Mondelez International drew 9 news stories in the 24 hours to 30 October, against a usual 0.3 a day. The filings show why the attention is on cash: free cash flow rose 59.7% over the year against revenue growth of 6.0%, so each dollar of sales is turning into more cash than a year ago.
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts. Latest period shown: FY26 Q3.
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| Period | Revenue growth, TTM YoY | Operating margin (TTM) | FCF margin (TTM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY24 Q4 | 1.2% | 17.4% | 9.7% |
| FY25 Q1 | 0.9% | 11.8% | 9.1% |
| FY25 Q2 | 3.1% | 12.4% | 7.7% |
| FY25 Q3 | 4.1% | 11.2% | 6.1% |
| FY25 Q4 | 5.8% | 9.2% | 8.4% |
| FY26 Q1 | 7.8% | 9.4% | 6.6% |
| FY26 Q2 | 6.9% | 11.2% | 7.8% |
| FY26 Q3 | 6.0% | 13.7% | 9.2% |
Profit is outgrowing sales
Cash is pulling away from sales. Free cash flow reached $3.7 billion over the trailing twelve months, up 59.7% on the year before, while revenue grew just 6.0% to $39.9 billion. Operating cash flow rose 39.9% to $5.0 billion, and capital spending sat at $1.3 billion, or 3.4% of revenue. The free-cash-flow margin landed at 9.2% of revenue, up 3.1 percentage points from a year earlier.
Profit and cash are moving at different speeds. Net income rose 15.5% to $4.1 billion, while free cash flow rose 59.7%. Reports on 29 October described Q3 sales as in line with estimates while profits exceeded them, which matches the pattern in the filings where revenue grew 6.0% and net income grew 15.5%.
The operating margin widened 2.5 percentage points to 13.7% over the trailing twelve months. Gross margin stood at 34.3% and net margin at 10.2%. With revenue growing 6.0% and net income growing 15.5%, more of each extra dollar of revenue reached the bottom line. The average diluted share count fell 1.8% over the year, which narrows the gap between total profit growth and per-share growth but does not explain why cash is growing faster than profit.
Reports on 30 October framed the story around productivity and undervaluation, connecting the margin figures above to the valuation question.
Where Mondelez International's figures sit in its own record
Today's free-cash-flow margin of 9.2% is higher than 51% of the company's own past quarterly readings, which have ranged from 2.4% to 13.8%. The operating margin of 13.7% sits above 66% of past readings (2.9% to 32.3%). The twelve-month revenue growth rate of 6.0% is higher than 73% of past readings (−27.2% to 27.0%), though it was down 0.9 percentage points on the rate a quarter earlier.
The value hinges on margins more than growth
In our model, growth 5 percentage points lower would lower the value by 32.7%, and growth 5 percentage points higher would raise it by 42.7%. A free-cash-flow margin 1 percentage point lower would lower it by 12.7%.
What the filings cannot tell you at Mondelez International
Our figures run to Q3 2026, from the company's own filings; they cannot confirm, explain or rule out anything in the reports. The margin and cash-flow figures above bear on the productivity and undervaluation themes in the coverage, but the filings do not break out which product lines or geographies are driving the margin widening.