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Buys, processes and supplies leaf tobacco to cigarette makers worldwide, and has diversified into food/flavor ingredients.
Buys, processes and supplies leaf tobacco to cigarette makers worldwide, and has diversified into food/flavor ingredients.
Buys leaf from farmers, often under advance and contract arrangements, then processes, stores and ships it to the big cigarette makers, earning a handling and processing margin rather than owning brands. Its ingredients unit, built through acquisitions such as FruitSmart, diversifies it away from tobacco.
Moat: narrow (scale, customer qualification). Long-standing farmer/grower relationships and processing scale, but tobacco leaf is a declining, commoditized category.
Headquarters: Richmond, Virginia · Founded: 1918 · Employees: 25,000
Size Universal (UVV) is a United States Consumer Staples company (Wholesale Distributors) with a market value of $981M, the 2262nd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $39.41 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 26.6%, against -5.0% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 5th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 3.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.1%); the operating margin is 6.2% (peer median 5.2%).
Valuation It trades at 10.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 12.4× (5th cheapest of 18).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -2% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +8%, so the hurdle is -10 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.9 points below its cost of capital (6.5% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 8.9% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 10 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.85B | $2.92B | $2.95B | $2.75B | $2.57B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | +7% | +7% | — |
| Gross profit | $478M | $508M | $549M | $528M | $454M |
| EBITDA | $230M | $262M | $304M | $278M | $239M |
| Net income | $19.1M | $32.6M | $95.0M | $120M | $124M |
| Free cash flow | $164M | $80.3M | $264M | -$141M | -$65.2M |
| Capital expenditure | $52.7M | $48.8M | $62.6M | $66.0M | $54.7M |
| Total debt | $1.22B | $940M | $1.10B | $1.06B | $849M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal UVV | $981M | -27% | -3% | 6% | 10.6× | -1.7% |
| China Tobacco International (HK) 6055.HK | $2.31B | -12% | -20% | 10% | 19.8× | 4.1% |
| Japan Tobacco 2914.T | $70.6B | +9% | +13% | 25% | 16.8× | -5.3% |
Peer set: Sector in the same market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | UVV | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -8.7% | -0.2% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -26.6% | -5.0% | 5th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -33.6% | -31.9% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -3.0% | +4.1% | 5th lowest of 19 |
| Operating margin | 6.2% | 5.2% | 10th highest of 20 |
| Forward P/E | 10.6× | 12.4× | 5th cheapest of 18 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -1.7% | 4.1% | 5th least demanding of 14 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +8.1% | +6.2% | 5th highest of 14 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -9.8 pp | -4.4 pp | 7th least demanding of 14 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -0.9 pp | -1.3 pp | 10th highest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.0× | 10.0× | 7th cheapest of 15 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.5× | 3.5× | 7th most indebted of 19 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal UVV | United States | $981M | -27% | -3% | 6% | 10.6× | -1.7% | +8.1% |
| Mission Produce AVO | United States | $1.02B | -11% | -6% | 4% | 16.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Seneca Foods SENEA | United States | $1.03B | +9% | +12% | 9% | 10.9× | -15.1% | +2.5% |
| Simply Good Foods SMPL | United States | $1.05B | -2% | -7% | 13% | 7.9× | -12.3% | +6.2% |
| Westrock Coffee WEST | United States | $878M | +9% | +39% | 0% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Agencia Comercial Spirits AGCC | United States | $804M | -24% | +145% | 13% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| AIR Global AIIR | United States | $1.20B | n/a | n/a | 16% | 24.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Grocery Outlet GO | United States | $1.29B | +59% | +5% | 4% | 21.6× | 4.4% | +8.4% |
| Edgewell Personal Care EPC | United States | $1.29B | +32% | -7% | 6% | 12.4× | 4.1% | +2.7% |
| Del Monte DMC | United States | $1.29B | -27% | +1% | 4% | 12.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Adecoagro AGRO | United States | $1.30B | -31% | +7% | 2% | 5.3× | 37.5% | +12.1% |
| Dole DOLE | United States | $1.31B | -7% | +8% | 2% | 10.6× | 4.1% | +16.1% |
| Turning Point Brands TPB | United States | $1.32B | -29% | +20% | 17% | 71.8× | 11.0% | +2.7% |
| Krispy Kreme DNUT | United States | $723M | +16% | -5% | 0% | 50.0× | 23.2% | +6.3% |
| Cresud SA Sponsored ADR CRESY | United States | $709M | -18% | +11% | 16% | 7.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Flowers Foods FLO | United States | $1.42B | -20% | +2% | 6% | 8.8× | -7.6% | +3.7% |
| Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage NGVC | United States | $659M | +8% | +2% | 5% | 12.9× | 10.6% | +5.1% |
| John B. Sanfilippo & Son JBSS | United States | $643M | -29% | +3% | 7% | 11.4× | -8.2% | +6.5% |
| Mama's Creations MAMA | United States | $632M | +2% | +54% | 5% | 46.4× | 17.6% | +33.3% |
| Ingles Markets IMKTA | United States | $1.53B | -5% | +1% | 3% | n/a | -1.4% | +3.0% |
| Yesway YSWY | United States | $1.56B | -4% | n/a | n/a | 21.2× | n/a | n/a |