# GrafTech International (EAF.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/EAF

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:28:09.177Z. Financial observations: FY1996–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $7.36 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 6 revenue declines in the last 10 years

- more than 5 revenue declines in ten years

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 6

- Years with a net loss: 4

- Operating margin variation: 1.60×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.06×

- FY2018: 0.60×

- FY2019: 0.54×

- FY2020: 0.48×

- FY2021: 0.38×

- FY2022: 0.36×

- FY2023: -0.09×

- FY2024: -0.14×

- FY2025: -0.15×

- LTM to Jun 2026: -0.17×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 32.4pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 47.3%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -8.7%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 32.4 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 29.2%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): -3.1%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 1

- Capital spending / revenue: 6.0%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 31.8%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -9.0%

- FY2017: >100%

- FY2018: >100%

- FY2019: 98.0%

- FY2020: 64.2%

- FY2021: 53.4%

- FY2022: 41.3%

- FY2023: -5.0%

- FY2024: -7.8%

- FY2025: -8.7%

### economics: fail

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- working capital as a share of revenue rose more than 10pp and ends positive

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.27×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $209M

- Net income, five-year total: $165M

- Return on incremental invested capital: 0.0%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 1.8 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 15.6 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 54.2%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.02×

- FY2022: 0.96×

- FY2023: 0.99×

- FY2024: 0.79×

- FY2025: 0.90×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2018 to 2025 (7 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 100.0% vs -7.8%

- Per-share earnings: -5.10 to -8.45 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: -1.5%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -0.6%

- Market cap gain: $68M

- Cumulative retained earnings: $881M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -1.5%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -0.6%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2018

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: -$3.35

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$5.10

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$8.45

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.81

- Average buyback yield: 28.4%

- Buyback history: 8 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: $0

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $2.0B

- ROIC, first three-year median: >100%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -7.8%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -$7.80

- FY2017: $0.26

- FY2018: $29.40

- FY2019: $26.12

- FY2020: $16.25

- FY2021: $14.74

- FY2022: $14.91

- FY2023: -$9.92

- FY2024: -$5.09

- FY2025: -$8.45

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -13.4%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.68×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 0

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -22.1%

- FY2017: -2.4%

- FY2018: 1.2%

- FY2019: -4.0%

- FY2020: -9.0%

- FY2021: -3.9%

- FY2022: 3.6%

- FY2023: -25.7%

- FY2024: -7.4%

- FY2025: -13.4%

## Holders

- [Donald Yacktman](https://gigainvestors.com/YAM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 53% since Dec 2025 · sales +1.7%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:40.026Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +1.7%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931148/000093114826000017/gti-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-13.

- FY2017: $551M 

- FY2018: $1.9B 

- FY2019: $1.8B 

- FY2020: $1.2B 

- FY2021: $1.3B 

- FY2022: $1.3B 

- FY2023: $621M 

- FY2024: $539M 

- FY2025: $504M 

- FY2026: $513M 

### Gross margin · FY2023

gross margin 4.3%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931148/000093114826000017/gti-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-13.

- FY2017: 15.9% 

- FY2018: 62.7% 

- FY2019: 57.6% 

- FY2020: 53.6% 

- FY2021: 48.6% 

- FY2022: 42.6% 

- FY2023: 4.3% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in electrical equipment & parts; annual sales are USD 504.1 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931148/000093114826000017/gti-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: revenue 504134000; grossProfit -15677000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-05); EAF.US: GrafTech International Ltd. manufactures graphite electrode products worldwide. The company offers graphite electrode products for the production of EAF steel and other ferrous, and non-ferrous metals; and petroleum needle coke products. It serves steel producers, and other ferrous and non-ferrous metal producers through direct sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio.

### Why customers stay

It earns 47.3% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 4.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = -4.1%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931148/000093114826000017/gti-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = -3.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,-0.09026240313647069],[2017,1.000001],[2018,1.2446484103003685],[2019,0.9801963844005329],[2020,0.6423643010399479],[2021,0.5338763011023832],[2022,0.4125395095574041],[2023,-0.05019170219823007],[2024,-0.07752482990640401],[2025,-0.08739259686701088]]; median 0.47320790532989365. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 8 of 10 years; bought back USD 230000 of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2017: growth capex 0; upkeep 34664000; owner earnings 40619000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2018: growth capex 1821000; upkeep 66400000; owner earnings 854219000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.0021317718290040375.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2019: growth capex 0; upkeep 64103000; owner earnings 742318000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2020: growth capex 0; upkeep 36075000; owner earnings 461262000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 58257000; owner earnings 395788999. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 72165000; owner earnings 366293000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); Dividend observations: [[2016,1340865000],[2017,1340865000],[2018,1544265000],[2019,98623000],[2020,30875000],[2021,10645000],[2022,10329000],[2023,5134000],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931148/000093114826000017/gti-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: cash repurchases 230000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 41.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-05); EAF.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 41.493 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-05.

### What the price says

The price is 0.4 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); Closing price 7.36 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 19.38606798302047; price multiple 0.3796540900633562. FY2025 cash earnings/share -7.578437716737466. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2018-04: $15.98 per share

- 2018-05: $18.35 per share

- 2018-06: $17.99 per share

- 2018-07: $21.20 per share

- 2018-08: $18.48 per share

- 2018-09: $19.51 per share

- 2018-10: $17.88 per share

- 2018-11: $15.81 per share

- 2018-12: $11.44 per share

- 2019-01: $13.21 per share

- 2019-02: $14.42 per share

- 2019-03: $12.79 per share

- 2019-04: $11.45 per share

- 2019-05: $9.91 per share

- 2019-06: $11.50 per share

- 2019-07: $11.45 per share

- 2019-08: $12.19 per share

- 2019-09: $12.80 per share

- 2019-10: $12.08 per share

- 2019-11: $14.09 per share

- 2019-12: $11.62 per share

- 2020-01: $10.73 per share

- 2020-02: $8.16 per share

- 2020-03: $8.12 per share

- 2020-04: $8.12 per share

- 2020-05: $6.84 per share

- 2020-06: $7.98 per share

- 2020-07: $6.07 per share

- 2020-08: $6.66 per share

- 2020-09: $6.84 per share

- 2020-10: $6.75 per share

- 2020-11: $7.90 per share

- 2020-12: $10.66 per share

- 2021-01: $9.70 per share

- 2021-02: $11.83 per share

- 2021-03: $12.23 per share

- 2021-04: $12.72 per share

- 2021-05: $13.28 per share

- 2021-06: $11.62 per share

- 2021-07: $11.37 per share

- 2021-08: $11.07 per share

- 2021-09: $10.32 per share

- 2021-10: $10.70 per share

- 2021-11: $11.65 per share

- 2021-12: $11.83 per share

- 2022-01: $10.48 per share

- 2022-02: $10.08 per share

- 2022-03: $9.62 per share

- 2022-04: $9.08 per share

- 2022-05: $8.68 per share

- 2022-06: $7.07 per share

- 2022-07: $7.70 per share

- 2022-08: $5.88 per share

- 2022-09: $4.31 per share

- 2022-10: $5.09 per share

- 2022-11: $5.40 per share

- 2022-12: $4.76 per share

- 2023-01: $6.54 per share

- 2023-02: $5.65 per share

- 2023-03: $4.86 per share

- 2023-04: $4.71 per share

- 2023-05: $4.29 per share

- 2023-06: $5.04 per share

- 2023-07: $5.28 per share

- 2023-08: $3.54 per share

- 2023-09: $3.83 per share

- 2023-10: $3.45 per share

- 2023-11: $2.47 per share

- 2023-12: $2.19 per share

- 2024-01: $1.33 per share

- 2024-02: $1.76 per share

- 2024-03: $1.38 per share

- 2024-04: $1.72 per share

- 2024-05: $1.65 per share

- 2024-06: $0.97 per share

- 2024-07: $0.77 per share

- 2024-08: $0.69 per share

- 2024-09: $1.32 per share

- 2024-10: $1.70 per share

- 2024-11: $1.96 per share

- 2024-12: $1.73 per share

- 2025-01: $1.50 per share

- 2025-02: $1.17 per share

- 2025-03: $0.87 per share

- 2025-04: $0.63 per share

- 2025-05: $1.00 per share

- 2025-06: $0.97 per share

- 2025-07: $1.39 per share

- 2025-08: $9.88 per share

- 2025-09: $12.82 per share

- 2025-10: $13.50 per share

- 2025-11: $14.42 per share

- 2025-12: $15.51 per share

- 2026-01: $15.11 per share

- 2026-02: $6.95 per share

- 2026-03: $6.78 per share

- 2026-04: $8.50 per share

- 2026-05: $9.98 per share

- 2026-06: $5.91 per share

- 2026-07: $6.72 per share

- 2026-08: $7.20 per share

- 2026-09: $8.27 per share

- 2026-10: $7.36 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2019: low $52.90 per share, central $60.80 per share, high $70.40 per share

- FY2020: low $193.13 per share, central $219.13 per share, high $253.75 per share

- FY2021: low $211.46 per share, central $240.46 per share, high $279.06 per share

- FY2022: low $209.61 per share, central $237.93 per share, high $275.62 per share

- FY2023: low $83.94 per share, central $94.64 per share, high $108.87 per share

- FY2024: low $74.87 per share, central $83.88 per share, high $95.87 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931148/000093114826000017/gti-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-13.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.