Share count
1.3Bpeak FY2025
← All companies ← ICG Manual ICLR → ← CTVA Agricultural Inputs MOS →
ICL, ICL Group Ltd.
Revenue is led by Phosphate Solutions (33%) and Growing Solutions (29%), with 3 more segments behind.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$7.2B
+4.6% YoY · 7% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $7.2B 5-yr avg $7.7B
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
- A chemicals business, converting feedstocks into products at a spread the cycle moves.
- 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
- Gross margin has run about 33% and operating margin about 12% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −0.1% and 35% 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. Inventory runs near 23% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. Read this kind of business on the spread and utilization. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 8%). 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.
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 →Revenue spreads across 6 segments, the largest Phosphate Solutions at 33%.
Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
- Phosphate Solutions33%$2.3B
- Growing Solutions29%$2.1B
- Potash24%$1.7B
- Industrial Products18%$1.3B
- Other3%$183M
- Reconciliation-6%($394M)
By geographyEurope31%Asia25%South America20%North America19%Other6%
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 | |||||||||||
| $5.4B | $5.4B | $5.6B | $5.3B | $5.0B | $7.0B | $10.0B | $7.5B | $6.8B | $7.2B | $7.2B | RevenueRevenue |
| 31% | 31% | 33% | 34% | 30% | 38% | 50% | 35% | 33% | 31% | 31% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| ($3M) | $629M | $1.5B | $756M | $202M | $1.2B | $3.5B | $1.1B | $775M | $580M | $580M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −0.1% | 11.6% | 27.3% | 14.3% | 4.0% | 17.4% | 35.1% | 15.1% | 11.3% | 8.1% | 8.1% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($122M) | $364M | $1.2B | $475M | $11M | $783M | $2.2B | $647M | $407M | $226M | $226M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| — | 30% | 9% | 24% | — | 25% | 35% | 31% | 30% | 42% | 42% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $966M | $847M | $620M | $992M | $804M | $1.1B | $2.1B | $1.7B | $1.5B | $1.1B | $1.1B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $406M | $418M | $420M | $433M | $579M | $484M | $498M | $536M | $610M | $726M | $726M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $682M | $65M | ($1.0B) | $84M | $214M | ($202M) | ($526M) | $527M | $451M | $104M | $104M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $162M | $237M | $241M | $273M | $118M | $276M | $1.2B | $474M | $251M | $224M | $224M | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| -0% | 7% | 23% | 9% | 2% | 13% | 29% | 10% | 7% | 4% | 4% | ROICROIC |
| -5% | 13% | 33% | 12% | 0% | 17% | 40% | 11% | 7% | 4% | 4% | Return on equityROE |
| −11% | 4% | 26% | 5% | −3% | 11% | 18% | 3% | 3% | 0% | 0% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $87M | $83M | $121M | $95M | $214M | $473M | $417M | $420M | $327M | $291M | $291M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $966M | $932M | $990M | $778M | $883M | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.4B | $1.3B | $1.4B | $1.4B | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $1.3B | $1.2B | $1.3B | $1.3B | $1.3B | $1.6B | $2.1B | $1.7B | $1.6B | $1.9B | $1.9B | InventoryInvent. |
| $644M | $790M | $715M | $712M | $740M | $1.1B | $1.0B | $912M | $1.0B | $1.2B | $1.2B | Accounts payablePayables |
| $1.6B | $1.4B | $1.6B | $1.4B | $1.4B | $1.9B | $2.7B | $2.2B | $1.9B | $2.1B | $2.1B | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $2.6B | $2.7B | $2.8B | $2.7B | $2.8B | $3.9B | $4.5B | $4.0B | $3.6B | $4.2B | $4.2B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $2.0B | $2.3B | $2.0B | $1.8B | $2.2B | $2.6B | $2.6B | $2.6B | $2.3B | $3.1B | $3.1B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.3× | 1.2× | 1.4× | 1.5× | 1.3× | 1.5× | 1.7× | 1.5× | 1.5× | 1.3× | 1.3× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $8.6B | $8.7B | $8.8B | $9.2B | $9.7B | $11.1B | $11.8B | $11.6B | $11.3B | $12.4B | $12.4B | Total assetsAssets |
| $3.4B | $3.2B | $2.4B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $3.0B | $2.8B | $2.7B | $2.3B | $2.8B | $2.8B | Total debtDebt |
| $3.3B | $3.1B | $2.3B | $2.5B | $2.5B | $2.5B | $2.4B | $2.3B | $2.0B | $2.5B | $2.5B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| -0.0× | 2.7× | 7.1× | 3.4× | 0.9× | 5.6× | 10.8× | 4.4× | 4.3× | 1.9× | 1.9× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $2.6B | $2.9B | $3.8B | $3.9B | $3.9B | $4.5B | $5.5B | $5.8B | $5.7B | $6.0B | $6.0B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 1.27B | 1.28B | 1.28B | 1.28B | 1.28B | 1.28B | 1.29B | 1.29B | 1.29B | 1.29B | 1.29B | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $4.21 | $4.25 | $4.35 | $4.12 | $3.94 | $5.42 | $7.78 | $5.84 | $5.30 | $5.54 | $5.54 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $-0.10 | $0.29 | $0.97 | $0.37 | $0.01 | $0.61 | $1.68 | $0.50 | $0.32 | $0.18 | $0.18 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $0.13 | $0.19 | $0.19 | $0.21 | $0.09 | $0.22 | $0.91 | $0.37 | $0.19 | $0.17 | $0.17 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $2.02 | $2.24 | $2.96 | $3.07 | $3.07 | $3.53 | $4.24 | $4.47 | $4.44 | $4.64 | $4.64 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +3.1%/yr | +7.1%/yr |
| EPS | — | +82.7%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +3.5%/yr | +13.5%/yr |
| Book value / share | +9.7%/yr | +8.6%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
4%low FY2016
Gross margin
31%low FY2020
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
FY2016FY2025
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →
Will it survive?
- ThinOperating income $580M ÷ interest expense $298M
What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $2.5B · 4.3× operating profitHeavy net debtCash $291M − debt $2.8B
What this means
Netting $291M of cash and short-term investments against $2.8B of debt leaves $2.5B owed, about 4.3× 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.
- Long (60+ days)DSO 70 + DIO 142 − DPO 85 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?
- Below average through the cycle10-yr median, range -0%–29%; 4% latest = NOPAT $339M ÷ invested capital $8.4BIndustry peers: median 9%
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 4% 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.
- Not enough dataIndustry peers: median 7%
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $1.1B ÷ net income $226M
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? —Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
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 · $7.2B
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× · 1.33×
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 · $2.8B vs $1.0B 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 NearA profit every year (10-yr record) · 1 loss year
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 · −14%
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 $0.33/share (latest year $0.18), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $4.64/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 9 of 10
What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 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 13% → 12% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The filing claims pricing power in its strongest form — price raised, volume held — yet the margin here has not widened to match. The claim leads the record; weigh them together.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 13% early, 12% lately, median 12%.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC −2%
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.
- Worst year 2016 · −0.1% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2016, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +0.1%/yr
What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
- Dividend record rising
What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.
- How management talks about it Promotional
What this means
Results have held roughly flat while the filing leans on a promoter’s vocabulary — watch whether the words are doing work the numbers are not.
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 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.
Current assets$4.2B
- Cash & short-term investments$291M
- Receivables$1.4B
- Inventory$1.9B
- Other current assets$574M
Current liabilities$3.1B
- Debt due within a year$876M
- Accounts payable$1.2B
- Other current liabilities$1.1B
Current ratio1.33×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.71×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.09×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$1.0Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$876M due · $291M cash
cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$6.0Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($2.0B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$2.8Bno operating-lease liability tagged this quarter, so debt alone
From the company's latest filing.
Inverting the record
Invert: instead of why ICL Group 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.
1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.
- Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?11.5% vs 13.0%
The operating margin averaged 13.0% early in the record and 11.5% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.
And these came back clean
- 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, Agricultural Inputs
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOSMosaic Company (The) | $12.1B | 16% | 8.2% | 6% | 7% |
| EMNEastman Chemical | $8.8B | 24% | 10.8% | 9% | 9% |
| RPMRPM International | $7.4B | 39% | 10.5% | 12% | 7% |
| ICLICL Group Ltd. | $7.2B | 33% | 13.0% | 8% | — |
| CFCF Industries Holdings Inc. | $7.1B | 30% | 24.1% | 24% | 27% |
| DDDuPont de Nemours Inc. | $6.8B | 33% | 9.9% | 3% | 5% |
| OLNOlin | $6.8B | 11% | 4.6% | 5% | 6% |
| SMGScotts Miracle-Gro | $3.4B | 32% | 11.7% | 14% | 10% |
| Group median | — | 31% | 10.7% | 8% | — |
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. ICL Group Ltd.'s US listing is the ordinary share itself. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.
ICL Group Ltd. is profitable, but its owner-earnings base could not be formed from this filing’s tagged data (operating cash flow or capital spending is missing), so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the 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.
$
The assumptions
Revenue, delivered4%/yr’20→’25
Enter a price to run it.
Owner earnings it must reach—
Margin the price demands—
Owner-earnings margin today—
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.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "ICL Group Ltd. (ICL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ICL, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← ICG its page in the Manual ICLR →
Industry order: ← CTVA the Agricultural Inputs chapter MOS →