Otter Tail
OTTR on Nasdaq. Electric services. Market value $3.7bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Good business, but not cheap right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See cheaper Utilities stocks on the list
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $-2.12 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 20.7 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 13 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 96 of 100. Price score: 46 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$89.20 a share, 20% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $74.15 to $95.09.
Dividend: 2.4% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: a shortfall of $79 million in the past 12 months, $98 million in the year to December 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $1.2bn | $1.5bn | $1.4bn | $1.3bn | $1.3bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 20.9% | 26.6% | 27.9% | 28.6% | 26.6% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.86 | 0.68 | 0.63 | 0.61 | 0.59 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.59× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 8.0% a year
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $335 million last quarter, up 1% on a year ago.
- A loss of $8 million, after a profit of $78 million a year ago.
- It keeps 17 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 27 cents a year earlier.
- Over the past 12 months it spent $79 million more cash than it brought in. A year earlier it had $81 million spare.
- About the same number of shares as a year ago.
- Debt is $908 million more than cash, up from $736 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $337m |
| December 2024 | $303m |
| March 2025 | $337m |
| June 2025 | $332m |
| September 2025 | $326m |
| December 2025 | $304m |
| March 2026 | $343m |
| June 2026 | $335m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $85m |
| December 2024 | $55m |
| March 2025 | $68m |
| June 2025 | $78m |
| September 2025 | $78m |
| December 2025 | $52m |
| March 2026 | $73m |
| June 2026 | -$8m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 18 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 4 November 2026
Who owns it
6 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 6 last quarter. 361 funds in all.
- GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli
- Value
- $24m
- Share of fund
- 0.2%
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $3m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce
- Value
- $3m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| LSV Asset ManagementJosef Lakonishok | $107m | 0.2% | Added |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $24m | 0.2% | |
| Hotchkis & WileyHotchkis & Wiley team | $7m | <0.1% | Added |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $3m | <0.1% | |
| Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce | $3m | <0.1% | |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $360,550 | <0.1% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$590mAdded
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$270m
- Vanguard Capital Management$170m
- State Street$148mAdded
- LSV Asset Management$107mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$100mAdded
- Morgan Stanley$80mAdded
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$75m
- TWO Sigma Investments, LP$65mAdded
- First Trust Advisors LP$57mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
3 investors own more than 5%.
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor7.1%Since 31 March 2026
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor5.2%Since 31 March 2026
- STATE STREET CORPORATIONPassive investor5.1%Since 30 June 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 7.1% | 31 March 2026 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 5.2% | 31 March 2026 | |
STATE STREET CORPORATION Passive investor | 5.1% | 30 June 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 1 sold $394,044.
- KNUTSON PAUL LVP, Human ResourcesSold
- Date
- 11 August 2026
- Shares
- 475
- Price
- $94.63
- Value
- $44,949
- KNUTSON PAUL LVP, Human ResourcesSold
- Date
- 10 August 2026
- Shares
- 250
- Price
- $92.84
- Value
- $23,210
- KNUTSON PAUL LVP, Human ResourcesSold
- Date
- 7 August 2026
- Shares
- 3,500
- Price
- $93.11
- Value
- $325,885
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 August 2026 | KNUTSON PAUL L VP, Human Resources | Sold | 475 | $94.63 | $44,949 |
| 10 August 2026 | KNUTSON PAUL L VP, Human Resources | Sold | 250 | $92.84 | $23,210 |
| 7 August 2026 | KNUTSON PAUL L VP, Human Resources | Sold | 3,500 | $93.11 | $325,885 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 18 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 5 Aug 2026 and 10 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
What changed in the risks this year
Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.
We are subject to risks associated with our supply chain and trade regulations and tariffs.
Could happenRecent federal legislation restricting the use of "foreign entities of concern" in the supply chain for energy-related projects may limit our ability to source certain components, particularly for renewable generation projects. Compliance with these requirements could result in higher project costs, longer lead times, the need to identify alternative suppliers and project delays.
Read moreWe are impacted by our customers' strategies, operational decisions and conditions in the end markets they serve .
Could happen• seasonality of demand for our customers’ products, which may cause our manufacturing capacity to be underutilized for periods of time; and • product design changes or manufacturing process changes that may reduce or eliminate demand for the components we supply.
We are subject to risks associated with our supply chain and trade regulations and tariffs.
Could happenChanges in trade policies, including tariffs and anti-dumping and countervailing duties, could increase the cost of certain materials used in constructing and maintaining our utility assets and impact the cost of raw materials used in our manufacturing processes. Specifically, tariffs arising from recent or ongoing anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations could impact the cost of components necessary in constructing certain renewable generation assets. The imposition of such tariffs could increase the cost of our capital investments for which we are not guaranteed recovery. Alternatively, modifications to our material sourcing may delay our project plans and lead to increased costs.
Read moreWe are subject to risks associated with our supply chain and trade regulations and tariffs.
Could happenWe face risks related to transportation logistics, including rail availability for coal and PVC resin, pipeline capacity and availability for natural gas and trucking capacity for steel and aluminum and other materials. Disruptions in these transportation systems, which can be caused by many factors outside of our control, could increase our costs or disrupt our operations.
Read more
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.