What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 11% and operating margin about 2.7% through the cycle, a thin spread that turns the result on volume and the cost of what it sells far more than on the price it sets. That margin has held in a narrow 2.2%–3.4% band over the years, so steadiness itself is the evidence — the lever is unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line. Read this kind of business on volume, density and yield. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, 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 10%). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; 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 →

Fujian is 76% of revenue, so this is largely a single-region business.

Revenue by geography, FY2025

Fujian76%$435M
Others11%$64M
Beijing5%$28M
Liaoning3%$19M
Zhejiang3%$15M
Guangdong2%$12M

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, 2020–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMDec 2025
							Income statement
$287M	$347M	$370M	$404M	$504M	$572M	$572M	RevenueRevenue
13%	12%	11%	12%	9%	9%	9%	Gross marginGross mgn
$6M	$9M	$10M	$14M	$15M	$17M	$17M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
2.2%	2.5%	2.7%	3.4%	2.9%	2.9%	2.9%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$6M	$7M	$8M	$10M	$11M	$12M	$12M	Net incomeNet inc.
21%	19%	17%	18%	13%	14%	14%	Effective tax rateTax rate
							Cash flow & returns
$2M	$20M	$5M	$14M	$15M	$16M	$16M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$5M	$6M	$7M	$6M	$6M	$6M	$6M	DepreciationDeprec.
($8M)	$8M	($10M)	($3M)	($2M)	($3M)	($3M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$8M	$23M	$7M	$11M	$29M	$19M	$19M	CapexCapex
2.8%	6.5%	1.9%	2.7%	5.8%	3.3%	3.3%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($2M)	$14M	($2M)	$8M	$9M	$10M	$10M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−0.8%	4.2%	−0.6%	1.9%	1.7%	1.7%	1.7%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($6M)	($2M)	($2M)	$3M	($14M)	($3M)	($3M)	Free cash flowFCF
−1.9%	−0.6%	−0.6%	0.8%	−2.9%	−0.5%	−0.5%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	5%	7%	10%	13%	11%	11%	ROICROIC
—	7%	9%	10%	9%	9%	9%	Return on equityROE
—	7%	9%	10%	9%	9%	9%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
							Balance sheet
—	—	$21M	$63M	$74M	$80M	$80M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	$81M	$89M	$98M	$127M	$136M	$136M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$8M	$8M	$9M	$8M	—	—	$8M	InventoryInvent.
—	$54M	$57M	$61M	$89M	$90M	$90M	Accounts payablePayables
$8M	$35M	$41M	$45M	$39M	$47M	$54M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
—	$122M	$136M	$149M	$205M	$217M	$217M	Current assetsCur. assets
—	$125M	$131M	$136M	$163M	$171M	$171M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
—	1.0×	1.0×	1.1×	1.3×	1.3×	1.3×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
—	$244M	$245M	$266M	$310M	$347M	$347M	Total assetsAssets
—	$46M	$48M	$36M	$16M	$37M	$37M	Total debtDebt
—	$46M	$26M	($27M)	($58M)	($43M)	($43M)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
3.1×	3.7×	4.4×	7.8×	7.4×	6.2×	6.2×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
—	$92M	$91M	$108M	$117M	$132M	$132M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
							Per share
80.0M	80.0M	80.0M	81.8M	—	—	82.5M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$3.59	$4.33	$4.63	$4.94	—	—	$6.94	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.08	$0.08	$0.10	$0.13	—	—	$0.15	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.03	$0.18	$-0.03	$0.09	—	—	$0.12	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.07	$-0.03	$-0.03	$0.04	—	—	$-0.03	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.10	$0.28	$0.09	$0.13	—	—	$0.23	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
—	$1.14	$1.14	$1.32	—	—	$1.60	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	5-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+11.2%/yr (3-yr)	+11.2%/yr (3-yr)
EPS	+18.6%/yr (3-yr)	+18.6%/yr (3-yr)
Capital spending / share	+10.0%/yr (3-yr)	+10.0%/yr (3-yr)
Book value / share	+7.4%/yr (2-yr)	+7.4%/yr (2-yr)

The record, charted

FY2020–2025

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

Share count

82Mpeak FY2023

ROIC

11%low FY2021

Gross margin

9%low FY2024

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$10Mowner earningsvs.$12Mnet incomelow FY2020

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2020FY2025

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 $10M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $6M it takes just to hold its position. It put $13M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($3M).

Reported net income$12M

Owner earnings$10M · 2% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$12M	$11M	$10M	$8M	$7M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$6M	+$6M	+$6M	+$7M	+$6M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$3M	−$2M	−$3M	−$10M	+$8M
Cash from operations	$16M	$15M	$14M	$5M	$20M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$6M	−$6M	−$6M	−$7M	−$6M
Owner earnings	$10M	$9M	$8M	($2M)	$14M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$13M	−$23M	−$4M	—	−$17M
Free cash flow	($3M)	($14M)	$3M	($2M)	($2M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	2%	2%	2%	-1%	4%

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 $6M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $13M 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.

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 →

Material weakness in financial controls

“However, in preparing our consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2025, we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, as defined in the standards established by the PCAOB, and…”

The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 6.2×

Comfortable

Operating income $17M ÷ interest expense $3M

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? +$43M

Net cash

Cash $35M + ST investments $45M − debt $37M

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $43M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. 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? 29d

Tight

DSO 87 + DIO 6 − DPO 63 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 10%

Solid through the cycle

5-yr median, range 5%–13%; 11% latest = NOPAT $14M ÷ invested capital $133M

Industry peers: median 11%

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 5 years (it ran 11% 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 2%

Thin, recently turned positive

latest $10M = operating cash $16M − maintenance capex $6M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (6-yr median 2%)

Industry peers: median 4%

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 2% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 6 years. It chose to put $13M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($3M) — the gap is investment, not weakness.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.32×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $16M ÷ net income $12M

In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.

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? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Investing or harvesting? 2.95×

Expanding

Capex $19M ÷ depreciation $6M

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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $572M

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× · 1.27×

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 · $37M vs $46M 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 (6-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 · +63%

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 $0.13/share (latest year $0.15), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $1.60/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, 2020–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 6 of 6

What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 5 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 2% → 3% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The margin has held, but the filing names price competition — the pressure is present even where the margin has absorbed it so far.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 2% early to 3% lately, median 3% — pricing power intact or improving.
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 +9%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 9% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · 2.2% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +0.4%/yr

What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.

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$217M

Cash & short-term investments$80M
Receivables$136M
Inventory$8M

Current liabilities$171M

Debt due within a year$3M
Accounts payable$90M
Other current liabilities$78M

Current ratio1.27×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.22×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.47×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$46Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$3M due · $80M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$121Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value$8MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$39M$3M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$1Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2020–2025

Over the record, the business generated $73M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$97M · 133%

Source of funding−$24M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $24M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.
Net change in share count3.1%
The diluted count rose from 80M to 82M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
Return on what it retained10%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($54M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $5M, so each retained $1 added about 0.10 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

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 Shengfeng Development Limited 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 2020–2025.

1 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?3.1%
Diluted shares grew 3.1% over 2020–2025. 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.

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, Trucking & Logistics

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
ARCBArcBest	$4.0B	—	3.4%	10%	4%
SAIASaia, Inc.	$3.2B	—	10.4%	14%	10%
WERNWerner Enterprises	$2.9B	—	8.0%	12%	5%
ULHUniversal Logistics Holdings Inc.	$1.6B	—	5.8%	10%	3%
CVLGCovenant Logistics Group Inc.	$1.2B	—	4.4%	6%	3%
MRTNMarten Transport	$884M	—	8.8%	11%	—
HTLDHeartland Express Inc.	$806M	—	14.2%	12%	3%
SFWLShengfeng Development Limited	$572M	11%	2.8%	10%	2%
Group median	—	—	6.9%	10%	3%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the home-market price, not the US ADR quote. Shengfeng Development Limited reports in USD, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio, so it will not reconcile with these figures and would throw the multiple off.

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

Shengfeng Development Limited’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, the mark of a build-out: total capital spending outruns the cash the business throws off today. So the tool opens on the steady-state base (maintenance capex in place of the build-out spend), the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Shengfeng Development Limited earns about $10M on its 1.7% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 1.7% 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 ($10M) Net of stock comp Steady-state · maintenance capex ($10M)

—

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+10%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’20→’25+9%/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 ($3M) on 82M shares outstanding (a weighted cover-text, the only count this filer tags); net cash $43M. The base opens on the steady-state figure (the latest year is negative on total capex mid-build-out); clear Steady-state to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($19M) runs well above depreciation ($6M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $10M, 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 SFWL against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Shengfeng Development Limited (SFWL), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/SFWL, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← SFL its page in the Manual SGHC →

Industry order: ← SAIA the Trucking & Logistics chapter SLGB →