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MTD, Mettler-Toledo International Inc.

Life Sciences Tools & Services consumer brand

We are a leading global supplier of precision instruments and services.

We have strong leadership positions in all of our businesses and believe we hold global number-one market positions in most of them.

We are recognized as an innovation leader and our solutions are critical in key research and development, quality control, and manufacturing processes for customers in a wide range of industries including life sciences, food, and chemicals.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

MTD · Mettler-Toledo International Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$4.0B

+4.0% YoY · 5% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $4.1B 5-yr avg $3.9B

Gross margin 79%

Operating margin 27.5% 5-yr avg 27.9%

ROIC 44% 5-yr avg 47%

Owner-earnings margin 21% 5-yr avg 23%

Free cash flow margin 19% 5-yr avg 21%

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 led by US Operations (37%) and Western European Operations (22%), with 3 more segments behind.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 26% through the cycle, a wide margin for the work it does — whether that reflects a durable edge or one that can fade is what the record weighs. That margin has stayed fairly steady relative to where it runs (21%–29% over the years), so unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line, are the lever. Read this kind of business on the installed base and the upgrade cycle. 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 run high across the record (median 43%, above 15% in 10 of 10 years), though buybacks and expensed R&D and brands shrink the capital base, so the figure overstates the underlying economics. The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 21% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Whether these returns reflect real pricing power or an accounting artifact is the judgment the 10-K is for.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 5 segments, the largest US Operations at 37%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

US Operations37%$1.5B
Western European Operations22%$896M
Other Operations20%$789M
Chinese Operations16%$635M
Swiss Operations5%$211M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. 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	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.9B	$3.0B	$3.1B	$3.7B	$3.9B	$3.8B	$3.9B	$4.0B	$4.1B	RevenueRevenue
69%	69%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	79%	Gross marginGross mgn
30%	29%	28%	27%	27%	25%	24%	24%	24%	25%	25%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$532M	$607M	$686M	$719M	$787M	$993M	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.1B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
21.2%	22.3%	23.4%	23.9%	25.5%	26.7%	28.7%	27.7%	28.7%	27.8%	27.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$384M	$376M	$513M	$561M	$603M	$769M	$873M	$789M	$863M	$869M	$875M	Net incomeNet inc.
24%	35%	21%	18%	19%	19%	19%	19%	17%	17%	17%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$461M	$516M	$565M	$603M	$725M	$909M	$859M	$966M	$968M	$956M	$901M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$33M	$33M	$37M	$39M	$42M	$45M	$47M	$49M	$50M	$51M	$52M	DepreciationDeprec.
$28M	$90M	($2M)	($15M)	$61M	$75M	($80M)	$110M	$35M	$13M	($49M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$124M	$127M	$143M	$97M	$92M	$108M	$121M	$105M	$104M	$107M	$107M	CapexCapex
4.9%	4.7%	4.9%	3.2%	3.0%	2.9%	3.1%	2.8%	2.7%	2.7%	2.6%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$428M	$483M	$528M	$564M	$683M	$864M	$812M	$917M	$918M	$905M	$849M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
17.1%	17.7%	18.0%	18.8%	22.1%	23.2%	20.7%	24.2%	23.7%	22.5%	20.8%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$337M	$389M	$422M	$506M	$632M	$801M	$738M	$861M	$864M	$849M	$794M	Free cash flowFCF
13.4%	14.3%	14.4%	16.8%	20.5%	21.6%	18.8%	22.7%	22.3%	21.1%	19.4%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$111M	$108M	$6M	$2M	$6M	$221M	$38M	$6M	$10M	$94M	$96M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$500M	$400M	$475M	$775M	$775M	$1000M	$1.1B	$900M	$850M	$800M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
35%	29%	37%	39%	42%	46%	47%	46%	51%	45%	44%	ROICROIC
88%	69%	87%	133%	213%	449%	3519%	—	—	—	—	Return on equityROE
88%	69%	87%	133%	213%	449%	n/m	—	—	—	—	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$159M	$149M	$178M	$208M	$94M	$99M	$96M	$70M	$59M	$67M	$61M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$455M	$529M	$536M	$566M	$594M	$647M	$709M	$664M	$687M	$778M	$708M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$222M	$255M	$269M	$274M	$298M	$415M	$442M	$386M	$342M	$387M	$405M	InventoryInvent.
$147M	$168M	$197M	$186M	$176M	$273M	$253M	$210M	$216M	$267M	$229M	Accounts payablePayables
$530M	$616M	$608M	$655M	$716M	$789M	$898M	$839M	$814M	$899M	$884M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$897M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.4B	$1.3B	Current assetsCur. assets
$588M	$690M	$734M	$755M	$840M	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.1B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.5×	1.5×	1.4×	1.5×	1.3×	1.1×	1.2×	1.0×	1.0×	1.1×	1.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$476M	$540M	$535M	$536M	$550M	$649M	$660M	$670M	$669M	$739M	$737M	GoodwillGoodwill
$2.2B	$2.5B	$2.6B	$2.8B	$2.8B	$3.3B	$3.5B	$3.4B	$3.2B	$3.7B	$3.7B	Total assetsAssets
$894M	$980M	$1.0B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.7B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.0B	$2.2B	$2.2B	Total debtDebt
$735M	$831M	$857M	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.6B	$1.9B	$2.0B	$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.2B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
19.0×	18.5×	19.9×	19.2×	20.4×	23.0×	20.3×	13.6×	14.9×	16.3×	16.3×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$435M	$547M	$590M	$421M	$283M	$171M	$25M	($150M)	($127M)	($24M)	($42M)	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.6%	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%	0.6%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
27.0M	26.4M	25.8M	25.0M	24.2M	23.5M	22.7M	22.0M	21.3M	20.7M	20.3M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$92.82	$103.25	$113.86	$120.47	$127.49	$158.50	$172.54	$172.42	$181.62	$194.78	$201.09	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$14.22	$14.24	$19.88	$22.47	$24.91	$32.78	$38.41	$35.90	$40.48	$42.05	$43.03	EPS (diluted)EPS
$15.84	$18.29	$20.47	$22.60	$28.21	$36.83	$35.75	$41.73	$43.06	$43.76	$41.76	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$12.46	$14.73	$16.38	$20.27	$26.13	$34.16	$32.48	$39.17	$40.55	$41.05	$39.03	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$4.59	$4.83	$5.54	$3.90	$3.82	$4.59	$5.34	$4.79	$4.87	$5.18	$5.27	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$16.09	$20.74	$22.89	$16.85	$11.68	$7.31	$1.09	$-6.82	$-5.95	$-1.14	$-2.06	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+8.6%/yr	+8.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+12.0%/yr	+9.2%/yr
EPS	+12.8%/yr	+11.0%/yr
Capital spending / share	+1.4%/yr	+6.3%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

21Mpeak FY2016

ROIC

45%low FY2017

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

2.3×peak FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$905Mowner earningsvs.$869Mnet incomelow FY2016

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.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-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 2025 the business earned $905M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $51M it takes just to hold its position. It put $56M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $849M.

Reported net income$869M

Owner earnings$905M · 22% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$869M	$863M	$789M	$873M	$769M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$51M	+$50M	+$49M	+$47M	+$45M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$23M	+$20M	+$18M	+$20M	+$20M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$13M	+$35M	+$110M	−$80M	+$75M
Cash from operations	$956M	$968M	$966M	$859M	$909M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$51M	−$50M	−$49M	−$47M	−$45M
Owner earnings	$905M	$918M	$917M	$812M	$864M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$56M	−$54M	−$56M	−$74M	−$63M
Free cash flow	$849M	$864M	$861M	$738M	$801M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	22%	24%	24%	21%	23%

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 $51M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $56M 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. 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 $23M), owner earnings is nearer $882M.

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 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 16.3×

Comfortable

Operating income $1.1B ÷ interest expense $69M

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? $2.1B · 1.9× operating profit

Modest net debt

Cash $67M − debt $2.2B

What this means
Netting $67M of cash and short-term investments against $2.2B of debt leaves $2.1B owed, about 1.9× a year's operating profit. 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? 123d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 71 + DIO 170 − DPO 117 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 42%

Very high (≥25%) through the cycle

10-yr median, range 29%–51%; 45% latest = NOPAT $926M ÷ invested capital $2.1B

Industry peers: median 12%

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 45% 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 21%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 17%–24%; latest $905M = operating cash $956M − maintenance capex $51M

Industry peers: median 18%

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 22% of revenue this year, a 21% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $23M of SBC) leaves $882M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.10×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $956M ÷ net income $869M

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? 88%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $800M ÷ Owner Earnings $905M

What this means
Of $905M Owner Earnings, $800M (88%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $800M buybacks. Net of $23M stock comp, the real buyback was about $777M. 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? 2.09×

Expanding

Capex $107M ÷ depreciation $51M

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 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 · $4.0B

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 Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.14×

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 · $2.2B vs $165M 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 Miss

Uninterrupted 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 Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +98%

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 $41.59/share (latest year $43.01), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $-1.17/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.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 10 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 22% → 28% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 22% early to 28% lately, median 26% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC —

What this means
The reinvested base moved too little against the change in profit to read a reliable return on it here — the figure would be a small-denominator artifact, not a moat. Judge this one on the owner-earnings record and the cash it returns instead.
Owner earnings growth +8%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 8% a year over the record.
Worst year 2016 · 21.2% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count −2.9%/yr

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

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 Named as a competitive risk

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.

“In addition, challenges with properly managing the use of AI could result in reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability, and adversely affect our results of operations.”

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 the latest quarter, Mar 31, 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$1.3B

Cash & short-term investments$61M
Receivables$708M
Inventory$405M
Other current assets$158M

Current liabilities$1.1B

Debt due within a year$64M
Accounts payable$229M
Other current liabilities$816M

Current ratio1.20×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.84×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.05×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$224Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$64M due · $61M cash cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+7.2%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters0.9× → 1.2×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($1.1B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($2.4B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$2.3B$113M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$122Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $7.5B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$1.1B · 15%
Buybacks$7.6B · 101%

Returned to owners$7.6B
107% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $7.6B as buybacks.
Source of funding−$1.2B
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $1.2B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $894M to $2.2B.
Average price paid for buybacks$869.12
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 8M shares were bought for $6.7B, about $869.12 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $370.77 (2016) to $1352.29 (2021); its heaviest year, 2022, paid $1312.63 ($1.1B).
Net change in share count−24.7%
The diluted count fell from 27M to 20M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.

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$1.0B27% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

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

Cash spent acquiring$602Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $1.1B 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, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Olivier Filliol	$816k	$17.2M	$864M
2021	Patrick Kaltenbach	$12.0M	$15.8M	$864M
2022	Patrick Kaltenbach	$6.5M	$4.6M	$812M
2023	Patrick Kaltenbach	$8.5M	$4.7M	$917M
2024	Patrick Kaltenbach	$6.9M	$6.5M	$918M
2025	Patrick Kaltenbach	$6.7M	$8.8M	$905M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership0.7%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
CEO pay ratio118:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 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$23M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 2% 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 Mettler-Toledo International Inc. 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 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$894M → $2.2B
Debt rose from $894M to $2.2B while owner earnings went from about $480M to $913M — about 1.9 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 2.4 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. 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 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.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Pension & retirement, Income taxes 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, Life Sciences Tools & Services

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
AAgilent Technologies Inc.	$6.9B	54%	19.1%	17%	18%
KEYSKeysight Technologies Inc.	$5.4B	61%	16.6%	19%	20%
ILMNIllumina Inc.	$4.3B	67%	18.2%	12%	23%
FTVFortive Corp.	$4.2B	57%	17.0%	6%	25%
MTDMettler-Toledo International Inc.	$4.0B	79%	26.1%	43%	21%
TRMBTrimble Inc.	$3.6B	55%	11.7%	7%	15%
WATWaters Corporation	$3.2B	59%	28.8%	28%	18%
BIOBio-Rad	$2.6B	55%	10.2%	3%	10%
Group median	—	58%	17.6%	14%	19%

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 Mettler-Toledo International Inc. has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Mettler-Toledo International Inc. earns about $863M on its 21.4% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 22.5% 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 ($863M) Net of stock comp (−$23M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($850M)

—

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 · ’21→’25+2%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+10%/yr

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.

Free cash flow $794M on 20M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-03-31; net debt $2.2B. 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 ($107M) runs well above depreciation ($52M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $850M, 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.

Weigh MTD against another business →

The owners of MTD: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (MTD), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/MTD, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← MTCH its page in the Manual MTDR →

Industry order: ← MEDP the Life Sciences Tools & Services chapter NEO →