Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Aug 11, 2026
Core Natural Resources, Inc. (CNR)
A forensic read on Core Natural Resources, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.8
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-72.7
P / E (ttm)
-4.2%
ROE
$4.6B
Market cap
0.44%
Dividend yield
86.2%
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). 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.
Core Natural Resources, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.8, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+92.2%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +92.2% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by inventory up +290% against +86% in revenue and receivables up +155% against revenue +86%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 18% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
-2.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.9% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 26% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
21d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 15 to 21 FY2024→FY2025 (against revenue (COGS not disclosed); inventory +290% vs +86% in revenue). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
n/m (stock split)
FY2022–FY2025
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed +44% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2025 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw +12.9%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.16B
Revenue Growth YoY+86.2%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+25.6%
Net Margin-3.7%
Free Cash Flow$21.2M
Return on Equity-4.2%
Debt / Equity0.11x
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 Core Natural Resources, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Core Natural Resources, Inc. (CNR) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
1183% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $251M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 1183% of free cash flow, but 82% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $33M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 1339%.
-79%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~79% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies. Measured on total dividend dollars rather than per share: the reported share count steps sharply around FY2025, a stock-split seam between filing vintages rather than a change in the payout, and a split leaves the dollars paid untouched.