NTCT, NetScout Systems Inc.

Will it survive?

• Can it pay its interest? 64.4×
  Comfortable
  Operating income $110M ÷ interest expense $2M
  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? +$668M
  Net cash, debt-free
  Cash $586M + ST investments $81M − debt $0
  What this means

  Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $668M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. It also holds $37M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at net cash of $705M. 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? 43d
  Tight
  DSO 64 + DIO 27 − DPO 48 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 0%
  Below average through the cycle
  10-yr median, range -26%–8%; 8% latest = NOPAT $89M ÷ invested capital $1.1B
  Industry peers: median -5%
  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 8% 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 6%–33%; latest $285M = operating cash $295M − maintenance capex $9M
  Industry peers: median 6%
  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 33% of revenue this year, a 21% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $60M of SBC) leaves $225M.

• Are earnings backed by cash? 3.08×
  Cash-backed
  Cash from ops $295M ÷ net income $96M
  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? 21%
  Reinvests most of it
  Dividends + buybacks $61M ÷ Owner Earnings $285M
  What this means

  Of $285M Owner Earnings, $61M (21%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $61M buybacks. Net of $60M stock comp, the real buyback was about $851K. 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? 0.16×
  Harvesting
  Capex $9M ÷ depreciation $57M
  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 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 Miss
  Revenue ≥ $2B · $859M
  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 Near
  Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.85×
  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 Pass
  Debt ≤ working capital · $0 vs $398M 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 · 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 Miss
  Earnings +33% over the record · −1154%
  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 $-1.95/share (latest year $1.34), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $23.07/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 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% 0 of 9 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 −1% → −17% (3-yr avg ends)
  What this means

  The recent-years average (−17%) sits below the early years (−1%), but the latest year (13%) is back near the early level: a cyclical trough dragging the window down, not a one-way slide. The through-cycle median is 2% — read it across the cycle, not on the dip.

• 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 2025 · −44.7% op. margin
  What this means

  Operations went underwater in 2025, understand why before trusting the good years.

• Share count −2.6%/yr
  What this means

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

• 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.