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TR, Tootsie Roll Industries

Food Products consumer brand

A consumer-brand business, where the durable asset is the brand and the pricing power it commands.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

TR · Tootsie Roll Industries

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$733M

+1.3% YoY · 9% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $736M 5-yr avg $697M

Gross margin 35% 5-yr avg 34%

Operating margin 13.7% 5-yr avg 13.8%

ROIC 9% 5-yr avg 10%

Owner-earnings margin 16% 5-yr avg 12%

Free cash flow margin 13% 5-yr avg 11%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 35% and operating margin about 14% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. 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 9%). By owner earnings: roughly 14% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. 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.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$521M	$519M	$519M	$527M	$471M	$571M	$687M	$769M	$723M	$733M	$736M	RevenueRevenue
38%	37%	36%	37%	36%	35%	34%	33%	35%	35%	35%	Gross marginGross mgn
21%	23%	23%	24%	24%	23%	18%	20%	21%	22%	21%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$91M	$70M	$70M	$69M	$58M	$67M	$111M	$102M	$101M	$101M	$101M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
17.5%	13.6%	13.6%	13.1%	12.4%	11.8%	16.1%	13.2%	13.9%	13.8%	13.7%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$68M	$81M	$57M	$65M	$59M	$65M	$76M	$92M	$87M	$100M	$100M	Net incomeNet inc.
31%	5%	22%	24%	23%	24%	23%	23%	32%	27%	28%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$99M	$43M	$101M	$100M	$75M	$85M	$72M	$95M	$139M	$131M	$139M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$20M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$18M	$18M	$18M	$18M	$18M	$19M	$19M	DepreciationDeprec.
$11M	($57M)	$25M	$17M	($2M)	$2M	($22M)	($16M)	$34M	$11M	$19M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$16M	$17M	$28M	$20M	$18M	$31M	$23M	$27M	$18M	$34M	$40M	CapexCapex
3.1%	3.2%	5.3%	3.8%	3.8%	5.5%	3.4%	3.5%	2.5%	4.7%	5.4%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$82M	$26M	$82M	$80M	$57M	$68M	$54M	$76M	$121M	$112M	$119M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
15.8%	5.1%	15.9%	15.2%	12.0%	11.9%	7.9%	9.9%	16.7%	15.2%	16.2%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$82M	$26M	$73M	$80M	$57M	$54M	$49M	$68M	$121M	$96M	$99M	Free cash flowFCF
15.8%	5.1%	14.1%	15.2%	12.0%	9.4%	7.1%	8.8%	16.7%	13.2%	13.4%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$22M	$23M	$23M	$23M	$24M	$24M	$25M	$25M	$26M	$26M	$26M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$29M	$34M	$19M	$34M	$32M	$30M	$32M	$33M	$14M	$6M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
11%	11%	9%	8%	8%	8%	12%	10%	9%	9%	9%	ROICROIC
9%	11%	8%	9%	8%	8%	10%	11%	10%	11%	10%	Return on equityROE
6%	8%	5%	5%	5%	5%	7%	8%	7%	8%	8%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$187M	$138M	$186M	$239M	$209M	$146M	$149M	$171M	$195M	$177M	$170M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$43M	$47M	$50M	$45M	$41M	$55M	$59M	$56M	$44M	$48M	$42M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$10M	$12M	$12M	$13M	$13M	$15M	$25M	$16M	$13M	$16M	$25M	Accounts payablePayables
$33M	$35M	$38M	$32M	$28M	$40M	$33M	$40M	$30M	$32M	$17M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$299M	$271M	$304M	$353M	$321M	$268M	$309M	$341M	$334M	$321M	$323M	Current assetsCur. assets
$64M	$64M	$61M	$80M	$70M	$80M	$90M	$95M	$87M	$98M	$91M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
4.7×	4.2×	5.0×	4.4×	4.6×	3.4×	3.4×	3.6×	3.8×	3.3×	3.6×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	$73M	GoodwillGoodwill
$920M	$931M	$947M	$978M	$985M	$1.0B	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.2B	Total assetsAssets
($187M)	($138M)	($186M)	($239M)	($209M)	($146M)	($149M)	($171M)	($195M)	($177M)	($170M)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
868.9×	489.0×	389.4×	314.6×	355.1×	1459.4×	1065.0×	302.2×	197.5×	225.8×	226.2×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$711M	$734M	$751M	$760M	$763M	$769M	$783M	$823M	$871M	$941M	$949M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
											Per share
66.0M	67.0M	68.1M	69.4M	70.5M	71.5M	72.9M	71.9M	73.4M	72.9M	75.1M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$7.90	$7.75	$7.62	$7.60	$6.68	$7.99	$9.42	$10.70	$9.85	$10.05	$9.80	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$1.02	$1.21	$0.84	$0.94	$0.84	$0.91	$1.04	$1.28	$1.18	$1.37	$1.33	EPS (diluted)EPS
$1.25	$0.39	$1.21	$1.15	$0.80	$0.95	$0.75	$1.06	$1.65	$1.53	$1.59	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$1.25	$0.39	$1.08	$1.15	$0.80	$0.75	$0.67	$0.94	$1.65	$1.32	$1.32	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.34	$0.34	$0.34	$0.34	$0.34	$0.34	$0.34	$0.35	$0.35	$0.36	$0.35	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.24	$0.25	$0.41	$0.29	$0.25	$0.44	$0.32	$0.37	$0.25	$0.47	$0.53	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$10.79	$10.96	$11.03	$10.95	$10.83	$10.76	$10.74	$11.45	$11.86	$12.91	$12.65	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+2.7%/yr	+8.5%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+2.3%/yr	+13.7%/yr
EPS	+3.3%/yr	+10.4%/yr
Dividends / share	+0.6%/yr	+1.1%/yr
Capital spending / share	+7.6%/yr	+13.0%/yr
Book value / share	+2.0%/yr	+3.6%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

73Mpeak FY2024

ROIC

9%low FY2020

Gross margin

35%low FY2023

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$112Mowner earningsvs.$100Mnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

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

FY2016FY2025

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 $112M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $19M it takes just to hold its position. It put $15M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $96M.

Reported net income$100M

Owner earnings$112M · 15% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$100M	$87M	$92M	$76M	$65M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$19M	+$18M	+$18M	+$18M	+$18M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$11M	+$34M	−$16M	−$22M	+$2M
Cash from operations	$131M	$139M	$95M	$72M	$85M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$19M	−$18M	−$18M	−$18M	−$18M
Owner earnings	$112M	$121M	$76M	$54M	$68M
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$15M	—	−$9M	−$6M	−$14M
Free cash flow	$96M	$121M	$68M	$49M	$54M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	15%	17%	10%	8%	12%

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 $19M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $15M 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 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 225.8×

Comfortable

Operating income $101M ÷ interest expense $447K

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? +$177M

Net cash, debt-free

Cash $127M + ST investments $49M − debt $0

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $177M, 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? —

Not enough data

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

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median 18%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Owner-earnings margin 12%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 5%–17%; latest $112M = operating cash $131M − maintenance capex $19M

Industry peers: median 5%

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 15% of revenue this year, a 12% median across 10 years. It chose to put $15M more into growth, so free cash flow this year was $96M — the gap is investment, not weakness.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.31×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $131M ÷ net income $100M

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? 29%

Reinvests most of it

Dividends + buybacks $33M ÷ Owner Earnings $112M

What this means
Of $112M Owner Earnings, $33M (29%) went back to shareholders, $26M dividends, $6M buybacks. 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? 1.80×

Expanding

Capex $34M ÷ depreciation $19M

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 · 4 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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $733M

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 Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 3.27×

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.
Earnings stability Pass

A profit every year (10-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 Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

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 · +36%

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 $1.24/share (latest year $1.33), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $12.54/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 10 of 10

What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
Operating margin 15% → 14% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 15% early, 14% lately, median 14%.
Owner earnings growth +9%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 9% a year over the record.
Worst year 2021 · 11.8% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +1.1%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

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 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$323M

Cash & short-term investments$170M
Receivables$42M
Other current assets$111M

Current liabilities$91M

Accounts payable$25M
Other current liabilities$66M

Current ratio3.57×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio—inventory untagged this quarter, so withheld rather than shown equal to the current ratio

Cash ratio1.87×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$233Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+2.1%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters3.7× → 3.6×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$876Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$5M$5M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $939M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$232M · 25%
Dividends$241M · 26%
Buybacks$264M · 28%
Retained (debt / cash)$202M · 22%

Returned to owners$504M
66% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $241M as dividends and $264M as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks$34.90
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 8M shares were bought for $264M, about $34.90 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $30.21 (2024) to $39.01 (2022); its heaviest year, 2017, paid $37.06 ($34M).
Net change in share count13.8%
The diluted count rose from 66M to 75M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$0.36/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 1% a year. It was never cut over the span.
Return on what it retained16%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($245M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $39M, so each retained $1 added about 0.16 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.

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 year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Ellen R. Gordon	$5.4M	$5.4M	$68M
2022	Ellen R. Gordon	$6.8M	$6.8M	$54M
2023	Ellen R. Gordon	$7.3M	$7.3M	$76M
2024	Ellen R. Gordon	$7.2M	$7.2M	$121M
2025	Ellen R. Gordon	$7.2M	$7.2M	$112M

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.

CEO pay ratio96:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Tootsie Roll Industries 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 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?13.8%
Diluted shares grew 13.8% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $264M on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. 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?
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 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, Food Products

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
WESTWestrock Coffee Company	$1.2B	18%	-3.1%	-7%	-6%
FIZZNational Beverage	$1.2B	37%	18.9%	75%	14%
JBSSJohn B. Sanfilippo & Son Inc.	$1.1B	19%	7.8%	18%	6%
FRPTFreshpet	$1.1B	41%	-1.8%	-2%	1%
VITLVital Farms	$759M	34%	6.0%	19%	5%
TRTootsie Roll Industries	$733M	36%	13.6%	9%	14%
COCOThe Vita Coco Company Inc.	$610M	34%	11.4%	47%	8%
BRCCBRC Inc.	$398M	38%	-5.0%	-40%	-3%
Group median	—	35%	6.9%	14%	6%

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 Tootsie Roll Industries has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Tootsie Roll Industries earns about $100M on its 13.6% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 15.2% 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 ($100M) Net of stock comp Steady-state · maintenance capex ($119M)

—

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+17%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+8%/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 $99M on 75M shares outstanding (a weighted basic average, the only count this filer tags); net cash $170M. 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 ($40M) runs well above depreciation ($19M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $119M, 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 TR against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Tootsie Roll Industries (TR), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/TR, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← TPTA its page in the Manual TRC →

Industry order: ← SMPL the Food Products chapter TSN →