One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$65.48 our estimate vs market $22.51
Wall Street consensus: $25.81 (-60.6% lower than our fair-value estimate)
66% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Fresenius Medical Care AG
FMS · NYQ · Healthcare · Medical Care Facilities
Current price
$22.51
52-week range
$20.02 - $27.64
Market cap
$11.98B
Balance sheet
Watch
4.75x Stretched
Net debt $11.51B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Returns 8.5% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
- Reward Trades at 11.7x P/E vs peer median 12.9x (9.5% cheaper).
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.0% (peer median: 1.0%).
What this company does
Fresenius Medical Care AG
Fresenius Medical Care is a global company that helps people with kidney failure by providing life-saving dialysis treatments in its clinics and selling the necessary machines and supplies. The company's business is generally stable because patients depend on these treatments regularly, which creates consistent demand for both its services and products.
How the company got here
Fresenius Medical Care was formed in 1996 when the German healthcare company Fresenius combined its dialysis equipment business with National Medical Care, a major American clinic operator. This merger created a company that both makes the machines for kidney dialysis and provides the treatment services directly to patients. Over the years, it grew by acquiring other clinic chains and developing new technologies, like more effective dialysis filters. Today, it is a global leader in treating kidney failure, serving hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide.
What it actually does
Think of a person whose kidneys have stopped working; they need a machine to clean their blood a few times every week for the rest of their life. Fresenius Medical Care makes those blood-cleaning machines (a process called dialysis) and the related supplies. Crucially, the company also operates the clinics where patients go to receive these life-sustaining treatments. So, it not only sells the equipment to hospitals but also provides the hands-on care directly to patients in its own facilities.
Care Delivery
This is the larger part of the company's business and involves providing dialysis services directly to patients with kidney failure. This happens in the thousands of outpatient clinics that Fresenius owns and operates globally. In this segment, the company is paid by patients' health insurance (like Medicare in the U.S.) or national health systems for each treatment session. This segment generates the majority of the company's revenue (the total money it brings in before expenses).
Care Enablement
This segment is focused on developing, manufacturing, and selling a wide range of healthcare products. This includes the hemodialysis machines, special filters called dialyzers, and other disposable supplies used in kidney treatment. These products are sold to other dialysis clinics, hospitals, and specialized treatment centers around the world. While this is a smaller part of the business than providing direct care, it's a critical piece that supplies the tools for the entire industry.
What management is betting on now
The company's current strategy, called "FME Reignite," focuses on strengthening its core business and driving growth through innovation. A key part of this is introducing newer, more effective dialysis machines, like the 5008X CAREsystem, into the U.S. market to set a new standard of care. Management is also focused on improving its profitability, or operating margin (the percent of each sales dollar left after paying for day-to-day business costs), by making its clinic network more efficient. They are also investing in digital tools and AI to improve patient care and streamline how the company works.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2015 Q4
$1.01B
FY2016 Q4
$1.11B
Revenue
—
Net income
$1.24B
Diluted EPS
4.06
Operating cash flow
$2.14B
Free cash flow
$1.11B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$1.03B
Diluted EPS
3.38
Operating cash flow
$1.96B
Free cash flow
$1.01B
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $65.48 vs current price $22.51
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $25.81 (-60.6% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $65.48 a share — about 190.9% above today's price of $22.51, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $11.5B. Interest coverage 4.8x.
Net debt
$11.51B
Interest coverage
4.75x
Fresenius Medical Care AG's profit covers its interest bill about 4.8 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
FMS
BASELINE
Fresenius Medical Care AG
Total debt $12.74B Interest coverage 4.75x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $13.41B Interest coverage 3.47x -27% vs FMS Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than FMS.
Total debt $9.67B Interest coverage 0.61x -87% vs FMS Carries about 7.8x less debt cushion than FMS.
Total debt $5.26B Interest coverage 13.10x +176% vs FMS Carries about 2.8x more debt cushion than FMS.
Total debt $13.25B Interest coverage 4.19x -12% vs FMS Has roughly the same debt cushion as FMS.
Total debt $2.84B Interest coverage 8.55x +80% vs FMS Carries about 1.8x more debt cushion than FMS.
What you should know
The case for and against FMS
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Returns 8.5% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
-
Trades at 11.7x P/E vs peer median 12.9x (9.5% cheaper).
Risks
-
Insider ownership is only 0.0% (peer median: 1.0%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
11.66x
Forward P/E
6.15x
P/B
0.82x
P/S
0.62x
EV/EBITDA
8.35x
PEG ratio
0.72x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
26.4%
Operating margin
10.8%
Net margin
4.8%
ROE
8.5%
ROA
4.0%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.81x
Current ratio
1.07x
Quick ratio
0.63x
Total debt
$12.74B
Total cash
$1.23B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$4.97B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
—
EPS TTM
1.93
EPS 5Y CAGR
13.5%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$8.00B
Free CF TTM
$2.05B
FCF margin
41.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
3.9%
Payout ratio
45.0%
Last ex-div date
2026-05-22