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Lamb WestonLWCOMMENTSep 30, 2022Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 18, 2026. Market Open.
LW produces and distributes frozen potato products globally and is now trading at 18.4x times' Forward P/E. In the last few years, LW’s revenue grew at a healthy double-digit rate. The balance sheet is leveraged, with a net debt of $3.3B, net debt/EBITDA is around 2.9x. The company has been reinvesting quite heavily to grow organically over the last few years. The debt adds risk, but considering the business it is probably at a manageable level. We would not like to see it increase, though. LW also pays consistently increasing dividends, which we like. Overall, a solid consumer staple name, debt is high, but the business is quite stable to support the leverage, ROE (113%!) is a bit inaccurate metric to use here, we prefer to use Return on total capital (26.7%) (debt + equity), we think that metrics reflect the return of the underlying business more accurately.
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