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DDL, Dingdong (Cayman) Limited
A retailer, earning thin margins on high volume, where inventory turns, unit economics and scale decide the outcome.
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 around −3.3% through the cycle, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. 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, 2019–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||
| CN¥3.9B | CN¥11.3B | CN¥20.1B | CN¥24.2B | CN¥20.0B | CN¥23.1B | CN¥24.4B | CN¥24.4B | RevenueRevenue |
| (CN¥1.7B) | (CN¥3.2B) | (CN¥6.4B) | (CN¥800M) | (CN¥130M) | CN¥215M | CN¥132M | CN¥132M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −44.9% | −27.9% | −31.7% | −3.3% | −0.7% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 0.5% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| (CN¥1.9B) | (CN¥3.2B) | (CN¥6.4B) | (CN¥807M) | (CN¥91M) | CN¥304M | CN¥232M | CN¥232M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | — | — | — | — | 5% | 4% | 4% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||||||
| (CN¥964M) | (CN¥2.1B) | (CN¥5.7B) | CN¥87M | (CN¥235M) | CN¥929M | CN¥536M | CN¥536M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| CN¥35M | CN¥115M | CN¥213M | CN¥204M | CN¥155M | CN¥115M | CN¥98M | CN¥98M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| CN¥874M | CN¥1.0B | CN¥549M | CN¥690M | (CN¥298M) | CN¥510M | CN¥206M | CN¥206M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| CN¥125M | CN¥248M | CN¥452M | CN¥127M | CN¥83M | CN¥98M | CN¥178M | CN¥178M | CapexCapex |
| 3.2% | 2.2% | 2.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.7% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| (CN¥999M) | (CN¥2.2B) | (CN¥5.9B) | (CN¥40M) | (CN¥318M) | CN¥831M | CN¥438M | CN¥438M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −25.7% | −19.2% | −29.2% | −0.2% | −1.6% | 3.6% | 1.8% | 1.8% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥2.3B) | (CN¥6.1B) | (CN¥40M) | (CN¥318M) | CN¥831M | CN¥358M | CN¥358M | Free cash flowFCF |
| −28.1% | −20.3% | −30.4% | −0.2% | −1.6% | 3.6% | 1.5% | 1.5% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | — | -883% | -260% | -24% | 38% | 22% | 22% | Return on equityROE |
| — | — | −883% | −260% | −24% | 38% | 22% | 22% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||||||
| CN¥939M | CN¥2.4B | CN¥5.2B | CN¥6.5B | CN¥5.3B | CN¥4.4B | CN¥4.0B | CN¥4.0B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | CN¥39M | CN¥192M | CN¥141M | CN¥108M | CN¥126M | CN¥192M | CN¥192M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | CN¥386M | CN¥537M | CN¥605M | CN¥472M | CN¥554M | CN¥570M | CN¥570M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | CN¥1.6B | CN¥2.1B | CN¥1.9B | CN¥1.4B | CN¥1.7B | CN¥1.9B | CN¥1.9B | Accounts payablePayables |
| — | (CN¥1.2B) | (CN¥1.3B) | (CN¥1.1B) | (CN¥842M) | (CN¥981M) | (CN¥1.2B) | (CN¥1.2B) | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | CN¥3.0B | CN¥6.5B | CN¥7.5B | CN¥6.2B | CN¥5.4B | CN¥5.0B | CN¥5.0B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | CN¥4.7B | CN¥7.3B | CN¥8.2B | CN¥6.5B | CN¥5.3B | CN¥4.8B | CN¥4.8B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 0.6× | 0.9× | 0.9× | 0.9× | 1.0× | 1.1× | 1.1× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | CN¥4.9B | CN¥9.4B | CN¥9.4B | CN¥7.7B | CN¥7.1B | CN¥7.0B | CN¥7.0B | Total assetsAssets |
| — | CN¥145M | CN¥58M | CN¥0 | — | — | — | CN¥0 | Total debtDebt |
| — | (CN¥2.2B) | (CN¥5.2B) | (CN¥6.5B) | — | — | — | (CN¥4.0B) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| -30.0× | -81.5× | -74.8× | -6.0× | -1.3× | 4.5× | 7.8× | 7.8× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| (CN¥2.5B) | (CN¥5.9B) | CN¥728M | CN¥310M | CN¥383M | CN¥799M | CN¥1.0B | CN¥1.0B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | ||||||||
| 61.4M | 63.7M | — | — | — | — | — | 63.7M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| CN¥63.15 | CN¥177.98 | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥382.48 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| CN¥-30.49 | CN¥-49.88 | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥3.64 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| CN¥-16.26 | CN¥-34.09 | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥6.88 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| CN¥-17.72 | CN¥-36.18 | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥5.62 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| CN¥2.03 | CN¥3.90 | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥2.79 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| CN¥-40.52 | CN¥-92.94 | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥16.34 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 6-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +181.9%/yr (1-yr) | +181.9%/yr (1-yr) |
| Capital spending / share | +92.1%/yr (1-yr) | +92.1%/yr (1-yr) |
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 CN¥438M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the CN¥98M it takes just to hold its position. It put CN¥80M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was CN¥358M.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | CN¥232M | CN¥304M | (CN¥91M) | (CN¥807M) | (CN¥6.4B) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +CN¥98M | +CN¥115M | +CN¥155M | +CN¥204M | +CN¥213M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +CN¥206M | +CN¥510M | −CN¥298M | +CN¥690M | +CN¥549M |
| Cash from operations | CN¥536M | CN¥929M | (CN¥235M) | CN¥87M | (CN¥5.7B) |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −CN¥98M | −CN¥98M | −CN¥83M | −CN¥127M | −CN¥213M |
| Owner earnings | CN¥438M | CN¥831M | (CN¥318M) | (CN¥40M) | (CN¥5.9B) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | −CN¥80M | — | — | — | −CN¥239M |
| Free cash flow | CN¥358M | CN¥831M | (CN¥318M) | (CN¥40M) | (CN¥6.1B) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 2% | 4% | -2% | 0% | -29% |
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 CN¥98M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other CN¥80M 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.
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?
- ComfortableOperating income CN¥132M ÷ interest expense CN¥17M
What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +CN¥4.0BNet cash, debt-freeCash CN¥1.1B + ST investments CN¥2.9B − debt CN¥0
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by CN¥4.0B, 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?
- Not meaningful hereInvested capital (CN¥66M) = debt CN¥0 + equity CN¥1.0B − cashIndustry peers: median 23%
What this means
Invested capital is near zero or negative, usually years of buybacks pulling equity down. ROIC explodes or flips sign and stops meaning anything. Judge this one on Owner Earnings instead.
- Positive this year, negative across the cyclelatest CN¥438M = operating cash CN¥536M − maintenance capex CN¥98M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (7-yr median -2%)Industry peers: median 2%
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 2% of revenue this year, a -2% median across 7 years.
- Cash-backedCash from ops CN¥536M ÷ net income CN¥232M
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?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 1.82×ExpandingCapex CN¥178M ÷ depreciation CN¥98M
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 · 1 of 4 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 —Revenue ≥ $2B (a dollar floor) · CN¥24.4B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's floor is a dollar figure — about $2B of revenue as a conservative modern stand-in. This company reports in its home currency and we carry no exchange rate, so we show the figure and leave the size bar for you to apply rather than convert it with a number we don't have.
- Strong liquidity MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.05×
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 PassDebt ≤ working capital · CN¥0 vs CN¥246M 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 (7-yr record) · 5 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record MissUninterrupted dividends · none paid
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
- Earnings growth —Earnings +33% over the record · —
What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
- 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 CN¥2.33/share (latest year CN¥3.64), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥16.34/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, 2019–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 2 of 7
What this means
Lost money in 5 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin −35% → 0% (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 widened — about −35% early to 0% lately, median −3% — pricing power intact or improving.
- 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.
- Worst year 2019 · −44.9% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2019, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +0.6%/yr
What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
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.
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.
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 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 investmentsCN¥4.0B
- ReceivablesCN¥192M
- InventoryCN¥570M
- Other current assetsCN¥301M
- Accounts payableCN¥1.9B
- Other current liabilitiesCN¥2.9B
From the company's latest filing.
Peers, E-Commerce & Marketplaces
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPNGCoupang Inc. | $34.5B | 23% | -0.5% | — | 2% |
| DDLDingdong (Cayman) Limited | CN¥24.4B | — | -3.3% | — | -2% |
| CDWCDW Corp. | $22.4B | 17% | 6.6% | 17% | 5% |
| DKSDick's Sporting Goods | $17.2B | 32% | 7.1% | 28% | 6% |
| CHWYChewy Inc. | $12.6B | 27% | -0.8% | — | 2% |
| WWayfair | $12.5B | 28% | -5.4% | — | 1% |
| ULTAUlta Beauty Inc. | $12.4B | 38% | 13.4% | 48% | 10% |
| NSITInsight Enterprises | $8.2B | 15% | 3.4% | 13% | 2% |
| Group median | — | — | 1.4% | — | 2% |
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 two of which represent three Class”; Dingdong (Cayman) Limited reports in CNY, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS and translated at CNY 1 = $0.147 (2026-07-17, reference rate) so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed, in CNY.
Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Dingdong (Cayman) Limited has delivered.
—
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.
Free cash flow $53M on 42M diluted shares; net cash $586M. 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. Capex ($26M) runs well above depreciation ($14M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $65M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← DDI its page in the Manual DEFT →
Industry order: ← CPNG the E-Commerce & Marketplaces chapter GCT →