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CMP, Compass Minerals Intl Inc

Metals & Mining capital-intensive Cyclical

Compass Minerals International, Inc. through its subsidiaries is a leading provider of essential minerals, primarily salt and plant nutrition.

Our production sites are located in the United States ("U.S."), Canada and the United Kingdom ("UK").

Optimizing inventory volumes and associated cash impacts, while ensuring market opportunities are met.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

CMP · Compass Minerals Intl Inc

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$1.2B

+11.3% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $1.3B 5-yr avg $1.2B

Operating margin 9.3% 5-yr avg 2.2%

Owner-earnings margin 8% 5-yr avg 1%

Free cash flow margin 8% 5-yr avg 1%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is Highway Deicing Salt (52%), Consumer & Industrial Salt (31%) and SOP (18%).
Situation: Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 7.4% through the cycle, a thin margin, where volume, cost discipline and the price it gets all bear on the result. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −10% and 15% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Inventory runs near 25% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. Read this kind of business on the commodity price and the cost position. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 4%, above 15% in 0 of 8 years). By owner earnings: roughly 4% of revenue reaches owners as cash, though it swings. The cycle and the balance sheet decide this one; the worst year tells more than the median, and the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 4 lines, the largest Highway Deicing Salt at 52%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025

Highway Deicing Salt52%$643M
Consumer & Industrial Salt31%$380M
SOP18%$219M
Eliminations & Other0%$3M

By geographyUnited States70%Canada23%United Kingdom5%Other1%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$1.1B	$1.4B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.3B	RevenueRevenue
11%	12%	10%	10%	12%	11%	11%	12%	12%	9%	8%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$175M	$159M	$80M	$120M	$103M	$106M	$45M	$77M	($117M)	$25M	$121M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
15.3%	11.7%	7.4%	11.0%	10.2%	9.2%	3.6%	6.4%	−10.5%	2.0%	9.3%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$163M	$43M	$65M	$61M	$63M	($186M)	($21M)	$11M	($206M)	($80M)	$7M	Net incomeNet inc.
18%	58%	11%	13%	3%	—	—	—	—	—	—	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$167M	$151M	$182M	$160M	$175M	$141M	$120M	$106M	$14M	$198M	$175M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$90M	$122M	$137M	$138M	$138M	$129M	$113M	$99M	$105M	$103M	$105M	DepreciationDeprec.
($91M)	($19M)	($27M)	($45M)	($35M)	$188M	$13M	($24M)	$107M	$164M	$56M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$182M	$114M	$97M	$98M	$85M	$86M	$97M	$154M	$114M	$70M	$75M	CapexCapex
16.0%	8.4%	9.0%	9.0%	8.4%	7.5%	7.8%	12.8%	10.2%	5.6%	5.8%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($15M)	$37M	$86M	$62M	$90M	$56M	$24M	($48M)	($100M)	$128M	$100M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−1.3%	2.7%	7.9%	5.7%	9.0%	4.9%	1.9%	−4.0%	−8.9%	10.3%	7.8%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($15M)	$37M	$86M	$62M	$90M	$56M	$24M	($48M)	($100M)	$128M	$100M	Free cash flowFCF
−1.3%	2.7%	7.9%	5.7%	9.0%	4.9%	1.9%	−4.0%	−8.9%	10.3%	7.8%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$278M	$0	$0	—	—	$800K	$0	$19M	$0	$0	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$94M	$98M	$98M	$98M	$99M	$98M	$21M	$25M	$13M	$0	$0	Dividends paidDiv. paid
7%	4%	4%	6%	6%	—	2%	3%	-7%	—	—	ROICROIC
23%	6%	12%	12%	16%	-62%	-8%	2%	-65%	-34%	3%	Return on equityROE
10%	−8%	−6%	−7%	−9%	−95%	−16%	−3%	−69%	−34%	3%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$77M	$37M	$27M	$18M	$11M	$18M	$46M	$39M	$20M	$60M	$74M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$321M	$345M	$312M	$223M	$185M	$133M	$167M	$129M	$126M	$180M	$223M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$281M	$290M	$267M	$229M	$299M	$322M	$313M	$400M	$414M	$312M	$179M	InventoryInvent.
$101M	$124M	$111M	$87M	$83M	$90M	$115M	$117M	$82M	$96M	$101M	Accounts payablePayables
$501M	$511M	$467M	$366M	$401M	$365M	$366M	$412M	$458M	$396M	$301M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$715M	$738M	$721M	$780M	$756M	$531M	$571M	$601M	$587M	$572M	$508M	Current assetsCur. assets
$372M	$268M	$283M	$296M	$297M	$195M	$233M	$275M	$217M	$266M	$247M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.9×	2.8×	2.5×	2.6×	2.5×	2.7×	2.5×	2.2×	2.7×	2.2×	2.1×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$412M	$405M	$351M	$55M	$56M	$58M	$56M	$89M	$6M	$6M	$6M	GoodwillGoodwill
$2.5B	$2.6B	$2.4B	$2.4B	$2.3B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$1.4B	Total assetsAssets
$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$935M	$948M	$805M	$934M	$848M	$725M	Total debtDebt
$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$917M	$902M	$767M	$914M	$788M	$651M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
5.1×	3.0×	1.6×	2.1×	1.6×	1.8×	0.8×	1.4×	-1.7×	0.4×	1.7×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$717M	$689M	$530M	$518M	$384M	$298M	$265M	$521M	$317M	$234M	$274M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.4%	0.4%	0.7%	0.6%	0.9%	0.9%	1.3%	1.7%	0.7%	0.8%	0.6%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$83M	$54M	$700K	Goodwill written downGW imp.
											Per share
33.8M	33.8M	33.8M	33.9M	33.9M	34.0M	34.1M	40.8M	41.3M	41.8M	42.3M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$33.69	$40.34	$31.89	$32.03	$29.62	$33.65	$36.49	$29.54	$27.05	$29.74	$30.53	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$4.82	$1.26	$1.91	$1.79	$1.86	$-5.46	$-0.62	$0.26	$-4.99	$-1.91	$0.17	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.44	$1.10	$2.53	$1.82	$2.66	$1.63	$0.70	$-1.18	$-2.42	$3.06	$2.37	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.44	$1.10	$2.53	$1.82	$2.66	$1.63	$0.70	$-1.18	$-2.42	$3.06	$2.37	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$2.79	$2.88	$2.89	$2.90	$2.92	$2.88	$0.61	$0.61	$0.31	$0.00	$0.00	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$5.39	$3.37	$2.86	$2.90	$2.50	$2.52	$2.83	$3.78	$2.76	$1.67	$1.77	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$21.23	$20.36	$15.66	$15.28	$11.31	$8.75	$7.77	$12.77	$7.66	$5.60	$6.48	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−1.4%/yr	+0.1%/yr
Owner earnings / share	—	+2.8%/yr
Capital spending / share	−12.2%/yr	−7.8%/yr
Book value / share	−13.8%/yr	−13.1%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

42Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

−7%low FY2024

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

6.2×peak FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$128Mowner earningsvs.($80M)net incomelow FY2024

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned a $80M loss into $128M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	($80M)	($206M)	$11M	($21M)	($186M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$103M	+$105M	+$99M	+$113M	+$129M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$10M	+$8M	+$21M	+$16M	+$10M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$164M	+$107M	−$24M	+$13M	+$188M
Cash from operations	$198M	$14M	$106M	$120M	$141M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$70M	−$114M	−$154M	−$97M	−$86M
Owner earnings	$128M	($100M)	($48M)	$24M	$56M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	10%	-9%	-4%	2%	5%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $10M), owner earnings is nearer $118M.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Material weakness in financial controls

“Risks Related to our Restatement and Internal Controls Management identified material weaknesses in the Company's internal control over financial reporting that resulted in errors in financial statements.”

The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 0.4×

Does not cover its interest

Operating income $25M ÷ interest expense $69M

What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $788M · 31.1× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $60M − debt $848M

What this means
Netting $60M of cash and short-term investments against $848M of debt leaves $788M owed, about 31.1× a year's operating profit (33.5× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 4%

Below average through the cycle

8-yr median, range -7%–7%; the latest year is left out — large non-operating charges put its operating line well above pretax profit

Industry peers: median 7%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 8 years, so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 3%

Thin through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range -9%–10%; latest $128M = operating cash $198M − maintenance capex $70M

Industry peers: median 4%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 10% of revenue this year, a 3% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $10M of SBC) leaves $118M.
Are earnings backed by cash? $198M

Loss, but cash-generative

Net income ($80M) · cash from operations $198M

In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.

What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 0%

Reinvests most of it

Dividends + buybacks $0 ÷ Owner Earnings $128M

What this means
Of $128M Owner Earnings, $0 (0%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 0.68×

Harvesting

Capex $70M ÷ depreciation $103M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 1 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Near

Revenue ≥ $2B · $1.2B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 2.15×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $848M vs $307M WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 4 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Near

Uninterrupted dividends · 9 of 10 yrs

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Miss

Earnings +33% over the record · −202%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-2.19/share (latest year $-1.90), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $5.58/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 6 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 11% → −1% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words Input costs rose and the filing says it could not fully pass them on — which is where this margin compressed.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 11% early to −1% lately, median 7% — competition or costs are biting in.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth +3%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 3% a year over the record.
Worst year 2024 · −10.5% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2024, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +2.4%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
Dividend record paid

What this means
Paid a dividend in 9 of the years on record.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$508M

Cash & short-term investments$74M
Receivables$223M
Inventory$179M
Other current assets$32M

Current liabilities$247M

Accounts payable$101M
Other current liabilities$146M

Current ratio2.06×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.34×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.30×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$262Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−8.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters2.9× → 2.1×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$264Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Debt incl. operating leases$763M$50M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$0

'27$46M

'28$150M

'29$0

'30$650M

Bars scaled to the largest single year.

Due in the next 12 months$0the first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$46Mthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$650Min 2030the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Due over the next five years$846Mthe near slice; the balance sheet carries $848M of debt in all

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Sep 30, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the balance-sheet debt.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $1.4B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$1.1B · 77%
Dividends$643M · 45%

Returned to owners$643M
202% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $643M as dividends and $0 as buybacks.
Source of funding−$324M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $324M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.
Net change in share count25.2%
The diluted count rose from 34M to 42M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$0.00/sh
Paid in 9 of the years on record. It was cut at least once along the way.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$30M2% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity3%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$297Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $1.1B of capital spent building

$137M written down across 2 years (2024, 2025): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. That is roughly 46% of the cash it put into acquisitions over the span. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	$5.8M	$3.9M	$56M
2022	$10.6M	$4.9M	$24M
2023	$9.2M	$2.9M	($48M)
2024	$5.8M	$5.4M	($100M)
2024	$10.4M	$1.5M	($100M)
2025	$6.3M	$8.8M	$128M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
CEO pay ratio68:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
Stock-based compensation$10M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 40% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Compass Minerals Intl Inc is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

2 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?25.2%
Diluted shares grew 25.2% over 2016–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?5 of 10 years
Management took an impairment or write-down in 5 of the last 10 years, $710M in all. Taken across the majority of the record, the "one-time" label is wearing thin — ask whether these are past deals coming due rather than genuinely isolated events. Read it beside the goodwill the company still carries.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Credit & receivables, Inventory as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Metals & Mining

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
MLMMartin Marietta Materials Inc.	$6.2B	25%	19.1%	9%	13%
KNFKnife Riv Holding Co.	$3.1B	18%	9.1%	13%	4%
MDUMDU Resources Group, Inc.	$1.9B	—	9.9%	5%	-0%
HLHecla Mining Company	$1.4B	22%	10.0%	-0%	2%
CMPCompass Minerals Intl Inc	$1.2B	—	8.3%	4%	4%
LEUCentrus Energy Corp.	$449M	26%	11.0%	—	7%
USLMUnited States Lime & Minerals Inc.	$373M	30%	22.1%	21%	18%
IPIIntrepid Potash Inc	$298M	—	-2.1%	-1%	-3%
Group median	—	—	9.9%	5%	4%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Compass Minerals Intl Inc has delivered.

Compass Minerals Intl Inc’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Compass Minerals Intl Inc earns about $47M on its 3.8% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 10.3% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($47M) Net of stock comp (−$8M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25−23%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+3%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $100M on 42M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-30; net debt $651M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh CMP against another business →

The owners of CMP: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Compass Minerals Intl Inc (CMP), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CMP, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CMI its page in the Manual CMPR →

Industry order: ← CENX the Metals & Mining chapter CSTM →