← All companies ← ERO Manual ESLT → ← ECO Marine Shipping FLNG →

ESEA, EUROSEAS LTD.

Marine Shipping capital-intensive Cyclical

We calculate spot charter rates on contracts made in the spot market for the use of a vessel for a specific voyage to transport a specified agreed upon cargo at a specified freight rate per ton or occasionally a lump sum amount.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F · US listing is the ordinary share

ESEA · EUROSEAS LTD.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$228M

+7.0% YoY · 34% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $228M 5-yr avg $181M

Operating margin 65.6% 5-yr avg 58.4%

ROIC 23% 5-yr avg 25%

Owner-earnings margin 61%

Free cash flow margin 61%

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.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 17% through the cycle, a solid margin the cost base and competition set as much as the price does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −62% and 66% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Capital spending runs about 15% of sales, below what it charges for depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on debt terms & refinancing, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has run in the teens (median 14%, above 15% in 5 of 10 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.

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, 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
$21M	$24M	$34M	$40M	$53M	$94M	$183M	$189M	$213M	$228M	$228M	RevenueRevenue
($13M)	($5M)	$2M	$2M	$9M	$46M	$107M	$119M	$120M	$149M	$149M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−61.7%	−22.8%	6.8%	4.9%	17.4%	48.7%	58.4%	63.1%	56.4%	65.6%	65.6%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($34M)	($7M)	($663K)	($2M)	$4M	$43M	$106M	$115M	$113M	$137M	$137M	Net incomeNet inc.
											Cash flow & returns
($832K)	$8M	($1M)	$3M	$2M	$53M	$114M	$130M	$128M	$141M	$141M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$5M	$4M	$3M	$4M	$7M	$7M	$19M	$23M	$26M	$29M	$29M	DepreciationDeprec.
$28M	$11M	($4M)	$744K	($8M)	$2M	($11M)	($7M)	($11M)	($24M)	($24M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$3M	$30M	$2K	$56M	$647K	—	—	—	—	—	$3M	CapexCapex
15.0%	126.5%	0.0%	139.2%	1.2%	—	—	—	—	—	1.4%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($4M)	$4M	($1M)	($938K)	$2M	—	—	—	—	—	$138M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−19.1%	18.4%	−4.3%	−2.3%	3.3%	—	—	—	—	—	60.5%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($4M)	($22M)	($1M)	($52M)	$2M	—	—	—	—	—	$138M	Free cash flowFCF
−19.1%	−93.0%	−4.3%	−131.1%	3.3%	—	—	—	—	—	60.5%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	—	—	$0	$0	$11M	$14M	$17M	$19M	$19M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	—	—	—	$0	$0	$5M	$3M	$1M	$2M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
-10%	-5%	6%	2%	8%	21%	34%	28%	19%	23%	23%	ROICROIC
-63%	-15%	-17%	-8%	15%	56%	63%	43%	31%	30%	30%	Return on equityROE
—	—	—	—	15%	56%	57%	38%	26%	25%	25%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$3M	$3M	$7M	$985K	$4M	$27M	$26M	$59M	$74M	$176M	$176M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$1M	$885K	$959K	$715K	$2M	$1M	$573K	$2M	$5M	$10M	$10M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$1M	$1M	$2M	$2M	$2M	$2M	$2M	$3M	$3M	$3M	$3M	InventoryInvent.
—	$2M	$2M	$4M	$3M	$3M	$5M	$6M	—	—	$6M	Accounts payablePayables
$3M	$556K	$375K	($1M)	$821K	$745K	($2M)	($1M)	$8M	$13M	$7M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$10M	$16M	$12M	$6M	$10M	$33M	$47M	$66M	$85M	$192M	$192M	Current assetsCur. assets
$11M	$19M	$12M	$25M	$29M	$37M	$74M	$51M	$57M	$39M	$39M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.9×	0.9×	1.0×	0.3×	0.3×	0.9×	0.6×	1.3×	1.5×	4.9×	4.9×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$144M	$162M	$67M	$127M	$111M	$221M	$329M	$425M	$591M	$700M	$700M	Total assetsAssets
$50M	$34M	$37M	$84M	$67M	$118M	$107M	$130M	$205M	$217M	$217M	Total debtDebt
$47M	$31M	$30M	$83M	$63M	$92M	$81M	$71M	$132M	$40M	$40M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-10.3×	-3.9×	0.9×	0.6×	2.4×	17.9×	22.5×	20.1×	11.9×	10.3×	10.3×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$54M	$47M	$4M	$20M	$27M	$77M	$168M	$267M	$363M	$463M	$463M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
											Per share
1.4M	1.4M	0K	2.9M	5.8M	7.0M	7.2M	6.9M	7.0M	6.9M	7.1M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$15.10	$17.17	—	$13.98	$9.26	$13.43	$25.41	$27.30	$30.58	$32.80	$32.30	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-25.04	$-5.02	—	$-0.59	$0.70	$6.14	$14.78	$16.52	$16.20	$19.72	$19.41	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-2.88	$3.16	—	$-0.33	$0.31	—	—	—	—	—	$19.55	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-2.88	$-15.97	—	$-18.34	$0.31	—	—	—	—	—	$19.55	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
—	—	—	—	$0.00	$0.00	$1.50	$2.02	$2.42	$2.73	$2.69	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$2.27	$21.73	—	$19.47	$0.11	—	—	—	—	—	$0.45	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$39.76	$33.75	—	$7.15	$4.75	$10.99	$23.39	$38.43	$52.14	$66.71	$65.68	Book value / shareBVPS

Share counts before 2017 are restated ×1/6 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

The diluted share count moved ×2.07 into 2019 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×2.01 into 2020 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+9.0%/yr	+28.8%/yr
EPS	—	+94.8%/yr
Capital spending / share	−52.8%/yr (4-yr)	−52.8%/yr (4-yr)
Book value / share	+5.9%/yr	+69.6%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.

Share count

7Mpeak FY2022

ROIC

23%low FY2016

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$2Mowner earningsvs.$4Mnet incomelow FY2016

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2017FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2016–FY2020cash-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 2020 the business reported $4M of profit but $2M of owner earnings: $2M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$4M

Owner earnings$2M · 3% of revenue

	FY2020	FY2019	FY2018	FY2017	FY2016
Reported net income	$4M	($2M)	($663K)	($7M)	($34M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$7M	+$4M	+$3M	+$4M	+$5M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$8M	+$744K	−$4M	+$11M	+$28M
Cash from operations	$2M	$3M	($1M)	$8M	($832K)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$647K	−$4M	−$2K	−$4M	−$3M
Owner earnings	$2M	($938K)	($1M)	$4M	($4M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	−$52M	—	−$26M	—
Free cash flow	$2M	($52M)	($1M)	($22M)	($4M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	3%	-2%	-4%	18%	-19%

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 .

Much of fiscal 2020's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

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 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 10.3×

Comfortable

Operating income $149M ÷ interest expense $15M

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? $40M · 0.3× operating profit

Modest net debt

Cash $176M − debt $217M

What this means
Netting $176M of cash and short-term investments against $217M of debt leaves $40M owed, about 0.3× a year's operating profit (1.5× 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? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 8%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median, range -10%–34%; 23% latest = NOPAT $118M ÷ invested capital $504M

Industry peers: median 4%

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 23% 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 61%

Positive this year, negative across the cycle

latest $138M = operating cash $141M − maintenance capex $3M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (5-yr median -2%)

Industry peers: median 12%

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 61% of revenue this year, a -2% median across 5 years.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.03×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $141M ÷ net income $137M

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 $21M ÷ Owner Earnings $138M

What this means
Of $138M Owner Earnings, $21M (15%) went back to shareholders, $19M dividends, $2M 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? 0.11×

Harvesting

Capex $3M ÷ depreciation $29M

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 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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $228M

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 Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 4.89×

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 Near

Debt ≤ working capital · $217M vs $153M 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) · 4 loss years

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

Uninterrupted dividends · 4 of 10 yrs

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 $17.21/share (latest year $19.41), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $65.68/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 6 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 5 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 −26% → 62% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −26% early to 62% lately, median 17% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 28%

What this means
Every extra dollar the business reinvested came back at a high incremental return — the lens GBM read for a moat that reinvests rather than merely harvests. The record and the 10-K are where you check whether the rate holds.
Owner earnings growth +16%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 16% a year over the record.
Worst year 2016 · −61.7% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2016, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count −1.8%/yr

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

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

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.

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, 2025

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$192M

Cash & short-term investments$176M
Receivables$10M
Inventory$3M
Other current assets$3M

Current liabilities$39M

Debt due within a year$19M
Accounts payable$6M
Other current liabilities$14M

Current ratio4.89×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio4.82×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio4.48×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$153Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$19M due · $176M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$463Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($45M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$217Mno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone

Deferred revenue$5Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2020

Over the record, the business generated $11M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$90M · 792%

Source of funding−$78M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $78M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $50M to $217M.
Net change in share count418.5%
The diluted count rose from 1M to 7M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$0.00/sh
Paid no dividend over the span; it returns cash through buybacks or retains it.

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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why EUROSEAS LTD. 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.

2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?418.5%
Diluted shares grew 418.5% over 2016–2020. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$50M → $217M
Debt rose from $50M to $217M while owner earnings went from about ($339K) to ($218K): the borrowing grew and the earnings that would carry it are not there now. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.

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.

Peers, Marine Shipping

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
KEXKirby	$3.4B	—	7.7%	4%	10%
MATXMatson	$3.3B	96%	11.4%	11%	12%
TDWTidewater Inc.	$1.4B	—	-12.5%	-6%	3%
INSWInternational Seaways Inc. Common Stock	$843M	—	12.3%	3%	33%
PANLPangaea Logistics Solutions Ltd.	$632M	—	7.7%	10%	10%
LPGDorian LPG Ltd.	$482M	—	35.2%	7%	38%
GNKGenco Shipping & Trading Limited	$342M	—	-1.1%	-0%	31%
ESEAEUROSEAS LTD.	$228M	—	33.1%	14%	-2%
Group median	—	—	9.6%	5%	11%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. EUROSEAS LTD.'s US listing is the ordinary share itself. 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 EUROSEAS LTD. has delivered.

EUROSEAS LTD.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, EUROSEAS LTD. earns about $1M on its 0.5% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 60.5% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1M) Net of stock comp

—

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, delivered—

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 $138M on 7M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net debt $40M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. 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 ESEA against another business →

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

Manual order: ← ERO its page in the Manual ESLT →

Industry order: ← ECO the Marine Shipping chapter FLNG →