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Distributes water, sewer, storm drainage and fire-protection products to municipalities and contractors.
Distributes water, sewer, storm drainage and fire-protection products to municipalities and contractors.
Buys pipe, valves, hydrants and meters from manufacturers and resells them from local branches, earning a distribution mark-up, and pipe prices swing with commodity costs. Municipal repair and replacement budgets supply steady demand, while new housing development drives the rest. Grows by buying small regional distributors.
Moat: narrow (distribution, scale, installed base). Deep municipal-specification relationships and branch density are costly for new entrants to build.
Headquarters: St. Louis, Missouri, USA · Founded: 2001 · Employees: 5,600
Size Core & Main (CNM) is a United States Industrials company (Wholesale Distributors) with a market value of $8.76B, the 842nd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $45.97 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 6.4%, against +2.5% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 9th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 0.5% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.4%); the operating margin is 9.7% (peer median 9.5%).
Valuation It trades at 14.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 19.2× (4th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 5% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +16%, so the hurdle is -11 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 4.3 points above its cost of capital (8.5% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 6.3% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 8 Dec 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $7.70B | $7.65B | $7.44B | $6.70B | $6.65B |
| Revenue growth | — | +3% | +11% | +1% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.90B | $1.88B | $1.80B | $1.67B | $1.66B |
| EBITDA | $930M | $914M | $916M | $895M | $924M |
| Net income | $459M | $441M | $411M | $371M | $366M |
| Free cash flow | $609M | $604M | $586M | $1.03B | $376M |
| Capital expenditure | $55.0M | $46.0M | $35.0M | $39.0M | $25.0M |
| Total debt | $2.75B | $2.44B | $2.51B | $2.07B | $1.63B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core & Main CNM | $8.76B | -6% | -1% | 10% | 14.3× | 5.3% |
| Ferguson Enterprises FERG | $45.2B | -3% | +8% | 10% | 19.4× | 9.9% |
| WESCO International WCC | $14.2B | -18% | +14% | 6% | 14.1× | 10.4% |
| Reece REH.AX | $7.83B | +44% | +4% | 6% | 35.5× | 24.2% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | CNM | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +13.9% | +3.4% | highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -6.4% | +2.5% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -22.9% | -14.7% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -0.5% | +4.4% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 9.7% | 9.5% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 14.3× | 19.2× | 4th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 5.3% | 10.1% | 4th least demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +16.0% | +9.0% | 6th highest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -10.7 pp | -0.9 pp | 2nd least demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +4.3 pp | +1.3 pp | 8th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 12.1× | 13.3× | 7th cheapest of 19 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.6× | 2.2× | 6th most indebted of 19 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core & Main CNM | United States | $8.76B | -6% | -1% | 10% | 14.3× | 5.3% | +16.0% |
| Addtech ADDT-B.ST | Sweden | $8.66B | -2% | +4% | 13% | 30.7× | 19.3% | +14.9% |
| Hotai Motor 2207.TW | Taiwan | $8.90B | +10% | +8% | 11% | 13.2× | 1.5% | +3.9% |
| Finning International FTT.TO | Canada | $8.20B | -9% | 0% | 8% | 17.5× | 10.1% | +11.3% |
| Beijer Ref BEIJ-B.ST | Sweden | $8.09B | +27% | +4% | 10% | 28.0× | 14.0% | +21.4% |
| Reece REH.AX | Australia | $7.83B | +44% | +4% | 6% | 35.5× | 24.2% | +8.4% |
| Brenntag BNR.DE | Germany | $10.0B | 0% | -5% | 5% | 14.5× | 1.9% | +5.2% |
| Zhejiang China Commodities City 600415.SS | China | $10.0B | -7% | +22% | 22% | 14.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Applied Industrial Technologies AIT | United States | $10.3B | -8% | +8% | 11% | 23.0× | 8.6% | +8.9% |
| Toromont Industries TIH.TO | Canada | $10.7B | -15% | +16% | 15% | 20.2× | 7.6% | +8.4% |
| MonotaRO 3064.T | Japan | $7.04B | +22% | +19% | 14% | 29.6× | 9.7% | +16.2% |
| Imcd IMCD.AS | Netherlands | $6.80B | +7% | +3% | 8% | 18.2× | 10.9% | +11.5% |
| Royal Vopak VPK.AS | Netherlands | $6.51B | +14% | +1% | 29% | 15.5× | 8.8% | +1.8% |
| Bollore BOL.PA | France | $11.8B | -28% | -83% | -7% | 36.9× | 37.0% | -29.4% |
| SGH SGH.AX | Australia | $11.9B | +7% | -1% | 13% | 18.1× | 11.4% | +17.0% |
| Rexel RXL.PA | France | $11.9B | -10% | +1% | 6% | 13.5× | 7.7% | +9.0% |
| QXO QXO | United States | $12.0B | -38% | +408% | -1% | 29.2× | 52.0% | +178.0% |
| Bunzl BNZL.L | United Kingdom | $12.0B | +22% | +2% | 7% | 15.3× | 2.3% | +3.2% |
| MSC Industrial Direct MSM | United States | $6.33B | +9% | +6% | 9% | 20.1× | 9.0% | +4.3% |
| Diploma DPLM.L | United Kingdom | $12.6B | +4% | +13% | 22% | 27.5× | 23.9% | +23.1% |
| WESCO International WCC | United States | $14.2B | -18% | +14% | 6% | 14.1× | 10.4% | +13.8% |