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SYM, Symbotic Inc.

Industrial Machinery capital-intensive Unprofitable

We have spent significant time working closely with our customers to develop, test and refine our technology.

We do this by developing, commercializing, and deploying innovative and comprehensive technology solutions that dramatically improve supply chain operations.

Our robotic based automation systems, which include hardware and essential software, move, store and sort cases and eaches in warehouses.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

SYM · Symbotic Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$2.2B

+25.7% YoY · 89% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $2.5B 5-yr avg $1.2B

Gross margin 20% 5-yr avg 14%

Operating margin −2.3% 5-yr avg −20.6%

Owner-earnings margin 32% 5-yr avg 8%

Free cash flow margin 32% 5-yr avg 6%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

Situation: Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run around −24% through the cycle on a 14% gross margin, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. Read this kind of business on the capital-goods cycle and the aftermarket. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.

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

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	TTMTTMMar 2026
							Income statement
$92M	$252M	$593M	$1.2B	$1.8B	$2.2B	$2.5B	RevenueRevenue
−21%	4%	17%	16%	14%	19%	20%	Gross marginGross mgn
39%	24%	20%	19%	11%	13%	13%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
61%	29%	21%	17%	10%	10%	8%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($110M)	($122M)	($140M)	($223M)	($117M)	($115M)	($59M)	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−119.9%	−48.6%	−23.7%	−19.0%	−6.5%	−5.1%	−2.3%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($110M)	($122M)	($7M)	($24M)	($13M)	($17M)	($7M)	Net incomeNet inc.
							Cash flow & returns
($124M)	$110M	($148M)	$231M	($58M)	$867M	$845M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$6M	$4M	$6M	$9M	$21M	$40M	$42M	DepreciationDeprec.
($21M)	$227M	($174M)	$91M	($178M)	$660M	$588M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$5M	$12M	$18M	$16M	$42M	—	$47M	CapexCapex
5.5%	4.8%	3.0%	1.3%	2.4%	—	1.9%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($129M)	$105M	($154M)	$221M	($79M)	—	$798M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−140.5%	41.7%	−26.0%	18.8%	−4.4%	—	31.7%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($129M)	$97M	($166M)	$215M	($100M)	—	$798M	Free cash flowFCF
−140.5%	38.7%	−28.0%	18.3%	−5.6%	—	31.7%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	—	$0	$0	$142M	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
—	—	-96%	-29105%	-7%	-8%	-1%	Return on equityROE
—	—	−96%	n/m	−7%	−8%	−1%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
							Balance sheet
$58M	$157M	$353M	$259M	$727M	$1.2B	$2.0B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	$63M	$3M	$69M	$202M	$187M	$133M	ReceivablesReceiv.
—	$34M	$92M	$136M	$106M	$164M	$201M	InventoryInvent.
$9K	$28M	$68M	$110M	$175M	$287M	$294M	Accounts payablePayables
—	$69M	$27M	$95M	$132M	$64M	$40M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$6K	$260M	$605M	$992M	$1.4B	$1.9B	$2.9B	Current assetsCur. assets
$127K	$337M	$523M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.7B	$2.0B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.0×	0.8×	1.2×	1.0×	1.3×	1.1×	1.4×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
—	—	—	—	$0	$60M	$60M	GoodwillGoodwill
$133K	$281M	$631M	$1.1B	$1.6B	$2.4B	$3.5B	Total assetsAssets
($58M)	($157M)	($353M)	($259M)	($727M)	($1.2B)	($2.0B)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
$0	($14M)	$7M	$82K	$197M	$221M	$686M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.1%	0.0%	4.5%	13.1%	6.3%	8.2%	8.9%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
							Per share
—	—	54.1M	64.3M	95.7M	109M	131M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
—	—	$10.97	$18.29	$18.69	$20.68	$19.23	Revenue / shareRev/sh
—	—	$-0.13	$-0.37	$-0.14	$-0.16	$-0.06	EPS (diluted)EPS
—	—	$-2.85	$3.44	$-0.82	—	$6.10	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
—	—	$-3.07	$3.34	$-1.05	—	$6.10	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
—	—	$0.33	$0.24	$0.44	—	$0.36	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
—	—	$0.13	$0.00	$2.06	$2.04	$5.24	Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.49 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

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

	5-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+23.5%/yr (3-yr)	+23.5%/yr (3-yr)
Capital spending / share	+15.3%/yr (2-yr)	+15.3%/yr (2-yr)
Book value / share	+148.4%/yr (3-yr)	+148.4%/yr (3-yr)

The record, charted

FY2020–2025

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

Share count

109Mpeak FY2025

Gross margin

19%low FY2020

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

($79M)owner earningsvs.($13M)net incomelow FY2022

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2021FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2020–FY2024cash-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 2024 the business earned ($79M) of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $21M it takes just to hold its position. It put $21M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($100M).

	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021	FY2020
Reported net income	($13M)	($24M)	($7M)	($122M)	($110M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$21M	+$9M	+$6M	+$4M	+$6M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$112M	+$154M	+$27M	+$97K	+$71K
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$178M	+$91M	−$174M	+$227M	−$21M
Cash from operations	($58M)	$231M	($148M)	$110M	($124M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$21M	−$9M	−$6M	−$4M	−$5M
Owner earnings	($79M)	$221M	($154M)	$105M	($129M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$21M	−$6M	−$12M	−$8M	—
Free cash flow	($100M)	$215M	($166M)	$97M	($129M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	-4%	19%	-26%	42%	-140%

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 $21M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $21M 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 $112M), owner earnings is nearer ($191M).

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? —

No meaningful interest burden

Little or no interest expense reported

What this means
Little or no interest expense reported, the business isn't leaning on lenders to operate.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$1.2B

Net cash, debt-free

Cash $1.2B − debt $0

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $1.2B, 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? 6d

Tight

DSO 30 + DIO 33 − DPO 57 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 —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median 8%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Owner-earnings margin 37%

Positive this year, negative across the cycle

latest $825M = operating cash $867M − maintenance capex $42M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (5-yr median -4%)

Industry peers: median 10%

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 37% of revenue this year, a -4% median across 5 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $184M of SBC) leaves $641M.
Are earnings backed by cash? $867M

Loss, but cash-generative

Net income ($17M) · cash from operations $867M

What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

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? 1.07×

Maintaining

Capex $42M ÷ depreciation $40M

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 4 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 · $2.2B

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 Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.09×

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.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (6-yr record) · 6 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 —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
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 $-0.15/share (latest year $-0.14), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $1.84/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 0 of 6

What this means
Lost money in 6 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Operating margin −64% → −10% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The record and the words agree: the margin widened and the filing attributes the gain to its own pricing, not volume alone.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −64% early to −10% lately, median −24% — pricing power intact or improving.
Worst year 2020 · −119.9% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.

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 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 the latest quarter, Mar 28, 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$2.9B

Cash & short-term investments$2.0B
Receivables$133M
Inventory$201M
Other current assets$579M

Current liabilities$2.0B

Accounts payable$294M
Other current liabilities$1.7B

Current ratio1.45×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.35×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.99×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$901Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+23.1%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.3× → 1.4×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$539Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value$454MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$28M$28M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$1.9Bcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2020–2024

Over the record, the business generated $10M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$93M · 957%

Source of funding−$83M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $83M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.
Net change in share count142.0%
The diluted count rose from 54M to 131M: 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.

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.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

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

Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$184M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 8% of revenue. 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 Symbotic 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 2020–2025.

1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?142.0%
Diluted shares grew 142.0% over 2020–2024. 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?
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, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Stock compensation 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, Industrial Machinery

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
RRXRegal Rexnord Corporation	$5.9B	27%	9.9%	7%	9%
GTESGates Industrial	$3.4B	39%	12.9%	7%	9%
ESABEsab Corporation	$2.8B	36%	13.6%	10%	10%
NDSNNordson Corporation	$2.8B	55%	23.8%	13%	19%
SYMSymbotic Inc.	$2.2B	15%	-21.3%	—	-4%
GGGGraco Inc.	$2.2B	53%	26.6%	32%	20%
RBCRBC Bearings	$1.9B	40%	19.5%	8%	15%
ZWSZurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation	$1.7B	40%	13.4%	7%	10%
Group median	—	39%	13.5%	—	10%

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 Symbotic Inc. has delivered.

Symbotic Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Symbotic Inc. earns about $423M on its 18.8% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 36.7% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($423M) Net of stock comp (−$223M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($803M)

—

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, delivered—

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 $798M on 121M shares outstanding (a weighted basic average, the only count this filer tags); net cash $2.0B. The if-converted diluted count is 131M, 9% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($47M) runs well above depreciation ($42M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $803M, 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 SYM against another business →

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

Manual order: ← SYK its page in the Manual SYNA →

Industry order: ← SXI the Industrial Machinery chapter TKR →