Valuation / Industry
Food Processing
78 US firms and 1,450 globally, in Damodaran’s 2026-01-05 snapshot. Among the 94 industries it ranks 75 by US cost of capital and 83 by US beta, and 73 and 84 respectively in the Global set. Ranks count down from the highest.
US cost of capital against all 94 industries
Orange: Food Processing, 5.79%. Grey caret: US total market, 6.96%.
US beta against all 94 industries
Orange: Food Processing, 0.61. Grey caret: US total market, 0.91.
Cost of capital
Weighted average cost of capital and its components
Cost of equity is the risk-free rate plus beta times the equity risk premium, both fixed across every industry in a region, so the only industry-specific input to it is beta. Cost of capital is the equity-weighted cost of equity plus the debt-weighted after-tax cost of debt; both identities were verified against these numbers at build time.
| US | US total market | Global | Global total market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firms | 78 | 5,994 | 1,450 | 48,156 |
| Levered beta | 0.61 | 0.91 | 0.67 | 1.04 |
| Cost of equity | 6.66% | 8.02% | 7.74% | 9.81% |
| Cost of debt (pre-tax) | 5.07% | 5.29% | 5.78% | 5.78% |
| Tax rate | 10.37% | 8.30% | 16.35% | 13.31% |
| Cost of debt (after tax) | 3.80% | 3.97% | 4.32% | 4.32% |
| Debt / (debt + equity) | 30.43% | 26.02% | 27.06% | 33.98% |
| Cost of capital | 5.79% | 6.96% | 6.82% | 7.94% |
Source: Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, current industry data Vintage 2026-01-05. Methodology
Risk
Betas and dispersion
The betas file and the cost-of-capital file each carry a standard deviation of the equity. They agree in 190 of the 192 rows the two files share and disagree in 2. Both are shown rather than one being chosen. Utility (Water) (Global): 33.5% in the cost-of-capital file, 42.1% in the betas file; Utility (Water) (US): 29.6% in the cost-of-capital file, 48.1% in the betas file.
| US | US total market | Global | Global total market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlevered beta | 0.46 | 0.72 | 0.53 | 0.75 |
| Unlevered beta, cash-corrected | 0.47 | 0.76 | 0.56 | 0.83 |
| Debt / equity | 43.73% | 35.17% | 37.10% | 51.48% |
| Cash / firm value | 2.56% | 4.50% | 5.82% | 9.70% |
| Standard deviation of equity (betas file) | 43.47% | 48.07% | 33.90% | 42.07% |
| Standard deviation in stock (cost-of-capital file) | 43.47% | 48.07% | 33.90% | 42.07% |
| Std dev of operating income, 10 yr | 9.38% | 27.75% | 14.52% | 24.29% |
Source: Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, current industry data Vintage 2026-01-05. Methodology
Multiples
Earnings
The aggregate ratios are total market capitalisation over total net income. The current, trailing and forward PEs are averages across the individual firms. They are not the same quantity.
| US | US total market | Global | Global total market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregate market cap / net income, all firms | 16.78 | 34.22 | 20.92 | 25.92 |
| Aggregate market cap / net income, profitable firms | 16.50 | 26.56 | 18.11 | 20.25 |
| Firms with negative trailing net income | 60.3% | 57.2% | 28.9% | 38.9% |
| Current PE (average across firms) | 30.97 | 72.19 | 52.98 | 80.20 |
| Trailing PE (average across firms) | 47.97 | 57.86 | 39.77 | 70.47 |
| Forward PE (average across firms) | 17.23 | 27.66 | 20.39 | 32.47 |
| Expected growth, next 5 years | 2.7% | 14.0% | 12.7% | 16.8% |
| PEG ratio | 6.21 | 1.90 | 1.43 | 1.21 |
Book value
| US | US total market | Global | Global total market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price / book | 1.80 | 4.61 | 2.19 | 2.48 |
| Return on equity | 4.6% | 17.2% | 10.5% | 11.9% |
| EV / invested capital | 2.41 | 2.74 | 2.04 | 1.83 |
| Return on invested capital | 15.9% | 9.0% | 12.0% | 6.7% |
Sales
| US | US total market | Global | Global total market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price / sales | 1.05 | 3.07 | 1.04 | 2.06 |
| Net margin | 2.8% | 9.7% | 4.7% | 8.5% |
| EV / sales | 1.47 | 3.97 | 1.34 | 2.82 |
| Pre-tax operating margin | 10.8% | 12.7% | 8.6% | 10.5% |
Enterprise value
| US | US total market | Global | Global total market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EV / EBITDA, all firms | 9.63 | 23.95 | 11.80 | 20.13 |
| EV / EBITDA, positive-EBITDA firms | 10.01 | 19.73 | 11.07 | 14.74 |
| EV / EBIT, all firms | 13.64 | 31.12 | 15.68 | 26.71 |
| EV / EBIT, positive-EBITDA firms | 13.61 | 29.12 | 15.46 | 21.71 |
Source: Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, current industry data Vintage 2026-01-05. Methodology
What is missing here
Every field above is populated for this industry in both regions.
This snapshot carries one vintage, 2026-01-05, and no other date column, so nothing on this page can be compared with an earlier or later reading of the same industry. The methodology page lists every trap found in the source.