Owner Scorecard


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THC, Tenet Healthcare

Health Care Providers & Services diversified Cyclical

Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a diversified healthcare services company with its headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and a Global Business Center in the Philippines that supports various enterprise-wide administrative functions.

We enhanced access to higher-acuity services in our communities, advanced ambulatory surgery care, invested in state-of-the-art technology and facilities, and welcomed new team members and physician partners.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
THC · Tenet Healthcare
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$21.3B
+3.1% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $21.5B 5-yr avg $20.2B
Operating margin 18.0% 5-yr avg 16.9%
ROIC 20% 5-yr avg 21%
Owner-earnings margin 16% 5-yr avg 6%
Free cash flow margin 16% 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
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 run about 11% through the cycle, a solid margin the cost base and competition set as much as the price does. The operating margin has swung widely — from 5.4% to 29% over the years — so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year, and the worst year more than the best. Read this kind of business on volume, payer mix and reimbursement. 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 run in the teens (median 18%, above 15% in 2 of 3 years). Owner earnings agree: roughly 4% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.

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

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$21.1B$20.6B$18.3B$18.5B$17.6B$19.5B$19.2B$20.6B$20.7B$21.3B$21.5BRevenueRevenue
$1.2B$1.1B$1.6B$1.5B$2.0B$2.9B$2.3B$2.5B$6.0B$3.5B$3.9BOperating incomeOp. inc.
5.9%5.4%8.9%8.3%11.3%14.7%12.2%12.2%28.8%16.5%18.0%Operating marginOp. mgn
($192M)($704M)$104M($215M)$399M$914M$411M$611M$3.2B$1.4B$1.7BNet incomeNet inc.
31%46%33%27%24%23%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$558M$1.2B$1.0B$1.2B$3.4B$1.6B$1.1B$2.4B$2.0B$3.5B$4.4BOperating cash flowOp. cash
$850M$870M$802M$850M$857M$855M$841M$870M$818M$863M$886MDepreciationDeprec.
($168M)$975M$97M$556M$2.1B($257M)($225M)$827M($2.0B)$1.2B$1.7BWorking capital & otherWC & other
$875M$707M$617M$670M$540M$658M$762M$751M$931M$1.0B$1.0BCapexCapex
4.2%3.4%3.4%3.6%3.1%3.4%4.0%3.7%4.5%4.7%4.7%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($317M)$493M$432M$563M$2.9B$910M$321M$1.6B$1.1B$2.5B$3.3BOwner earningsOwner earn.
−1.5%2.4%2.4%3.0%16.3%4.7%1.7%7.9%5.4%11.9%15.6%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($317M)$493M$432M$563M$2.9B$910M$321M$1.6B$1.1B$2.5B$3.3BFree cash flowFCF
−1.5%2.4%2.4%3.0%16.3%4.7%1.7%7.9%5.4%11.9%15.6%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$117M$50M$113M$25M$1.2B$1.2B$234M$224M$571M$308M$402MAcquisitionsAcquis.
$0$0$0$0$250M$200M$672M$1.4BBuybacksBuybacks
14%30%18%20%ROICROIC
-46%1425%89%36%38%77%33%35%Return on equityROE
−46%n/m89%36%38%77%33%35%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$765M$667M$451M$264M$2.4B$2.4B$888M$1.3B$3.1B$2.9B$3.0BCash & investmentsCash+inv
$2.9B$2.6B$2.6B$2.7B$2.7B$2.8B$2.9B$2.9B$2.5B$2.6B$2.6BReceivablesReceiv.
$326M$289M$305M$310M$368M$384M$405M$411M$346M$348M$343MInventoryInvent.
$1.3B$1.2B$1.2B$1.2B$1.2B$1.3B$1.5B$1.4B$1.3B$1.4B$1.3BAccounts payablePayables
$1.9B$1.7B$1.7B$1.8B$1.9B$1.9B$1.8B$1.9B$1.6B$1.6B$1.6BOperating working capitalOper. WC
$5.3B$5.6B$4.6B$5.1B$7.1B$7.1B$6.0B$7.2B$7.7B$7.8B$8.4BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$4.0B$4.3B$3.9B$4.2B$4.8B$5.1B$4.5B$4.8B$4.3B$4.5B$6.2BCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.3×1.3×1.2×1.2×1.5×1.4×1.3×1.5×1.8×1.8×1.4×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$7.4B$7.0B$7.3B$7.3B$8.8B$9.3B$10.1B$10.3B$10.7B$11.2B$11.4BGoodwillGoodwill
$24.7B$23.4B$22.4B$23.4B$27.1B$27.6B$27.2B$28.3B$28.9B$29.7B$31.2BTotal assetsAssets
$15.5B$15.2B$15.0B$14.9B$15.9B$15.8B$15.2B$15.1B$13.3B$13.3B$13.3BTotal debtDebt
$14.7B$14.5B$14.6B$14.7B$13.4B$13.4B$14.3B$13.8B$10.2B$10.3B$10.2BNet debt / (cash)Net debt
1.3×1.1×1.6×1.6×2.0×3.1×2.6×2.8×7.2×4.3×4.7×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$417M($147M)($119M)($417M)$28M$1.0B$1.1B$1.6B$4.2B$4.2B$4.8BShareholders’ equityEquity
0.3%0.3%0.3%0.2%0.2%0.3%0.3%0.3%0.3%0.5%0.5%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
99.3M101M104M103M106M109M111M105M97.9M90.8M87.6MShares out (diluted)Shares
$212.14$204.92$176.29$178.72$166.00$179.47$173.50$196.22$211.23$234.61$244.93Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-1.93$-7.00$1.00$-2.08$3.75$8.42$3.72$5.83$32.69$15.49$19.44EPS (diluted)EPS
$-3.19$4.90$4.16$5.44$26.98$8.38$2.90$15.49$11.40$27.85$38.23Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-3.19$4.90$4.16$5.44$26.98$8.38$2.90$15.49$11.40$27.85$38.23Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$8.81$7.03$5.94$6.48$5.08$6.06$6.89$7.17$9.51$11.12$11.61Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$4.20$-1.46$-1.15$-4.03$0.26$9.47$10.33$15.34$42.61$46.46$54.96Book value / shareBVPS
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+1.1%/yr+7.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share+0.6%/yr
EPS+32.8%/yr
Capital spending / share+2.6%/yr+17.0%/yr
Book value / share+30.6%/yr+181.4%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count
91Mpeak FY2022
ROIC
18%low FY2021
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
4.1×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.

$2.5Bowner earningsvs.$1.4Bnet 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

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 turned $1.4B of profit into $2.5B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$1.4B
Owner earnings$2.5B · 12% of revenue
FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income$1.4B$3.2B$611M$411M$914M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$863M+$818M+$870M+$841M+$855M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$104M+$67M+$66M+$56M+$56M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$1.2B−$2.0B+$827M−$225M−$257M
Cash from operations$3.5B$2.0B$2.4B$1.1B$1.6B
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$1.0B−$931M−$751M−$762M−$658M
Owner earnings$2.5B$1.1B$1.6B$321M$910M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue12%5%8%2%5%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . 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 $104M), owner earnings is nearer $2.4B.

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?

  • Adequate
    Operating income $3.5B ÷ interest expense $821M
    What this means

    Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.

  • How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $10.4B · 3.0× operating profit
    Meaningful net debt
    Cash $2.9B + ST investments $1M − debt $13.3B
    What this means

    Netting $2.9B of cash and short-term investments against $13.3B of debt leaves $10.4B owed, about 3.0× a year's operating profit (3.8× on the gross debt, before the cash). It also holds $59M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at $10.3B of net debt. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Not enough data
    What this means

    The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

  • High through the cycle
    3-yr median, range 14%–30%; 18% latest = NOPAT $2.7B ÷ invested capital $14.6B
    Industry 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 3 years (it ran 18% 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.

  • Solid, recently turned positive
    latest $2.5B = operating cash $3.5B − maintenance capex $1.0B; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 3%)
    Industry peers: median 7%
    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 12% of revenue this year, a 3% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $104M of SBC) leaves $2.4B.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $3.5B ÷ net income $1.4B
    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?

  • Returns about half
    Dividends + buybacks $1.4B ÷ Owner Earnings $2.5B
    What this means

    Of $2.5B Owner Earnings, $1.4B (55%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $1.4B buybacks. Net of $104M stock comp, the real buyback was about $1.3B. 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? 1.17×
    Maintaining
    Capex $1.0B ÷ depreciation $863M
    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 5 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 · $21.3B
    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× · 1.76×
    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 · $13.3B vs $3.4B 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) · 3 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 $20.19/share (latest year $16.33), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $48.99/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 7 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 3 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 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 7% → 19% (3-yr avg ends)

    In the filing’s words The margin widened even though the filing names price competition — the gain came from volume or cost, not pricing power. Read where.

    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 7% early to 19% lately, median 11% — 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 +40%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 40% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2017 · 5.4% op. margin
    What this means

    Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.

  • Share count −1.0%/yr
    What this means

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

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI 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.

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.

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 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$8.4B
  • Cash & short-term investments$3.0B
  • Receivables$2.6B
  • Inventory$343M
  • Other current assets$2.4B
Current liabilities$6.2B
  • Debt due within a year$128M
  • Accounts payable$1.3B
  • Other current liabilities$4.7B
Current ratio1.36×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.30×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.48×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$2.2Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$128M due · $3.0B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+2.8%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.4× → 1.4×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($7.9B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($14.0B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$5.4B$1.3B of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $15.0B (annual-report basis)
Deferred revenue$13Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$79M
'27$1.6B
'28$2.4B
'29$1.4B
'30$3.5B
later$4.3B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$79Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year
Within two years$1.7Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions
Biggest single year$3.5Bin 2030the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest
Total scheduled principal$13.3Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$3.0B
One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$2.5B
Together, against $79M due next year69.6×

Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $5.5B against the $79M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 70 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, operating and finance leases together, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.

Operating leasesFinance leases
'26$324M
'27$379M
'28$252M
'29$205M
'30$164M
later$1.0B

Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.

Due in the next 12 months$324Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year
Total lease payments$2.3Bevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take
On the balance sheet$1.7Bthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability

True leverage: debt plus leases

On-balance-sheet debt$13.3B
Lease obligations (present value)$1.7B
Total fixed claims on the business$15.0B

Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $15.0B, of which the leases are 11%. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.

Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $18.1B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

  • Reinvested$7.5B · 42%
  • Buybacks$2.5B · 14%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$8.0B · 44%
  • Returned to owners$2.5B

    24% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $2.5B as buybacks.

  • Average price paid for buybacks

    Buybacks ran $2.5B over the span, but a stock split in the window left the reported buyback-share counts on a basis the diluted-share count doesn't match, so a comparable average price can't be drawn.

  • Net change in share count−11.8%

    The diluted count fell from 99M to 88M, 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.

  • Return on what it retained45%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($3.4B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $1.6B, so each retained $1 added about 0.45 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.

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$12.5B42% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth
Cash spent acquiring$4.0Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $7.5B 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 yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2021Dr. Sutaria$21.2M$50.4M$910M
2021Ron Rittenmeyer$18.7M$34.1M$910M
2022Dr. Sutaria$11.0M−$9.1M$321M
2023Dr. Sutaria$18.5M$63.9M$1.6B
2024Dr. Sutaria$24.7M$88.9M$1.1B
2025Dr. Sutaria$43.1M$149.4M$2.5B

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 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$104M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 3% 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 Tenet Healthcare 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 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 5 came back clean.

  • Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?10 of 10 years

    Management took an impairment or write-down in 10 of the last 10 years, $840M in all. A charge taken almost every year is not one-time; it is the business — past deals coming due, and an admission the assets were worth less than what was paid. Munger's rule: when the "one-time" keeps happening, it is the business. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did the share count rise anyway?
  • Did debt outgrow the business?
  • 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 Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions, Insurance reserves 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, Health Care Providers & 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.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
THCTenet Healthcare$21.3B11.7%18%4%
LHLabcorp$14.0B30%11.9%8%9%
DVADaVita$13.6B14.8%13%11%
BTSGBrightSpring Health Services Inc.$12.9B1.7%6%1%
DGXQuest Diagnostics$11.0B35%14.6%10%12%
ARDTArdent Health Inc.$6.3B5.3%14%
AGLagilon health inc.$5.9B-5.4%-52%-5%
SEMSelect Medical Holdings$5.5B7.6%7%5%
Group median9.7%9%5%
IV

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 Tenet Healthcare has delivered.

Tenet Healthcare’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.

$

Through the cycle, Tenet Healthcare earns about $822M on its 3.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 11.9% 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

The assumptions

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+31%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+40%/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.

Owner earnings $3.3B on 86M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-22; net debt $10.2B. 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. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

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

Manual order: ← TH its page in the Manual THFF →

Industry order: ← TDOC the Health Care Providers & Services chapter TOI →