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LIND, Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc.
Lindblad has been providing marine expedition adventures and active travel experiences globally to its guests since 1979.
Our brands include Lindblad Expeditions, Natural Habitat, Inc.
The quality of our offerings has enabled us to achieve and maintain premium pricing in the market instead of pursuing the type of discounting offered by most cruise lines that are focused on the broader market.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Next report Est. 11/2–11/5 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~35 days after · the wire records it on arrival
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is Lindblad (64%) and Land-experience (36%).
- Situation
- Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. 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
- Gross margin has run about 45% and operating margin about 3.7% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −107% and 10% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Capital spending runs about 18% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. Read this kind of business on volume, density and yield. 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 rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 6%, above 15% in 1 of 10 years). The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 7% of revenue reaches owners as cash, though it swings. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Lindblad is 64% of revenue, with Land-experience the other meaningful segment at 36%.
- Lindblad64%$496M
- Land-experience36%$275M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
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 | TTMTTMJun 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $242M | $267M | $310M | $343M | $82M | $147M | $422M | $570M | $645M | $771M | $831M | RevenueRevenue |
| $123M | $131M | $156M | $176M | $9M | $23M | $138M | $231M | $282M | $353M | $387M | Gross profitGross prof. |
| 51% | 49% | 50% | 51% | 11% | 15% | 33% | 41% | 44% | 46% | 47% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 38% | 39% | 35% | 34% | 80% | 64% | 37% | 31% | 32% | 32% | 31% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| $14M | $11M | $25M | $33M | ($88M) | ($111M) | ($63M) | $11M | $22M | $45M | $58M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 5.8% | 4.0% | 8.2% | 9.7% | −107.3% | −75.3% | −15.0% | 1.9% | 3.3% | 5.9% | 7.0% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $2M | $2M | $12M | $21M | ($110M) | ($121M) | ($102M) | ($38M) | ($25M) | ($22M) | — | Pretax incomePretax |
| $5M | ($9M) | $11M | $16M | ($99M) | ($119M) | ($111M) | ($46M) | ($31M) | ($30M) | ($17M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $31M | $53M | $56M | $63M | ($92M) | $32M | ($2M) | $25M | $92M | $112M | $142M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $17M | $17M | $21M | $26M | $32M | $40M | $44M | $47M | $53M | $63M | $69M | Depreciation & amortizationD&A |
| $4M | $34M | $20M | $17M | ($28M) | $107M | $58M | $10M | $61M | $65M | $83M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $76M | $80M | $54M | $96M | $155M | $97M | $38M | $30M | $34M | $48M | $33M | CapexCapex |
| 31.3% | 30.2% | 17.5% | 28.0% | 188.8% | 65.7% | 9.1% | 5.3% | 5.2% | 6.2% | 4.0% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $14M | $36M | $36M | $37M | ($124M) | ($7M) | ($40M) | ($5M) | $59M | $64M | $109M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 5.9% | 13.3% | 11.5% | 10.7% | −151.0% | −4.8% | −9.6% | −0.8% | 9.1% | 8.3% | 13.1% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| ($45M) | ($28M) | $2M | ($33M) | ($248M) | ($64M) | ($40M) | ($5M) | $59M | $64M | $109M | Free cash flowFCF |
| −18.4% | −10.3% | 0.6% | −9.7% | −300.8% | −43.6% | −9.6% | −0.8% | 9.1% | 8.3% | 13.1% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $10M | — | — | $0 | $0 | $18M | $0 | $0 | $11M | $20M | $4M | AcquisitionsAcquis. |
| ($86M) | ($80M) | ($54M) | ($100M) | ($155M) | ($115M) | ($50M) | ($15M) | ($44M) | ($67M) | — | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| ($16M) | ($13M) | $17M | $25M | $343M | $50M | ($5M) | $61M | ($20M) | $30M | — | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| — | — | $118K | $0 | $0 | — | $0 | $0 | $288K | ($288K) | — | Exchange-rate effectFX |
| ($71M) | ($41M) | $19M | ($13M) | $95M | ($32M) | ($57M) | $71M | $29M | $74M | — | Change in cashΔ cash |
| 10% | 3% | 12% | 12% | -21% | -28% | -18% | 3% | 9% | 30% | — | ROICROIC |
| 4% | -8% | 10% | 13% | -282% | — | — | — | — | — | — | Return on equityROE |
| 4% | −8% | 10% | 13% | −282% | — | — | — | — | — | — | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $135M | $96M | $113M | $102M | $188M | $151M | $101M | $157M | $184M | $257M | $319M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $2M | $2M | $2M | $2M | $2M | $2M | $2M | — | — | — | — | InventoryInvent. |
| $8M | $8M | $9M | $15M | $5M | $10M | $17M | $16M | $14M | $22M | $15M | Accounts payablePayables |
| ($6M) | ($6M) | ($8M) | ($13M) | ($3M) | ($7M) | ($15M) | — | — | — | — | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $171M | $132M | $150M | $147M | $229M | $210M | $183M | $245M | $278M | $368M | $443M | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $124M | $144M | $159M | $183M | $156M | $289M | $341M | $319M | $392M | $462M | $525M | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 1.4× | 0.9× | 0.9× | 0.8× | 1.5× | 0.7× | 0.5× | 0.8× | 0.7× | 0.8× | 0.8× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $186M | $251M | $286M | $358M | $483M | $542M | $539M | $526M | $518M | $522M | — | Net PP&ENet PP&E |
| $22M | $22M | $22M | $22M | $22M | $42M | $42M | $42M | $59M | $61M | $61M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $408M | $424M | $473M | $549M | $757M | $827M | $788M | $831M | $877M | $980M | $1.0B | Total assetsAssets |
| $166M | $166M | $190M | $218M | $483M | $545M | $553M | $622M | $625M | $663M | $664M | Total debtDebt |
| $30M | $69M | $77M | $116M | $295M | $394M | $452M | $465M | $442M | $406M | $345M | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| $289M | $312M | $351M | $409M | $631M | $812M | $874M | $945M | $1.0B | $1.1B | — | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $5M | $6M | $7M | $16M | $91M | $95M | $97M | $111M | $108M | $131M | — | Redeemable interestsRedeemable |
| $114M | $106M | $116M | $123M | $35M | ($79M) | ($183M) | ($225M) | ($253M) | ($285M) | ($196M) | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 2.2% | 4.0% | 1.4% | 1.0% | 2.9% | 3.8% | 1.7% | 2.4% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1.0% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 46.5M | 44.6M | 46.3M | 49.4M | 49.7M | 50.1M | 52.0M | 53.3M | 53.8M | 55.0M | 64.4M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $5.22 | $5.98 | $6.68 | $6.94 | $1.66 | $2.94 | $8.10 | $10.69 | $11.98 | $14.03 | $12.91 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.10 | $-0.19 | $0.24 | $0.33 | $-1.99 | $-2.38 | $-2.14 | $-0.86 | $-0.58 | $-0.54 | $-0.27 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $0.31 | $0.80 | $0.77 | $0.74 | $-2.50 | $-0.14 | $-0.78 | $-0.08 | $1.09 | $1.16 | $1.69 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $-0.96 | $-0.62 | $0.04 | $-0.68 | $-4.98 | $-1.28 | $-0.78 | $-0.08 | $1.09 | $1.16 | $1.69 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $1.63 | $1.81 | $1.17 | $1.94 | $3.13 | $1.93 | $0.73 | $0.56 | $0.62 | $0.87 | $0.52 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $2.45 | $2.39 | $2.50 | $2.49 | $0.70 | $-1.57 | $-3.51 | $-4.23 | $-4.70 | $-5.18 | $-3.04 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +11.6%/yr | +53.3%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +15.9%/yr | — |
| Capital spending / share | −6.8%/yr | −22.6%/yr |
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cashEach 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.
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 a $30M loss into $64M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | ($30M) | ($31M) | ($46M) | ($111M) | ($119M) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$63M | +$53M | +$47M | +$44M | +$40M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$13M | +$10M | +$14M | +$7M | +$6M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$65M | +$61M | +$10M | +$58M | +$107M |
| Cash from operations | $112M | $92M | $25M | ($2M) | $32M |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$48M | −$34M | −$30M | −$38M | −$40M |
| Owner earnings | $64M | $59M | ($5M) | ($40M) | ($7M) |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | — | — | — | — | −$57M |
| Free cash flow | $64M | $59M | ($5M) | ($40M) | ($64M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 8% | 9% | -1% | -10% | -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 $13M), owner earnings is nearer $50M.
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.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- Interest expense not tagged in the data
What this means
No usable interest-expense line was tagged in the filing data, but the balance sheet carries real net debt — so the interest burden here is unknown, not absent. Read the debt on the net-debt check below.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $406M · 8.9× operating profitHeavy net debtCash $257M − debt $663M
What this means
Netting $257M of cash and short-term investments against $663M of debt leaves $406M owed, about 8.9× a year's operating profit (14.6× on the gross debt, before the cash). 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?
- Below average through the cycle10-yr median, range -28%–30%; 30% latest = NOPAT $36M ÷ invested capital $121MIndustry peers: median 9%
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 10 years (it ran 30% 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 through the cycle10-yr median margin, range -151%–13%; latest $64M = operating cash $112M − maintenance capex $48MIndustry peers: median 13%
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 8% of revenue this year, a 7% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $13M of SBC) leaves $50M.
- Loss, but cash-generativeNet income ($30M) · cash from operations $112M
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.
How is the cash used?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.76×HarvestingCapex $48M ÷ depreciation & amortization as filed $63M
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 · 0 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 MissRevenue ≥ $2B · $771M
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 MissCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 0.80×
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 MissDebt ≤ working capital · $663M vs ($94M) 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 MissA profit every year (10-yr record) · 7 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record —Uninterrupted dividends · no dividend line tagged in the data
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. This record carries no dividends-paid line in any year — common for partnerships, whose distributions file under tags the chain doesn't read — so the criterion is withheld rather than judged on silence.
- Earnings growth MissEarnings +33% over the record · −1510%
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 $-0.54/share (latest year $-0.45), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $-4.34/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 3 of 10
What this means
Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 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 6% → 4% (3-yr avg ends)
What this means
The recent-years average (4%) sits below the early years (6%), but the latest year (6%) is back near the early level: a cyclical trough dragging the window down, not a one-way slide. The through-cycle median is 3% — read it across the cycle, not on the dip.
- 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 +11%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 11% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2020 · −107.3% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +1.9%/yr
What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Jun 30, 2026Can 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.
- Cash & short-term investments$319M
- Other current assets$124M
- Accounts payable$15M
- Other current liabilities$510M
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2016–2025
Over the record, the business generated $371M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.
- Reinvested$708M · 191%
- Source of funding−$338M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $338M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $166M to $664M.
- Net change in share count38.5%
The diluted count rose from 46M to 64M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
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 | Ms. Leahy | $6.9M | $10.3M | ($7M) |
| 2021 | Ms. Leahy | $811k | −$896k | ($7M) |
| 2022 | Ms. Leahy | $1.6M | −$3.7M | ($40M) |
| 2023 | Ms. Leahy | $1.5M | −$1.8M | ($5M) |
| 2023 | Ms. Leahy | $2.4M | $2.8M | ($5M) |
| 2024 | Ms. Leahy | $725k | $579k | $59M |
| 2025 | Ms. Leahy | $6.3M | $7.4M | $64M |
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 ownership26.1%
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$13M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 1.7% of revenue, equal to 29.6% 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.
Peers, Cruise Lines
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Gross marginmedian over the record | Op. marginmedian over the record | ROICmedian over the record | Owner earn. marginmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCLCarnival Corp. | $26.6B | 38% | 15.0% | 9% | 13% |
| RCLRoyal Caribbean Cruises | $17.9B | 44% | 19.4% | 7% | 22% |
| NCLHNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. | $9.8B | 38% | 15.7% | 9% | 11% |
| LINDLindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. | $771M | 45% | 3.7% | 6% | 7% |
| Group median | — | 41% | 15.3% | 8% | 12% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. has delivered.
Through the cycle, Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. earns about $64M on its 8.3% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 8.3% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
—
9.0% = the 4.71% 10-year Treasury (Aug 18, 2026) + 4.29 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
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.
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.71%, as of Aug 18, 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 $109M on 66M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-07-27; net debt $345M. 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. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← LINC its page in the Manual LINE →
Industry order: ← CCL the Cruise Lines chapter NCLH →