Forensic Analysis · Primary Metals & Steel · as of Nov 9, 2026
Commercial Metals Co (CMC)
A forensic read on Commercial Metals Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.4
Distress distance
2
Forensic signals
14.8%
ROE
20.5%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Commercial Metals Co earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+13.9%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.9% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. Net operating assets also rose $2.0B through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by PP&E up +26% against revenue +20% and receivables up +20% against revenue +20%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 7% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 13.9%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
12.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.0% in the latest fiscal year, against 10.1% in FY2024, having run between 2.4% and 12.0% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $522M in FY2024 and $769M in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +24% across FY2024–FY2026, from $5.2B to $6.4B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 10.1% the older base was already earning.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$9.39B
Revenue Growth YoY+20.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.9%
Net Margin7.0%
Free Cash Flow$479.1M
Return on Equity14.8%
Debt / Equity0.72x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Commercial Metals Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?