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BUD, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV
We use different distribution networks in the markets in which we operate, as appropriate, based on the structure of the local retail sectors, local geographic considerations, scale considerations, regulatory requirements, market share and the expected added-value and capital returns.
Strong, well-recognized brands that attract and retain consumers, for which consumers are willing to pay a premium, are critical to our efforts to maintain and increase market share and benefit from high margins.
Principal Activities and Products" for further information regarding our brands.
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 it is
- Revenue is Beer Business (89%) and Non Beer Business (11%).
- What moves the needle
- Gross margin has run about 57% and operating margin about 26% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −287 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on supplier & input dependence, 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.
Where the money comes from
read the 20-F →Beer Business is 89% of revenue, with Non Beer Business the other meaningful segment at 11%.
- Beer Business89%$53.0B
- Non Beer Business11%$6.3B
From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. 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 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $45.5B | $54.9B | $53.0B | $52.3B | $46.9B | $54.3B | $57.8B | $59.4B | $59.8B | $59.3B | $59.3B | RevenueRevenue |
| 61% | 62% | 62% | 61% | 58% | 57% | 54% | 54% | 55% | 56% | 56% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| $12.9B | $16.5B | $16.4B | $16.1B | $9.6B | $13.8B | $14.5B | $14.0B | $15.5B | $15.4B | $15.4B | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 28.3% | 30.0% | 30.9% | 30.8% | 20.5% | 25.5% | 25.1% | 23.5% | 25.9% | 26.0% | 26.0% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $1.2B | $8.0B | $4.4B | $9.2B | $1.4B | $4.7B | $6.0B | $5.3B | $5.9B | $6.8B | $6.8B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 57% | 17% | 37% | 23% | 58% | 33% | 24% | 29% | 35% | 29% | 29% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $10.1B | $14.9B | $15.1B | $14.0B | $10.9B | $14.8B | $13.3B | $13.3B | $15.1B | $14.9B | $14.9B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $3.5B | $4.6B | $4.6B | $4.7B | $4.8B | $5.1B | $5.1B | $5.4B | $5.5B | $5.7B | $5.7B | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $5.4B | $2.3B | $6.1B | $208M | $4.7B | $5.1B | $2.3B | $2.5B | $3.7B | $2.4B | $2.4B | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $5.0B | $4.7B | $5.0B | $5.2B | $3.8B | $5.6B | $5.2B | $4.6B | $3.9B | $3.7B | $3.7B | CapexCapex |
| 10.9% | 8.5% | 9.4% | 9.9% | 8.1% | 10.4% | 8.9% | 7.8% | 6.5% | 6.2% | 6.2% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $6.6B | $10.2B | $10.1B | $8.9B | $7.1B | $9.2B | $8.1B | $8.6B | $11.2B | $11.2B | $11.2B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 14.6% | 18.7% | 19.0% | 16.9% | 15.2% | 16.9% | 14.1% | 14.5% | 18.7% | 18.9% | 18.9% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $5.1B | $10.2B | $10.1B | $8.9B | $7.1B | $9.2B | $8.1B | $8.6B | $11.2B | $11.2B | $11.2B | Free cash flowFCF |
| 11.3% | 18.7% | 19.0% | 16.9% | 15.2% | 16.9% | 14.1% | 14.5% | 18.7% | 18.9% | 18.9% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $8.4B | $9.3B | $7.8B | $5.0B | $1.8B | $2.4B | $2.4B | $3.0B | $2.7B | $4.5B | $4.5B | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| — | — | — | — | — | $0 | $0 | $362M | $937M | $2.3B | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| 2% | 11% | 7% | 12% | 2% | 7% | 8% | 7% | 7% | 8% | 8% | Return on equityROE |
| −10% | −2% | −5% | 5% | −1% | 3% | 5% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 3% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $8.6B | $10.5B | $7.1B | $7.2B | $15.3B | $12.1B | $10.0B | $10.3B | $11.2B | $11.6B | $11.6B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $6.4B | $6.6B | $6.4B | $6.2B | $4.8B | $5.0B | $5.3B | $6.0B | $5.3B | $6.2B | $6.2B | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $3.9B | $4.1B | $4.2B | $4.4B | $4.5B | $5.4B | $6.6B | $5.6B | $5.0B | $5.1B | $5.1B | InventoryInvent. |
| $23.1B | $24.8B | $22.6B | $22.9B | $23.0B | $25.4B | $26.3B | $26.0B | $23.8B | $25.5B | $25.5B | Accounts payablePayables |
| ($12.8B) | ($14.1B) | ($12.0B) | ($12.3B) | ($13.7B) | ($15.0B) | ($14.4B) | ($14.4B) | ($13.5B) | ($14.2B) | ($14.2B) | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $43.0B | $24.0B | $18.3B | $28.8B | $26.5B | $23.9B | $23.2B | $23.4B | $23.0B | $24.8B | $24.8B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $40.4B | $36.6B | $34.8B | $34.8B | $32.4B | $34.2B | $34.4B | $37.2B | $33.1B | $34.5B | $34.5B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.1× | 0.7× | 0.5× | 0.8× | 0.8× | 0.7× | 0.7× | 0.6× | 0.7× | 0.7× | 0.7× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $136.5B | $140.9B | $133.3B | $128.1B | $121.0B | $115.8B | $113.0B | $117.0B | $110.5B | $117.9B | $117.9B | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $256.6B | $248.2B | $233.9B | $236.6B | $226.4B | $217.6B | $212.9B | $219.3B | $206.6B | $218.8B | $218.8B | Total assetsAssets |
| 1.4× | 2.3× | 1.8× | 2.7× | 1.1× | 2.3× | 2.5× | 2.3× | 2.4× | 3.0× | 3.0× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $71.3B | $72.6B | $64.5B | $75.7B | $68.0B | $68.7B | $73.4B | $81.8B | $78.2B | $87.3B | $87.3B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | 2.02B | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $22.54 | $27.17 | $26.27 | $25.92 | $23.22 | $26.90 | $28.62 | $29.41 | $29.60 | $29.38 | $29.38 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.61 | $3.96 | $2.16 | $4.54 | $0.70 | $2.31 | $2.96 | $2.65 | $2.90 | $3.39 | $3.39 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $3.29 | $5.07 | $4.98 | $4.39 | $3.52 | $4.54 | $4.03 | $4.27 | $5.54 | $5.56 | $5.56 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $2.54 | $5.07 | $4.98 | $4.39 | $3.52 | $4.54 | $4.03 | $4.27 | $5.54 | $5.56 | $5.56 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $4.19 | $4.59 | $3.84 | $2.48 | $0.89 | $1.17 | $1.21 | $1.49 | $1.32 | $2.25 | $2.25 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $2.47 | $2.32 | $2.48 | $2.56 | $1.87 | $2.79 | $2.56 | $2.30 | $1.91 | $1.81 | $1.81 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $35.33 | $35.95 | $31.94 | $37.50 | $33.69 | $34.01 | $36.35 | $40.54 | $38.75 | $43.23 | $43.23 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +3.0%/yr | +4.8%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +6.0%/yr | +9.6%/yr |
| EPS | +20.9%/yr | +37.2%/yr |
| Dividends / share | −6.7%/yr | +20.3%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −3.4%/yr | −0.7%/yr |
| Book value / share | +2.3%/yr | +5.1%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each 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 turned $6.8B of profit into $11.2B 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 | $6.8B | $5.9B | $5.3B | $6.0B | $4.7B |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$5.7B | +$5.5B | +$5.4B | +$5.1B | +$5.1B |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$2.4B | +$3.7B | +$2.5B | +$2.3B | +$5.1B |
| Cash from operations | $14.9B | $15.1B | $13.3B | $13.3B | $14.8B |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$3.7B | −$3.9B | −$4.6B | −$5.2B | −$5.6B |
| Owner earnings | $11.2B | $11.2B | $8.6B | $8.1B | $9.2B |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 19% | 19% | 15% | 14% | 17% |
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 .
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?
- AdequateOperating income $15.4B ÷ interest expense $5.1B
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.
- Debt under-captured — leverage unknown, not low
What this means
This company pays far more interest than its tagged debt implies (the rest sits under segment dimensions the data source strips), so its net cash or net debt cannot be read honestly: the gap is unknown, not zero, and 'net cash' here would be exactly the fiction the figure is meant to prevent. Judge it on the record and owner earnings instead.
- Negative, funded by othersDSO 38 + DIO 71 − DPO 355 days
What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.
Is it a good business?
- Debt under-capturedIndustry peers: median 10%
What this means
This company's interest bill implies far more debt than its filings tag at the consolidated level (the rest sits under segment dimensions the data source strips), so invested capital, and the return on it, cannot be read honestly. Judge this one on Owner Earnings and the record instead.
- High through the cycle10-yr median margin, range 14%–19%; latest $11.2B = operating cash $14.9B − maintenance capex $3.7BIndustry peers: median 9%
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 19% of revenue this year, a 17% median across 10 years.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $14.9B ÷ net income $6.8B
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?
- Returns about halfDividends + buybacks $6.8B ÷ Owner Earnings $11.2B
What this means
Of $11.2B Owner Earnings, $6.8B (61%) went back to shareholders, $4.5B dividends, $2.3B 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? 0.65×HarvestingCapex $3.7B ÷ depreciation $5.7B
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 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 PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $59.3B
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× · 0.72×
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 —Debt ≤ working capital · —
What this means
The filings tag only a fraction of the debt this company's interest bill implies (much of it sits under segment dimensions the data source strips), so this test can't be run honestly.
- Earnings stability PassA profit every year (10-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 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 NearEarnings +33% over the record · +33%
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 $3.34/share (latest year $3.80), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $48.57/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 10 of 10
What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
- Operating margin 30% → 25% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 30% early to 25% lately, median 26% — competition or costs are biting in.
- Owner earnings growth +3%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 3% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2020 · 20.5% op. margin
What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
- Share count +0.0%/yr
What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
- Dividend record paid
What this means
Paid a dividend in 10 of the years on record.
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.
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 fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025Can 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$11.6B
- Receivables$6.2B
- Inventory$5.1B
- Other current assets$1.9B
- Debt due within a year$5.4B
- Accounts payable$25.5B
- Other current liabilities$3.6B
Its current ratio is below 1, which usually reads as strain; here it is likely structural strength. This business collects from customers before it pays suppliers (a negative cash-conversion cycle), so the balance sheet is funded by that float, the way Costco's and Amazon's are. The low ratio can be the edge, not the risk; the cash-conversion cycle and the debt due above say which.
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2016–2025
Over the record, the business generated $136.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.
- Reinvested$46.6B · 34%
- Dividends$47.3B · 35%
- Buybacks$3.6B · 3%
- Retained (debt / cash)$38.8B · 28%
- Returned to owners$50.9B
56% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $47.3B as dividends and $3.6B as buybacks.
- Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $3.6B over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
- Net change in share count0.0%
The diluted count barely moved (2019M to 2019M): buybacks roughly offset the stock issued to staff.
- Dividend record$2.25/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 retained—
Not read here: owner earnings are negative over the span, or the company returned nearly all its earnings rather than retaining them, so there is too little retained to measure a return on.
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.
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.
Inverting the record
Invert: instead of why Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV 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.
None of the 4 tests turned up a mark; each came back clean. A clean panel says only that these particular ways of being wrong are not written into the record.
- Is it less profitable than it was?
- Did the share count rise anyway?
- 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.
Peers, Brewers, Distillers & Wineries
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PEPPepsiCo Inc. | $93.9B | 55% | 14.2% | 18% | 11% |
| ADMArcher-Daniels-Midland Company | $80.3B | 7% | 3.5% | 8% | -2% |
| BGBunge Limited | $70.3B | 6% | 3.7% | 14% | -1% |
| BUDAnheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV | $59.3B | 58% | 25.9% | — | 17% |
| TSNTyson Foods Inc. | $54.4B | 12% | 7.2% | 10% | 4% |
| KOCoca-Cola Co. | $47.9B | 61% | 26.0% | 16% | 21% |
| MDLZMondelez International Inc. | $38.5B | 39% | 13.9% | 7% | 10% |
| TAPMolson Coors | $13.0B | 50% | 11.0% | 6% | 9% |
| Group median | — | 44% | 12.5% | — | 10% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American Depositary Shares, each representing one ordinary”; Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV reports in USD, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.
Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV has delivered.
Through the cycle, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV earns about $10.0B on its 16.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 18.9% margin runs in line with that. 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 $11.2B on 1797M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net cash $6.2B. The if-converted diluted count is 2019M, 12% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. 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: ← BTI its page in the Manual BULL →
Industry order: ← BF-B the Brewers, Distillers & Wineries chapter CCU →