Is the business good?
How good a business is CNM?
Core & Main, Inc. earns 14% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
14%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 5.3 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 9.5%
Operating margin · Industrial Distribution median 8.5% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.35×
Cash conversion · 1.39× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −1.5%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 5.1% |
| FY2021 | 8.5% |
| FY2022 | 12% |
| FY2023 | 11% |
| FY2024 | 9.7% |
| FY2025 | 9.4% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 27%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 9.5%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 5.9%
- Free cash flow margin
- 8.0%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $7.65B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $608M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $449M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 14%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Industrial Distribution
Ranks #4 of 17 by Smart Score