One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$16,550.46 our estimate vs market $11,500.00
Wall Street consensus: $17,207.38 (4.0% higher than our fair-value estimate)
31% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG
LDSVF · PNK · Consumer Defensive · Confectioners
Current price
$11,500.00
52-week range
$11,388.00 - $16,864.53
Market cap
$26.53B
Balance sheet
Healthy
18.64x Strong cushion
Net debt $1.38B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 8.2% last year.
- Reward Returns 14.8% on equity, ahead of 75% of its peers.
- Risk Net debt grew 101.9% over 3 years.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.0% (peer median: 31.0%).
What this company does
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli is a Swiss company that makes and sells premium chocolates globally under well-known brand names like Lindt, Ghirardelli, and Russell Stover. The company's business relies on its strong brand reputation, which allows it to charge higher prices and earn healthy profit margins (the percentage of each sale that the company keeps as profit). This matters because loyal customers are often willing to pay more for a trusted, high-quality product, helping protect the company's profitability.
How the company got here
Lindt & Sprüngli's story begins in 1845 in a small pastry shop in Zurich, Switzerland, where the founders were among the first to make solid chocolate. A major turning point came in 1879 when Rodolphe Lindt invented a process called 'conching,' which created the smooth, melting chocolate the company is famous for today. The Sprüngli family bought Lindt's secret recipe and factory in 1899, officially forming the company. Over the next century, it expanded across the world and acquired other well-known chocolatiers, including American brands Ghirardelli in 1998 and Russell Stover in 2014, to become a global leader in premium chocolate.
What it actually does
The company makes and sells high-quality chocolate products that people often buy as a special treat or a gift. You would recognize their products in grocery stores, their own branded shops, and other retailers. Their most famous items include the smooth-melting LINDOR truffles, Excellence dark chocolate bars, and the iconic gold-wrapped Easter bunnies. Besides the Lindt brand, the company also owns other popular chocolate brands like Ghirardelli, known for its chocolate squares, and Russell Stover, a common choice for boxed chocolates in the United States.
Europe
This is the company's largest market, making up nearly half of its sales. It includes sales of all its chocolate brands, like Lindt and Caffarel, across European countries through grocery stores, its own 520+ retail shops, and other distributors. Germany and Switzerland are two of the biggest individual countries for sales in this region. The company's historical roots are in Europe, and it remains the core of its business.
North America
This segment is nearly as large as the European one, accounting for a little over 40% of the company's business. It became a major focus after the company bought two well-known American chocolate makers, Ghirardelli and Russell Stover. This part of the business sells chocolates from all its brands, including Lindt, to customers in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. The United States is the single country with the highest sales for the entire company.
Rest of the World
This is the smallest but fastest-growing part of the company, representing about 10% of total sales. It includes all other countries outside of Europe and North America where the company sells its chocolates, with a special focus on markets like Japan, Brazil, and China. The company sells its products here through a network of distributors and its own retail stores. This segment is a key area for future growth as more people in these regions begin to buy premium chocolate.
What management is betting on now
The company's main focus is to continue growing as a leader in premium chocolate worldwide. A key part of their strategy is expanding in newer markets like Asia and Brazil, where demand for high-quality chocolate is increasing. They are also investing in their own network of over 520 retail stores and online shops to sell directly to consumers, which allows them to control the customer experience and earn a higher profit margin (the portion of sales revenue the company keeps as profit). Finally, the company is heavily focused on sustainability, aiming to source all of its cocoa beans from farmers in its own monitored program to ensure quality and responsible practices.
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $16,550.46 vs current price $11,500.00
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $17,207.38 (4.0% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $16,550.46 a share — about 43.9% above today's price of $11,500.00, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $1.4B. Interest coverage 18.6x.
Net debt
$1.38B
Interest coverage
18.64x
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG's profit covers its interest bill about 18.6 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.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
LDSVF
BASELINE
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG
Total debt $2.22B Interest coverage 18.64x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $13.58M Interest coverage 225.81x +1,112% vs LDSVF Carries about 12.1x more debt cushion than LDSVF.
Total debt $7.90M Interest coverage -4.27x -100% vs LDSVF This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with LDSVF.
Total debt $449.85M Interest coverage 9.40x -50% vs LDSVF Carries about 2.0x less debt cushion than LDSVF.
What you should know
The case for and against LDSVF
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 8.2% last year.
-
Returns 14.8% on equity, ahead of 75% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 101.9% over 3 years.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.0% (peer median: 31.0%).
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)
29.19x
Forward P/E
—
P/B
0.42x
P/S
4.46x
EV/EBITDA
3.22x
PEG ratio
0.64x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
62.8%
Operating margin
20.1%
Net margin
12.2%
ROE
14.8%
ROA
6.7%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.36x
Current ratio
1.83x
Quick ratio
1.15x
Total debt
$2.22B
Total cash
$839.98M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$7.47B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
6.0%
EPS TTM
393.99
EPS 5Y CAGR
9.5%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$653.60M
Free CF TTM
$238.50M
FCF margin
3.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.0%
Payout ratio
47.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-04-20