← All companies ← MDLZ Manual MDU → ← MDLN Medical Devices & Equipment MDXG →

MDT, Medtronic plc.

Medical Devices & Equipment consumer brand Serial acquirer

Medtronic makes medical devices and therapies — the equipment surgeons and physicians implant in patients or use to treat them. It sells mainly to hospitals and clinics, and gets paid when a device is bought and used in a procedure. The patient needs the treatment, but the customer writing the check is the health system, often buying through a purchasing group.

We remain committed to a mission written by our founder in 1960 that directs us "to contribute to human welfare by the application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of products to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life."

We are a company of dedication, honesty, integrity, and service.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

MDT · Medtronic plc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2026

$36.4B

+8.4% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $36.4B 5-yr avg $33.0B

Gross margin 65% 5-yr avg 66%

Operating margin 17.8% 5-yr avg 17.4%

ROIC 7% 5-yr avg 6%

Owner-earnings margin 15% 5-yr avg 16%

Free cash flow margin 15% 5-yr avg 16%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

Situation: Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 57% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 4 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
What moves the needle: The question is whether a device, once a surgeon is trained on it and a hospital stocks it, is hard to swap out; that switching cost is what separates a franchise from a catalog of parts that compete on price. Watch pricing, because the buyers are large purchasing groups and managed-care organizations that exist to negotiate volume discounts — the test is whether Medtronic can hold its price against them. The bad case is concrete: a single approval, an FDA warning letter or consent decree, or a sole-source supplier can stall a product line, and the company itself says its success depends on differentiating its products and scaling emerging technologies. Whether the reinvestment and the borrowing have earned their keep shows in the returns and the balance sheet in the record below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 6%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). By owner earnings: roughly 16% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Drafted from the company's filings and reviewed by hand; every number is shown in full in the sections below.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMApr 2026
											Income statement
$29.7B	$30.0B	$30.6B	$28.9B	$30.1B	$31.7B	$31.2B	$32.4B	$33.5B	$36.4B	$36.4B	RevenueRevenue
69%	70%	70%	67%	65%	68%	66%	65%	65%	65%	65%	Gross marginGross mgn
34%	34%	34%	35%	34%	32%	33%	33%	32%	32%	32%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
7%	8%	8%	8%	8%	9%	9%	8%	8%	8%	8%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$5.4B	$6.6B	$6.3B	$4.8B	$4.5B	$5.8B	$5.5B	$5.1B	$6.0B	$6.5B	$6.5B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
18.1%	22.2%	20.5%	16.6%	14.9%	18.2%	17.6%	15.9%	17.8%	17.8%	17.8%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$4.0B	$3.1B	$4.6B	$4.8B	$3.6B	$5.0B	$3.8B	$3.7B	$4.7B	$4.8B	$4.8B	Net incomeNet inc.
13%	45%	11%	—	7%	8%	30%	24%	17%	21%	21%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$6.9B	$4.7B	$7.0B	$7.2B	$6.2B	$7.3B	$6.0B	$6.8B	$7.0B	$7.3B	$7.3B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$2.9B	$2.6B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.6B	$2.9B	$3.0B	$3.0B	DepreciationDeprec.
($413M)	($1.4B)	($573M)	($515M)	($412M)	($759M)	($771M)	$71M	($908M)	($886M)	($886M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.9B	$1.9B	$1.9B	CapexCapex
4.2%	3.6%	3.7%	4.2%	4.5%	4.3%	4.7%	4.9%	5.5%	5.2%	5.2%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$5.6B	$3.6B	$5.9B	$6.0B	$4.9B	$6.0B	$4.6B	$5.2B	$5.2B	$5.4B	$5.4B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
18.9%	12.1%	19.2%	20.8%	16.2%	18.9%	14.7%	16.1%	15.5%	14.9%	14.9%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$5.6B	$3.6B	$5.9B	$6.0B	$4.9B	$6.0B	$4.6B	$5.2B	$5.2B	$5.4B	$5.4B	Free cash flowFCF
18.9%	12.1%	19.2%	20.8%	16.2%	18.9%	14.7%	16.1%	15.5%	14.9%	14.9%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$1.3B	$137M	$1.8B	$488M	$994M	$91M	$1.9B	$211M	$98M	$406M	$406M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$2.4B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.9B	$3.1B	$3.4B	$3.6B	$3.7B	$3.6B	$3.6B	$3.6B	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$3.5B	$2.2B	$2.9B	$1.3B	$652M	$2.5B	$645M	$2.1B	$3.2B	$1.0B	—	BuybacksBuybacks
6%	5%	8%	7%	6%	8%	5%	5%	7%	7%	7%	ROICROIC
8%	6%	9%	9%	7%	10%	7%	7%	10%	10%	10%	Return on equityROE
3%	1%	4%	4%	1%	3%	0%	0%	2%	2%	2%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$13.7B	$11.2B	$9.8B	$10.9B	$10.8B	$10.6B	$8.0B	$8.0B	$9.0B	$9.2B	$9.2B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$5.6B	$6.0B	$6.2B	$4.6B	$5.5B	$5.6B	$6.0B	$6.1B	$6.5B	$6.6B	$6.6B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$3.3B	$3.6B	$3.8B	$4.2B	$4.3B	$4.6B	$5.3B	$5.2B	$5.5B	$6.0B	$6.0B	InventoryInvent.
$1.6B	$1.6B	$2.0B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.3B	$2.7B	$2.4B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.6B	Accounts payablePayables
$7.4B	$7.9B	$8.0B	$6.9B	$7.7B	$7.9B	$8.6B	$8.9B	$9.5B	$9.9B	$9.9B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$24.9B	$23.0B	$22.0B	$22.0B	$22.5B	$23.1B	$21.7B	$21.9B	$23.8B	$24.8B	$24.8B	Current assetsCur. assets
$14.3B	$10.1B	$8.5B	$10.4B	$8.5B	$12.4B	$9.1B	$10.8B	$12.9B	$11.7B	$11.7B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.7×	2.3×	2.6×	2.1×	2.6×	1.9×	2.4×	2.0×	1.8×	2.1×	2.1×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$38.5B	$39.5B	$40.0B	$39.8B	$42.0B	$40.5B	$41.4B	$41.0B	$41.7B	$42.6B	$42.6B	GoodwillGoodwill
$99.9B	$91.4B	$89.7B	$90.7B	$93.1B	$91.0B	$90.9B	$90.0B	$91.7B	$93.0B	$93.0B	Total assetsAssets
$33.4B	$25.8B	$25.4B	$24.9B	$26.4B	$20.4B	$24.3B	$23.9B	$25.6B	$26.2B	$26.2B	Total debtDebt
$19.7B	$14.5B	$15.5B	$14.0B	$15.6B	$9.8B	$16.4B	$15.9B	$16.7B	$17.0B	$17.0B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
4.9×	5.8×	4.3×	4.4×	4.8×	10.4×	8.6×	7.2×	8.2×	9.0×	9.0×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$50.2B	$50.7B	$50.1B	$50.7B	$51.4B	$52.6B	$51.5B	$50.2B	$48.0B	$49.5B	$49.5B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
1.2%	1.1%	0.9%	1.0%	1.1%	1.1%	1.1%	1.2%	1.3%	1.3%	1.3%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
1.39B	1.37B	1.36B	1.35B	1.35B	1.35B	1.33B	1.33B	1.29B	1.29B	1.29B	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$21.35	$21.89	$22.51	$21.40	$22.24	$23.45	$23.43	$24.33	$26.00	$28.23	$28.23	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.89	$2.27	$3.41	$3.54	$2.66	$3.73	$2.82	$2.76	$3.61	$3.73	$3.73	EPS (diluted)EPS
$4.04	$2.64	$4.33	$4.46	$3.61	$4.42	$3.44	$3.91	$4.02	$4.21	$4.21	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$4.04	$2.64	$4.33	$4.46	$3.61	$4.42	$3.44	$3.91	$4.02	$4.21	$4.21	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.71	$1.82	$1.98	$2.14	$2.30	$2.50	$2.71	$2.76	$2.78	$2.83	$2.83	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.90	$0.78	$0.84	$0.90	$1.00	$1.01	$1.09	$1.19	$1.44	$1.48	$1.48	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$36.08	$37.07	$36.90	$37.55	$37.98	$38.89	$38.63	$37.75	$37.23	$38.40	$38.40	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+3.2%/yr	+4.9%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+0.5%/yr	+3.1%/yr
EPS	+2.8%/yr	+7.0%/yr
Dividends / share	+5.8%/yr	+4.2%/yr
Capital spending / share	+5.7%/yr	+8.1%/yr
Book value / share	+0.7%/yr	+0.2%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

1.3Bpeak FY2017

ROIC

7%low FY2018

Gross margin

65%low FY2026

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

3.1×peak FY2018

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$5.4Bowner earningsvs.$4.8Bnet incomelow FY2018

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2022–FY2026cash-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 2026 the business turned $4.8B of profit into $5.4B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$4.8B

Owner earnings$5.4B · 15% of revenue

	FY2026	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022
Reported net income	$4.8B	$4.7B	$3.7B	$3.8B	$5.0B
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$3.0B	+$2.9B	+$2.6B	+$2.7B	+$2.7B
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$457M	+$429M	+$393M	+$355M	+$359M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$886M	−$908M	+$71M	−$771M	−$759M
Cash from operations	$7.3B	$7.0B	$6.8B	$6.0B	$7.3B
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$1.9B	−$1.9B	−$1.6B	−$1.5B	−$1.4B
Owner earnings	$5.4B	$5.2B	$5.2B	$4.6B	$6.0B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	15%	15%	16%	15%	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 . 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 $457M), owner earnings is nearer $5.0B.

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

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 9.0×

Comfortable

Operating income $6.5B ÷ interest expense $715M

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? $17.0B · 2.6× operating profit

Meaningful net debt

Cash $1.9B + ST investments $7.3B − debt $26.2B

What this means
Netting $9.2B of cash and short-term investments against $26.2B of debt leaves $17.0B owed, about 2.6× a year's operating profit (4.0× 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? 162d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 67 + DIO 171 − DPO 76 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?

Return on invested capital 6%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range 5%–8%; 7% latest = NOPAT $5.1B ÷ invested capital $73.7B

Industry peers: median 8%

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 7% 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 16%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 12%–21%; latest $5.4B = operating cash $7.3B − maintenance capex $1.9B

Industry peers: median 17%

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 15% of revenue this year, a 16% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $457M of SBC) leaves $5.0B.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.53×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $7.3B ÷ net income $4.8B

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?

Where do the earnings go? 86%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $4.7B ÷ Owner Earnings $5.4B

What this means
Of $5.4B Owner Earnings, $4.7B (86%) went back to shareholders, $3.6B dividends, $1.0B buybacks. Net of $457M stock comp, the real buyback was about $578M. 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? 0.64×

Harvesting

Capex $1.9B ÷ depreciation $3.0B

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 · 4 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 Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $36.4B

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× · 2.13×

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 Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $26.2B vs $13.1B 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 Pass

A 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 Pass

Uninterrupted 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 Near

Earnings +33% over the record · +12%

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 $3.42/share (latest year $3.75), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $38.64/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, 2017–2026

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.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 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 20% → 17% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 20% early to 17% lately, median 18% — competition or costs are biting in.
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.
Owner earnings growth +2%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 2% a year over the record.
Worst year 2021 · 14.9% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count −0.9%/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.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2026 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“If we are unable to effectively integrate, scale, or apply AI and digital technologies across our products and operations at a pace comparable to competitors or new market entrants, we could experience reduced competitiveness, slower growth, or loss of market share.”

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, Apr 24, 2026

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$24.8B

Cash & short-term investments$9.2B
Receivables$6.6B
Inventory$6.0B
Other current assets$3.0B

Current liabilities$11.7B

Debt due within a year$1.8B
Accounts payable$2.6B
Other current liabilities$7.2B

Current ratio2.13×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.62×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.79×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$13.1Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$1.8B due · $9.2B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Apr 24, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+8.7%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters2.1× → 2.1×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($3.3B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($18.2B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$25.1B$1.2B of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'27$1.8B

'28$1.0B

'29$2.4B

'30$1.0B

'31$2.1B

later$19.9B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2031, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$1.8Bthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$2.8Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$2.4Bin 2029the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$28.1Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Apr 24, 2026$9.2B

One year of owner earnings (FY2026)$5.4B

Together, against $1.8B due next year8.2×

Cash on hand as of Apr 24, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $14.6B against the $1.8B due in the twelve months after the Apr 24, 2026 schedule: 8.2 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Apr 24, 2026 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $66.6B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$14.2B · 21%
Dividends$31.5B · 47%
Buybacks$20.2B · 30%
Retained (debt / cash)$753M · 1%

Returned to owners$51.6B
99% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $31.5B as dividends and $20.2B as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks$97.65
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 148M shares were bought for $14.5B, about $97.65 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $85.13 (2025) to $163.00 (2021); its heaviest year, 2025, paid $85.13 ($3.2B).
Net change in share count−7.4%
The diluted count fell from 1391M to 1288M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$2.83/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 6% a year. It was never cut over the span.

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 record

Goodwill 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.

Goodwill & intangibles$52.7B57% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity86%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$7.4Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $14.2B of capital spent building

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.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

CEO pay ratio309:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2025 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
Stock-based compensation$457M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 7% 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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Medtronic plc. 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 2017–2026.

None of the 6 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.

Each test came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did the share count rise anyway?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did reported profit become cash?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

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.

What an owner would ask, FY2026

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Acquisitions 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, Medical Devices & Equipment

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
TMOThermo Fisher Scientific Inc	$44.6B	80%	17.2%	8%	17%
MDTMedtronic plc.	$36.4B	67%	17.8%	6%	16%
SYKStryker Corporation	$25.1B	64%	18.3%	10%	15%
DHRDanaher Corporation	$24.6B	57%	19.0%	7%	24%
TTTrane Technologies plc	$21.3B	31%	13.5%	17%	10%
BSXBoston Scientific Corporation	$20.1B	69%	14.2%	5%	12%
ISRGIntuitive Surgical Inc.	$10.1B	68%	30.0%	16%	29%
ZBHZimmer Biomet Holdings Inc.	$8.2B	71%	11.7%	4%	18%
Group median	—	67%	17.5%	8%	17%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Medtronic plc. has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Medtronic plc. earns about $5.9B on its 16.1% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 14.9% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($5.9B) Net of stock comp (−$457M)

—

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 · ’22→’26+0%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’26+2%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

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 $5.4B on 1280M shares outstanding, per the 10-K cover, as of 2026-06-12; net debt $17.0B. 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.

Weigh MDT against another business →

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

Manual order: ← MDLZ its page in the Manual MDU →

Industry order: ← MDLN the Medical Devices & Equipment chapter MDXG →