CluenexPost Holdings POST
Post Holdings scores weak on business quality (3.6 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Post Holdings does
Post Holdings sells consumer packaged goods, focusing on shelf-stable and refrigerated foods, generating revenue by selling branded and private-label products primarily through major retail channels. The company is actively executing aggressive capital allocation via buybacks, utilizing $1.2B to repurchase shares while managing ongoing operational scaling.
- What it does best
Post dominates through scale in cereal and food service manufacturing, achieving an operating margin of 9.9% that outpaces peers like PPC at 5.1%. This operational footprint creates hard-to-replicate supply chain efficiencies across diverse food segments.
- The main risk
The heavy debt load creates a tight margin for error, with total debt of $7.4B and an interest coverage ratio of just 2.0x, leaving the company heavily exposed to any earnings compression or interest rate volatility.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin stands at 9.9% and FCF margin sits around 6.6%, reflecting stable but low profitability ranking in the 44th sector percentile. Scale yields modest margin gains rather than explosive returns.
The moat is built on entrenched consumer brands and manufacturing scale, putting it in the middle of the pack at the 39th percentile for gross margins. Rival entry is blocked by high retail slotting costs.
Revenue reached $8.4B, ticking up at a 3.0% growth rate. This sits squarely in the middle of the pack at the 46th sector percentile, showing steady but unspectacular expansion.
Debt-to-equity sits at nearly 2.0 and interest coverage is weak at 2.0x, leaving little cushion. Free cash flow of $553M helps, but the balance sheet is softening under heavy obligations.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on POST
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Post Holdings scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (3.6 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat weak, growth steady and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 18, 2026, after the close.
See POST today
- Today's verdict on POST, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Post Holdings (POST)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/post/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.