← All companies ← TAK Manual TATT → ← STRA Education Services UTI →
TAL, TAL Education Group
Revenue is Learning Services and Others (65%) and Learning Content Solutions (35%).
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
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
- An asset-light business: the value sits in intellectual property and people, not plant, so the question is how durable the advantage is, not how high the margin.
- Situation
- Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has reached 13% at its best but run negative through the cycle (median −0.1%) on a 54% gross margin — so the question is which reading is truer: whether the median was pulled below zero by one-off charges, by the cycle, or by spending it is still growing into, and whether it settles back at a profit. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −18 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on concentrated dependence, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −0%, above 15% in 2 of 9 years). The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 18% of revenue reaches owners as cash, though it swings. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and 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 →Learning Services and Others is 65% of revenue, with Learning Content Solutions the other meaningful line at 35%.
- Learning Services and Others65%$1.9B
- Learning Content Solutions35%$1.1B
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, 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 | TTMTTMFeb 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $1.0B | $1.7B | $2.6B | $3.3B | $4.5B | $4.4B | $1.0B | $1.5B | $2.3B | $3.0B | $3.0B | RevenueRevenue |
| 50% | 49% | 55% | 55% | 54% | 50% | 57% | 54% | 53% | 55% | 55% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| $135M | $209M | $342M | $137M | ($438M) | ($615M) | ($91M) | ($69M) | ($3M) | $276M | $276M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 12.9% | 12.2% | 13.3% | 4.2% | −9.7% | −14.0% | −8.9% | −4.6% | −0.1% | 9.2% | 9.2% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $112M | $195M | $365M | ($128M) | ($143M) | ($1.2B) | ($132M) | ($4M) | $84M | $530M | $530M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 23% | 19% | 17% | — | — | — | — | — | 31% | 23% | 23% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $379M | $685M | $194M | $856M | $955M | ($939M) | $7M | $306M | $398M | $601M | $601M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $29M | $51M | $77M | $100M | $137M | $171M | $35M | $24M | $46M | $69M | $69M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $238M | $440M | ($247M) | $884M | $961M | $54M | $104M | $287M | $268M | $3M | $3M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $71M | $126M | $138M | $178M | $245M | $246M | $110M | $113M | $112M | $93M | $93M | CapexCapex |
| 6.8% | 7.4% | 5.4% | 5.4% | 5.5% | 5.6% | 10.8% | 7.6% | 5.0% | 3.1% | 3.1% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $350M | $634M | $118M | $756M | $818M | ($1.1B) | ($28M) | $282M | $352M | $533M | $533M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 33.6% | 37.0% | 4.6% | 23.1% | 18.2% | −25.3% | −2.7% | 18.9% | 15.6% | 17.7% | 17.7% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $308M | $559M | $56M | $678M | $710M | ($1.2B) | ($103M) | $193M | $286M | $508M | $508M | Free cash flowFCF |
| 29.5% | 32.6% | 2.2% | 20.7% | 15.8% | −27.0% | −10.1% | 13.0% | 12.7% | 16.9% | 16.9% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $0 | $41M | $0 | $0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | $0 | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| — | — | — | — | $10M | $196M | $66M | $234M | $13M | $644M | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| 26% | 15% | 23% | — | -16% | -20% | -4% | -2% | -0% | 9% | 8% | ROICROIC |
| 17% | 12% | 15% | -5% | -3% | -29% | -3% | -0% | 2% | 14% | 14% | Return on equityROE |
| 17% | 9% | 15% | −5% | — | — | — | — | — | — | 14% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $700M | $1.5B | $1.5B | $2.2B | $5.9B | $2.7B | $3.2B | $3.3B | $3.6B | $3.2B | $3.2B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $16M | $50M | $43M | $26M | $26M | $45M | $53M | $94M | $72M | $72M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $3M | $5M | $8M | $26M | $39M | $22M | $39M | $68M | $105M | $143M | $143M | InventoryInvent. |
| $23M | $58M | $106M | $118M | $354M | $90M | $60M | $127M | $146M | $153M | $153M | Accounts payablePayables |
| ($20M) | ($36M) | ($49M) | ($49M) | ($289M) | ($42M) | $24M | ($6M) | $53M | $62M | $62M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $871M | $1.7B | $1.7B | $2.5B | $8.2B | $3.6B | $3.5B | $3.7B | $4.1B | $3.8B | $3.8B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $667M | $1.1B | $1.2B | $1.8B | $3.4B | $903M | $784M | $1.1B | $1.4B | $1.8B | $1.8B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.3× | 1.5× | 1.5× | 1.4× | 2.4× | 4.0× | 4.4× | 3.4× | 2.9× | 2.2× | 2.2× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $267M | $291M | $414M | $379M | $454M | — | — | $157K | $155K | $46M | $46M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $1.8B | $3.1B | $3.7B | $5.6B | $12.1B | $5.1B | $4.7B | $4.9B | $5.5B | $5.9B | $5.9B | Total assetsAssets |
| $225M | $225M | $0 | $262M | $270M | — | — | — | — | — | $532M | Total debtDebt |
| ($475M) | ($1.3B) | ($1.5B) | ($2.0B) | ($5.7B) | — | — | — | — | — | ($2.7B) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 10.2× | 12.5× | 19.4× | 11.6× | -25.9× | -78.1× | — | — | — | — | 35.1× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $644M | $1.6B | $2.5B | $2.5B | $5.2B | $4.0B | $3.8B | $3.7B | $3.8B | $3.8B | $3.8B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 189M | 194M | 200M | 198M | 204M | 215M | 213M | 203M | 205M | 193M | 193M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $5.53 | $8.83 | $12.80 | $16.52 | $22.08 | $20.44 | $4.80 | $7.33 | $10.96 | $15.60 | $15.60 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.60 | $1.00 | $1.82 | $-0.64 | $-0.70 | $-5.42 | $-0.62 | $-0.02 | $0.41 | $2.75 | $2.75 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $1.86 | $3.26 | $0.59 | $3.82 | $4.02 | $-5.17 | $-0.13 | $1.39 | $1.72 | $2.76 | $2.76 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $1.63 | $2.88 | $0.28 | $3.42 | $3.49 | $-5.52 | $-0.48 | $0.95 | $1.39 | $2.63 | $2.63 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.00 | $0.21 | $0.00 | $0.00 | — | — | — | — | — | — | $0.00 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $0.38 | $0.65 | $0.69 | $0.90 | $1.20 | $1.15 | $0.52 | $0.55 | $0.54 | $0.48 | $0.48 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $3.42 | $8.34 | $12.40 | $12.69 | $25.55 | $18.76 | $18.09 | $18.01 | $18.35 | $19.56 | $19.56 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +12.2%/yr | −6.7%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +4.5%/yr | −7.2%/yr |
| EPS | +18.5%/yr | — |
| Capital spending / share | +2.8%/yr | −16.7%/yr |
| Book value / share | +21.4%/yr | −5.2%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2017–2026Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
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 earned $533M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $69M it takes just to hold its position. It put $25M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $508M.
| FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $530M | $84M | ($4M) | ($132M) | ($1.2B) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$69M | +$46M | +$24M | +$35M | +$171M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$3M | +$268M | +$287M | +$104M | +$54M |
| Cash from operations | $601M | $398M | $306M | $7M | ($939M) |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$69M | −$46M | −$24M | −$35M | −$171M |
| Owner earnings | $533M | $352M | $282M | ($28M) | ($1.1B) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | −$25M | −$66M | −$89M | −$75M | −$75M |
| Free cash flow | $508M | $286M | $193M | ($103M) | ($1.2B) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 18% | 16% | 19% | -3% | -25% |
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 $69M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $25M 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.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? 35.1×ComfortableOperating income $276M ÷ interest expense $8M
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.
- Net cashCash $1.5B + ST investments $1.7B − debt $532M
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $2.7B, 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.
- TightDSO 9 + DIO 39 − DPO 41 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?
- Below average through the cycle9-yr median, range -20%–26%; 8% latest = NOPAT $214M ÷ invested capital $2.8BIndustry 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 9 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.
- High through the cycle10-yr median margin, range -25%–37%; latest $533M = operating cash $601M − maintenance capex $69MIndustry peers: median 16%
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 18% of revenue this year, a 18% median across 10 years.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $601M ÷ net income $530M
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?
- Returned more than it generatedDividends + buybacks $644M ÷ Owner Earnings $533M
What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $533M of Owner Earnings, $644M (121%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $644M buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
- Investing or harvesting? 1.36×ExpandingCapex $93M ÷ depreciation $69M
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 PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $3.0B
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 PassCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 2.17×
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 PassDebt ≤ working capital · $532M vs $2.1B 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 MissA profit every year (10-yr record) · 5 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record MissUninterrupted dividends · 1 of 10 yrs
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 MissEarnings +33% over the record · −9%
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 $1.05/share (latest year $2.75), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $19.56/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 5 of 10
What this means
Lost money in 5 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 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 13% → 1% (3-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The words explain the slip: the filing names price competition rather than pricing actions of its own — a business that looks to take its price, not set it.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 13% early to 1% lately, median −0% — competition or costs are biting in.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC −24%
What this means
Reinvested capital came back at a negative incremental return over this window — the invested base grew while operating profit did not. The filings show where it went.
- Owner earnings growth −1%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 1% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2022 · −14.0% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2022, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +0.3%/yr
What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
- Dividend record paid
What this means
Paid a dividend in 1 of the years on record.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Moderate contestabilityAI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.
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.
The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.
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, Feb 28, 2026Can 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.
- Cash & short-term investments$3.2B
- Receivables$72M
- Inventory$143M
- Other current assets$389M
- Debt due within a year$270M
- Accounts payable$153M
- Other current liabilities$1.3B
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2017–2026
Over the record, the business generated $3.4B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash builder, a large share of cash simply built up on the balance sheet.
- Reinvested$1.4B · 42%
- Dividends$41M · 1%
- Buybacks$1.2B · 34%
- Retained (debt / cash)$805M · 23%
- Returned to owners$1.2B
45% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $41M as dividends and $1.2B as buybacks.
- Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $307M and cash and short-term investments rose $2.5B.
- Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $1.2B over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
- Net change in share count2.3%
The diluted count rose from 189M to 193M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record$0.00/sh
Paid in 1 of the years on record. It was cut at least once along the way.
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 TAL Education Group 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.
3 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 1 came back clean.
- Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?17.4% vs 25.0%
The owner-earnings margin averaged 25.0% early in the record and 17.4% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.
- Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$225M → $532M
Debt rose from $225M to $532M while owner earnings went from about $367M to $389M — about 0.6 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 1.4 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.
- Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?0% → 5% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $3M to $143M while revenue grew 188%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (0% of revenue then, 5% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.
- Did the share count rise anyway?
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, nearest by economic model
No close industry peers in the catalog yet, so these are the nearest by economic model (asset-light compounder), compared 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOCUDocuSign | $3.2B | 78% | -6.7% | -10% | 16% |
| ENVAEnova International Inc. | $3.2B | 50% | 21.6% | 10% | 56% |
| MSCIMSCI Inc. | $3.1B | 80% | 52.3% | 38% | 46% |
| HUBSHubSpot Inc. | $3.1B | 81% | -6.5% | -6% | 13% |
| TALTAL Education Group | $3.0B | 54% | 2.0% | -0% | 18% |
| OKTAOkta Inc. | $2.9B | 72% | -30.8% | -8% | 7% |
| CVSACovista Inc. | $1.8B | 52% | 13.2% | 8% | 16% |
| APEIAmerican Public Education Inc. | $649M | 60% | 7.3% | 13% | 9% |
| Group median | — | 66% | 4.7% | 4% | 16% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. Per the filing's own cover, “American Depositary Shares, each three representing one Class”; TAL Education Group reports in USD, so every figure in this tool is stated per ADS so your dollar quote reconciles exactly. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.
Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what TAL Education Group has delivered.
Through the cycle, TAL Education Group earns about $540M on its 17.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 17.7% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
—
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.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
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.
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 $508M on 579M shares outstanding (a weighted average, the only count this filer tags); net cash $2.7B. 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 ($93M) runs well above depreciation ($69M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $533M, 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.
Manual order: ← TAK its page in the Manual TATT →
Industry order: ← STRA the Education Services chapter UTI →