← All companies ← BRC Manual BRCC → ← BLMN Restaurants BROS →
BRCB, Black Rock Coffee Bar Inc.
Black Rock is a platform to do well by our baristas, guests, and the communities we serve.
To Fuel People Forward One Connection, One Moment, One Cup at a Time We are a high-growth operator of guest-centric, drive-thru coffee bars offering premium caffeinated beverages and an elevated in-store experience crafted by our engaging baristas.
Our modern, inviting store formats—paired with a robust digital platform—allow us to deliver a dynamic and multi-faceted guest experience.
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
- Operating margin has run about 1.5% through the cycle, a thin margin, where volume, cost discipline and the price it gets all bear on the result. The operating margin has swung widely — from 0.4% to 3.7% over the years — so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year, and the worst year more than the best. Capital spending runs about 14% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. Read this kind of business on same-store sales and unit economics. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
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, 2023–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||
| $133M | $161M | $200M | $211M | RevenueRevenue |
| 15% | 16% | 21% | 21% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| $2M | $6M | $901K | $1M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 1.5% | 3.7% | 0.4% | 0.6% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($9M) | ($7M) | ($60K) | $318K | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||
| $5M | $13M | $2M | $6M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $9M | $10M | $12M | $13M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $5M | $10M | ($12M) | ($11M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $16M | $22M | $35M | $45M | CapexCapex |
| 12.1% | 13.8% | 17.4% | 21.1% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| ($3M) | $3M | ($10M) | ($7M) | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −2.5% | 1.8% | −5.0% | −3.4% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| ($11M) | ($9M) | ($33M) | ($39M) | Free cash flowFCF |
| −8.3% | −5.5% | −16.3% | −18.5% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | — | 1% | 1% | ROICROIC |
| — | — | -0% | 1% | Return on equityROE |
| — | — | −0% | 1% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||
| $17M | $10M | $28M | $20M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $4M | $3M | $3M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | $2M | $3M | $3M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | $7M | $12M | $11M | Accounts payablePayables |
| — | ($262K) | ($6M) | ($6M) | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | $19M | $40M | $30M | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | $33M | $39M | $35M | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 0.6× | 1.0× | 0.9× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | $9M | $9M | $9M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| — | $213M | $336M | $347M | Total assetsAssets |
| — | $90M | $27M | $27M | Total debtDebt |
| — | $80M | ($2M) | $7M | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| — | ($258M) | $46M | $47M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 0.0% | 0.0% | 1.0% | 1.5% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| Per share | ||||
| — | — | 17.0M | 17.6M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| — | — | $11.77 | $12.01 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| — | — | $-0.00 | $0.02 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| — | — | $-0.59 | $-0.41 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| — | — | $-1.92 | $-2.22 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| — | — | $2.05 | $2.54 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| — | — | $2.68 | $2.69 | Book value / shareBVPS |
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 earned ($10M) of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $12M it takes just to hold its position. It put $23M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($33M).
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | ($60K) | ($7M) | ($9M) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$12M | +$10M | +$9M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$2M | — | — |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$12M | +$10M | +$5M |
| Cash from operations | $2M | $13M | $5M |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$12M | −$10M | −$9M |
| Owner earnings | ($10M) | $3M | ($3M) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | −$23M | −$12M | −$8M |
| Free cash flow | ($33M) | ($9M) | ($11M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | -5% | 2% | -3% |
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 $12M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $23M 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 $2M), owner earnings is nearer ($12M).
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
“For example, in connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2024, our management and auditors determined that material weaknesses existed in the internal control over financial reporting as described in…”
The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →
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 cashCash $28M − debt $27M
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $2M, 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.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- Below averageNOPAT $451K ÷ invested capital $44M (debt + equity − cash)Industry peers: median 1%
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. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- Consumes cash through the cycle3-yr median margin, range -5%–2%; latest ($10M) = operating cash $2M − maintenance capex $12MIndustry peers: median 6%
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 -5% of revenue this year, a -3% median across 3 years. It chose to put $23M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($33M) — the gap is investment, not weakness. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $2M of SBC) leaves ($12M).
- Loss, but cash-generativeNet income ($60K) · cash from operations $2M
In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.
How is the cash used?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 2.86×ExpandingCapex $35M ÷ depreciation $12M
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 · 0 of 3 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 · $200M
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× · 1.04×
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 · $27M vs $2M 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.
- 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 $-0.31/share (latest year $-0.00), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $2.60/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.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Moderate contestabilityAI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.
Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.
“Some of our competitors also have substantially greater financial and other resources to devote to innovation in products, technology, and market and consumer data analytics, including integration, use, or offering of new technologies, including artificial intelligence ("AI").”
The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.
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$20M
- Receivables$3M
- Inventory$3M
- Other current assets$5M
- Debt due within a year$977K
- Accounts payable$11M
- Other current liabilities$23M
From the company's latest filing.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.
- Insider ownership1.7%
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$2M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 231% 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.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Income taxes, Stock compensation 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, Restaurants
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PTLOPortillo's Inc. | $732M | — | 8.2% | 7% | 6% |
| SGSweetgreen Inc. | $679M | — | -30.2% | -43% | -16% |
| LOCOEl Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. | $490M | — | 8.5% | 8% | 6% |
| CNNECannae Holdings Inc. | $424M | 15% | -19.4% | -5% | -14% |
| BHBiglari Holdings Inc. | $395M | 57% | 5.8% | 3% | 16% |
| KRUSKura Sushi USA Inc. | $283M | — | -1.1% | -2% | 5% |
| BRCBBlack Rock Coffee Bar Inc. | $200M | — | 1.5% | 1% | -3% |
| NATHNathan's Famous Inc. | $162M | 43% | 26.2% | — | 14% |
| Group median | — | — | 3.7% | 1% | 5% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFBlack Rock Coffee Bar Inc. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.
Enter a price 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.
Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.
Manual order: ← BRC its page in the Manual BRCC →
Industry order: ← BLMN the Restaurants chapter BROS →