companies ← BMRN Manual BNED → ← BMRN Pharmaceuticals CATX →
BMY, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Bristol-Myers Squibb discovers, develops, and makes branded prescription medicines for serious diseases. It sells these drugs worldwide, principally through wholesalers, distributors, and specialty pharmacies, who in turn supply the retailers, hospitals, and clinics that reach patients. The money is made on patent-protected drugs that, for a stretch of years, no one else is allowed to copy.
We are driving commercial execution in our key first-in-class and/or best-in-class marketed products, where we continue to expand and see potential for further expansion into the future.
Our products are sold worldwide, principally to wholesalers, distributors, specialty pharmacies, and to a lesser extent, retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies and directly to patients.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$48.2B
−0.2% YoY · 3% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $48.5B 5-yr avg $46.8B
Revenue $11.5B +2.6% vs yr-ago qtr
Net income $2.7B yr-ago $2.5B
Net margin 23.3% yr-ago 22.0%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- Situation
- Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power. Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 45% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 9 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
- What moves the needle
- A branded-drug maker does not own a permanent franchise; it rents one, patent by patent, and each lease expires — after which generic and biosimilar copies arrive and the old revenue largely walks away. So the test is whether research and dealmaking can hatch new medicines fast enough to replace the ones falling off patent, and the filing's own emphasis on patent scope and on the bargaining power of consolidated pharmacy chains, wholesalers, and benefit managers names exactly where that contest is decided. Watch the gross margin for whether the products still command their price, and the debt taken on to buy pipeline for whether the replacements are being bought rather than grown. The figures are in the record below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 12%). By owner earnings: roughly 28% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. 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.
Drafted from the company's filings and reviewed by hand; every number is shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →31% of revenue comes from outside the United States.
Revenue by geography, FY2025
- United States69%$33.3B
- International29%$13.8B
- Other2%$1.1B
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 | |||||||||||
| $19.4B | $20.8B | $22.6B | $26.1B | $42.5B | $46.4B | $46.2B | $45.0B | $48.3B | $48.2B | $48.5B | RevenueRevenue |
| 74% | 71% | 71% | 69% | 72% | 79% | 78% | 76% | 71% | 71% | 70% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 26% | 23% | 20% | 19% | 18% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 15% | 15% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| 26% | 31% | 28% | 24% | 24% | 22% | 21% | 21% | 23% | 21% | 21% | R&D / revenueR&D/rev |
| $5.9B | $5.1B | $6.0B | $5.0B | ($6.9B) | $8.1B | $7.7B | $8.4B | ($8.4B) | $9.3B | $9.6B | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 30.4% | 24.7% | 26.5% | 19.0% | −16.2% | 17.5% | 16.7% | 18.8% | −17.3% | 19.4% | 19.8% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $4.5B | $1.0B | $4.9B | $3.4B | ($9.0B) | $7.0B | $6.3B | $8.0B | ($8.9B) | $7.1B | $7.3B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 24% | — | 17% | 31% | — | 13% | 18% | 5% | — | 24% | 24% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $3.1B | $5.3B | $7.1B | $8.2B | $14.1B | $16.2B | $13.1B | $13.9B | $15.2B | $14.2B | $13.3B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $382M | $789M | $637M | $1.7B | $10.4B | $10.7B | $10.3B | $9.8B | $9.6B | $4.0B | $3.6B | DepreciationDeprec. |
| ($2.0B) | $3.3B | $1.3B | $2.6B | $11.9B | ($2.1B) | ($4.0B) | ($4.4B) | $14.0B | $2.5B | $1.9B | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $1.2B | $1.1B | $951M | $836M | $753M | $973M | $1.1B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.3B | $1.4B | CapexCapex |
| 6.3% | 5.1% | 4.2% | 3.2% | 1.8% | 2.1% | 2.4% | 2.7% | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2.9% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $2.7B | $4.5B | $6.4B | $7.4B | $13.3B | $15.2B | $11.9B | $12.7B | $13.9B | $12.8B | $11.9B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 13.8% | 21.6% | 28.5% | 28.2% | 31.3% | 32.8% | 25.9% | 28.1% | 28.9% | 26.7% | 24.6% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $1.8B | $4.2B | $6.1B | $7.4B | $13.3B | $15.2B | $11.9B | $12.7B | $13.9B | $12.8B | $11.9B | Free cash flowFCF |
| 9.5% | 20.3% | 27.1% | 28.2% | 31.3% | 32.8% | 25.9% | 28.1% | 28.9% | 26.7% | 24.6% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $359M | $726M | $2.4B | $24.8B | $13.1B | $1.6B | $4.3B | $1.2B | $21.8B | $3.9B | $3.9B | AcquisitionsAcquis. |
| $2.5B | $2.6B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $4.1B | $4.4B | $4.6B | $4.7B | $4.9B | $5.0B | $5.1B | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| $231M | $2.5B | $320M | $7.3B | $1.5B | $6.3B | $8.0B | $5.2B | $0 | $0 | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| 24% | 17% | 32% | 4% | -7% | 11% | 10% | 14% | -12% | 13% | 13% | ROICROIC |
| 28% | 9% | 35% | 7% | -24% | 19% | 20% | 27% | -55% | 38% | 36% | Return on equityROE |
| 12% | −13% | 16% | 1% | −35% | 7% | 5% | 11% | −85% | 11% | 11% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $9.1B | $7.8B | $9.0B | $11.1B | $16.3B | $17.0B | $9.3B | $11.5B | $10.3B | $10.2B | $9.7B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $3.8B | $4.3B | $4.6B | $6.5B | $7.2B | $8.0B | $8.2B | $8.9B | $9.0B | $9.6B | $7.9B | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $4.3B | $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.3B | $2.7B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $2.8B | InventoryInvent. |
| $1.7B | $2.2B | $1.9B | $2.4B | $2.7B | $2.9B | $3.0B | $3.3B | $3.6B | $3.6B | $4.2B | Accounts payablePayables |
| $3.4B | $3.3B | $3.9B | $8.3B | $6.6B | $7.1B | $7.5B | $8.3B | $8.0B | $8.7B | $6.5B | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $13.7B | $14.9B | $17.7B | $29.4B | $30.2B | $33.3B | $27.3B | $31.8B | $29.8B | $29.4B | $27.2B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $8.8B | $9.6B | $10.7B | $18.3B | $19.1B | $21.9B | $21.9B | $22.3B | $23.8B | $23.4B | $19.2B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.6× | 1.6× | 1.7× | 1.6× | 1.6× | 1.5× | 1.2× | 1.4× | 1.3× | 1.3× | 1.4× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $6.9B | $6.9B | $6.5B | $22.5B | $20.5B | $20.5B | $21.1B | $21.2B | $21.7B | $21.8B | $21.7B | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $31.9B | $32.9B | $33.1B | $34.8B | $118.5B | $109.3B | $96.8B | $95.2B | $92.6B | $90.0B | $86.5B | Total assetsAssets |
| $6.5B | $7.0B | $6.9B | $46.1B | $50.3B | $44.4B | $39.0B | $39.5B | $49.4B | $44.8B | $44.1B | Total debtDebt |
| ($2.6B) | ($806M) | ($2.1B) | $35.0B | $34.1B | $27.4B | $29.7B | $28.1B | $39.1B | $34.6B | $34.4B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 35.4× | 26.2× | 32.6× | 7.6× | -4.8× | 6.1× | 6.3× | 7.2× | -4.3× | 4.9× | 5.3× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $16.2B | $11.7B | $14.0B | $51.6B | $37.8B | $35.9B | $31.1B | $29.4B | $16.3B | $18.5B | $20.1B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 1.1% | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1.7% | 1.8% | 1.3% | 1.0% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 1.1% | 1.1% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 1.68B | 1.65B | 1.64B | 1.71B | 2.26B | 2.25B | 2.15B | 2.08B | 2.03B | 2.04B | 2.05B | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $11.56 | $12.58 | $13.78 | $15.27 | $18.83 | $20.66 | $21.51 | $21.66 | $23.83 | $23.64 | $23.68 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $2.65 | $0.61 | $3.01 | $2.01 | $-3.99 | $3.12 | $2.95 | $3.86 | $-4.41 | $3.46 | $3.55 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $1.59 | $2.72 | $3.93 | $4.31 | $5.89 | $6.79 | $5.57 | $6.09 | $6.88 | $6.30 | $5.82 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $1.10 | $2.55 | $3.74 | $4.31 | $5.89 | $6.79 | $5.57 | $6.09 | $6.88 | $6.30 | $5.82 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $1.52 | $1.56 | $1.60 | $1.56 | $1.80 | $1.96 | $2.16 | $2.28 | $2.40 | $2.47 | $2.48 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $0.72 | $0.64 | $0.58 | $0.49 | $0.33 | $0.43 | $0.52 | $0.58 | $0.62 | $0.64 | $0.68 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $9.63 | $7.11 | $8.57 | $30.14 | $16.75 | $16.01 | $14.47 | $14.16 | $8.06 | $9.06 | $9.80 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +8.3%/yr | +4.7%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +16.5%/yr | +1.4%/yr |
| EPS | +3.0%/yr | — |
| Dividends / share | +5.6%/yr | +6.5%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −1.3%/yr | +14.0%/yr |
| Book value / share | −0.7%/yr | −11.6%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
13%low FY2024
Gross margin
71%low FY2019
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
2.7×peak FY2019
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
$12.8Bowner earningsvs.$7.1Bnet incomelow FY2016
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cashEach 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
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 turned $7.1B of profit into $12.8B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $7.1B | ($8.9B) | $8.0B | $6.3B | $7.0B |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$4.0B | +$9.6B | +$9.8B | +$10.3B | +$10.7B |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$553M | +$507M | +$518M | +$457M | +$583M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$2.5B | +$14.0B | −$4.4B | −$4.0B | −$2.1B |
| Cash from operations | $14.2B | $15.2B | $13.9B | $13.1B | $16.2B |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$1.3B | −$1.2B | −$1.2B | −$1.1B | −$973M |
| Owner earnings | $12.8B | $13.9B | $12.7B | $11.9B | $15.2B |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 27% | 29% | 28% | 26% | 33% |
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 $553M), owner earnings is nearer $12.3B.
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
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Will it survive?
- AdequateOperating income $9.3B ÷ interest expense $1.9B
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? $34.5B · 3.7× operating profitMeaningful net debtCash $10.2B + ST investments $130M − debt $44.8B
What this means
Netting $10.3B of cash and short-term investments against $44.8B of debt leaves $34.5B owed, about 3.7× a year's operating profit (4.8× 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.
- TightDSO 73 + DIO 70 − DPO 94 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?
- Solid through the cycle10-yr median, range -12%–32%; 13% latest = NOPAT $7.1B ÷ invested capital $53.1BIndustry peers: median 19%
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.
- High through the cycle10-yr median margin, range 14%–33%; latest $12.8B = operating cash $14.2B − maintenance capex $1.3BIndustry peers: median 23%
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 27% of revenue this year, a 28% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $553M of SBC) leaves $12.3B.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $14.2B ÷ net income $7.1B
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?
- Reinvests most of itDividends + buybacks $5.0B ÷ Owner Earnings $12.8B
What this means
Of $12.8B Owner Earnings, $5.0B (39%) went back to shareholders, $5.0B dividends, $0 buybacks. 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? 0.33×HarvestingCapex $1.3B ÷ depreciation $4.0B
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 PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $48.2B
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 MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.26×
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 MissDebt ≤ working capital · $44.8B vs $6.0B 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 MissA 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 PassUninterrupted 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 MissEarnings +33% over the record · −41%
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 $1.00/share (latest year $3.45), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $9.05/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% 3 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 27% → 7% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices but names price competition too — and the margin slipped, so the pressure is winning here.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 27% early to 7% lately, median 19% — competition or costs are biting in.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC −3%
What this means
Reinvested capital came back at a negative incremental return over this window — the invested base grew while operating profit did not. The filings show where it went.
- Owner earnings growth +16%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 16% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2024 · −17.3% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2024, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +2.2%/yr
What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
- Dividend record rising
What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.
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.
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; it frames AI mainly as a capability.
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 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.
Current assets$27.2B
- Cash & short-term investments$9.7B
- Receivables$7.9B
- Inventory$2.8B
- Other current assets$6.8B
Current liabilities$19.2B
- Debt due within a year$2.0B
- Accounts payable$4.2B
- Other current liabilities$12.9B
Current ratio1.42×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.28×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.51×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$8.1Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$2.0B due · $9.7B 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+2.6%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.2× → 1.4×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($19.9B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($39.2B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$46.1B$2.0B of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$534Mcustomer 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 $110.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.
- Reinvested$10.7B · 10%
- Dividends$38.2B · 35%
- Buybacks$31.3B · 28%
- Retained (debt / cash)$30.0B · 27%
- Returned to owners$69.5B
69% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $38.2B as dividends and $31.3B as buybacks.
- Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $37.7B and cash and short-term investments rose $3.4B.
- Average price paid for buybacks$93.69
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 169M shares were bought for $15.8B, about $93.69 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $57.26 (2020) to $200.03 (2022), and 2022, near the top of that range, was also its heaviest buyback year ($8.0B).
- Net change in share count21.8%
The diluted count rose from 1680M to 2047M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record$2.47/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 6% a year. It was never cut over the span.
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 recordGoodwill 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$40.9B45% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth
Cash spent acquiring$74.1Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $10.7B 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 | — | $19.8M | $16.5M | $15.2B |
| 2022 | — | $20.1M | $35.1M | $11.9B |
| 2023 | Dr. Chris Boerner | $8.5M | $383k | $12.7B |
| 2023 | Dr. Giovanni Caforio | $19.7M | −$6.9M | $12.7B |
| 2024 | — | $18.8M | $21.2M | $13.9B |
| 2025 | — | $21.9M | $16.9M | $12.8B |
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. A dash under the name means the filing tags the figure without naming the officer.
- CEO pay ratio131:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
- Stock-based compensation$553M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 6% 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 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 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 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.
- Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?21.8%
Diluted shares grew 21.8% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $31.3B 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 hereDid debt outgrow the business?$6.5B → $44.1B
Debt rose from $6.5B to $44.1B while owner earnings went from about $4.5B to $13.1B — about 1.4 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 3.4 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 hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?10 of 10 years
Management took an impairment or write-down in 10 of the last 10 years, $6.8B in all. A charge taken almost every year is not one-time; it is the business — past deals coming due, and an admission the assets were worth less than what was paid. Munger's rule: when the "one-time" keeps happening, it is the business. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.
And these came back clean
- Is it less profitable than it was?
- Did reported profit become cash?
- 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 Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions, Contingencies 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, Pharmaceuticals
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JNJJohnson & Johnson | $94.2B | 67% | 23.8% | 22% | 23% |
| LLYEli Lilly and Company | $65.2B | 78% | 24.0% | 27% | 20% |
| MRKMerck & Company Inc. Common Stock (new) | $65.0B | 70% | 25.9% | 19% | 21% |
| PFEPfizer Inc. | $62.6B | 75% | 26.1% | 11% | 28% |
| ABBVAbbVie Inc. | $61.2B | 70% | 28.0% | 21% | 38% |
| BMYBristol-Myers Squibb Company | $48.2B | 72% | 18.9% | 12% | 28% |
| ABTAbbott Laboratories | $44.3B | 56% | 15.8% | 11% | 17% |
| AMGNAmgen Inc. | $36.8B | 76% | 36.1% | 18% | 35% |
| Group median | — | 71% | 24.9% | 18% | 25% |
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 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has delivered.
$
Through the cycle, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company earns about $13.6B on its 28.2% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 26.7% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
Base
—
The assumptions
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.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25−0%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+18%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+16%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
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 yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $11.9B on 2042M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-21; net debt $34.4B. 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.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/BMY, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← BMRN its page in the Manual BNED →
Industry order: ← BMRN the Pharmaceuticals chapter CATX →