Owner Scorecard


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PRIM, Primoris Services

Construction & Engineering capital-intensive

Primoris Services Corporation is a leading provider of critical infrastructure services operating mainly in the United States and Canada.

We provide a wide range of construction, maintenance, replacement, and engineering services to a diversified base of customers through our two segments: Utilities and Energy.

We have longstanding customer relationships with solar facility developers, power producers, gas and electric utilities, refining, petrochemical, communications, midstream, downstream, and engineering companies, as well as transportation agencies across our core markets.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
PRIM · Primoris Services
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$7.6B
+19.0% YoY · 17% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $7.5B 5-yr avg $5.5B
Gross margin 10% 5-yr avg 11%
Operating margin 4.9% 5-yr avg 4.8%
ROIC 15% 5-yr avg 12%
Owner-earnings margin 2% 5-yr avg 2%
Free cash flow margin 2% 5-yr avg 2%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 11% and operating margin about 4.5% through the cycle, a thin spread that turns the result on volume and the cost of what it sells far more than on the price it sets. That margin has held in a narrow 2.9%–5.4% band over the years, so steadiness itself is the evidence — the lever is unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line. 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 sat near the cost of capital (median 12%). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

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

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$2.0B$2.4B$2.9B$3.1B$3.5B$3.5B$4.4B$5.7B$6.4B$7.6B$7.5BRevenueRevenue
12%11%11%11%12%10%10%11%11%10%Gross marginGross mgn
7%7%6%6%6%7%6%6%6%5%5%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$58M$106M$130M$141M$164M$170M$195M$253M$317M$412M$366MOperating incomeOp. inc.
2.9%4.5%4.4%4.5%4.7%4.9%4.4%4.4%5.0%5.4%4.9%Operating marginOp. mgn
$27M$72M$77M$82M$105M$116M$133M$126M$181M$275M$248MNet incomeNet inc.
44%28%25%29%28%24%16%29%29%28%27%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$63M$189M$127M$119M$313M$80M$83M$199M$508M$470M$282MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$61M$58M$79M$85M$82M$106M$99M$107M$96M$92M$94MDepreciationDeprec.
($27M)$58M($31M)($50M)$123M($152M)($156M)($46M)$217M$83M($84M)Working capital & otherWC & other
$58M$80M$110M$94M$64M$134M$95M$103M$127M$130M$117MCapexCapex
2.9%3.4%3.7%3.0%1.8%3.8%2.1%1.8%2.0%1.7%1.6%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$5M$131M$48M$24M$249M($26M)($11M)$96M$413M$379M$165MOwner earningsOwner earn.
0.2%5.5%1.6%0.8%7.1%−0.7%−0.3%1.7%6.5%5.0%2.2%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$5M$109M$17M$24M$249M($54M)($11M)$96M$382M$341M$165MFree cash flowFCF
0.2%4.6%0.6%0.8%7.1%−1.5%−0.3%1.7%6.0%4.5%2.2%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$11M$66M$111M$607M$478M$0$0AcquisitionsAcquis.
$11M$11M$12M$12M$12M$13M$13M$13M$13M$17M$17MDividends paidDiv. paid
$5M$5M$20M$11M$15M$6MBuybacksBuybacks
5%12%12%12%17%9%8%9%13%18%15%ROICROIC
5%13%13%13%15%12%12%10%13%16%15%Return on equityROE
3%11%11%11%13%10%11%9%12%15%14%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$136M$170M$151M$120M$327M$201M$249M$218M$456M$536M$381MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$388M$292M$373M$405M$432M$472M$663M$112M$834M$723M$754MReceivablesReceiv.
$49M$41M$41MInventoryInvent.
$168M$141M$249M$236M$246M$273M$535M$629M$624M$744M$647MAccounts payablePayables
$269M$192M$123M$169M$187M$198M$128M($517M)$210M($21M)$149MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$731M$743M$924M$913M$1.1B$1.2B$1.7B$1.9B$2.2B$2.3B$2.1BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$450M$455M$622M$670M$764M$759M$1.1B$1.3B$1.7B$1.8B$1.7BCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.6×1.6×1.5×1.4×1.5×1.6×1.5×1.4×1.3×1.3×1.3×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$127M$153M$206M$206M$215M$582M$872M$858M$857M$857M$857MGoodwillGoodwill
$1.2B$1.3B$1.6B$1.8B$2.0B$2.5B$3.5B$3.8B$4.2B$4.4B$4.2BTotal assetsAssets
$261M$259M$368M$351M$317M$661M$1.1B$958M$735M$470M$454MTotal debtDebt
$126M$88M$217M$231M($10M)$461M$895M$740M$279M($66M)$73MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
6.5×13.0×7.0×7.0×8.1×21.4×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$499M$562M$607M$630M$715M$990M$1.1B$1.2B$1.4B$1.7B$1.7BShareholders’ equityEquity
0.1%0.0%0.0%0.1%0.1%0.3%0.2%0.2%0.2%0.3%0.3%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
52.0M51.7M51.7M51.1M48.6M53.2M53.8M54.2M54.6M54.8M54.8MShares out (diluted)Shares
$38.41$46.00$56.89$60.81$71.79$65.79$82.23$105.45$116.61$138.23$136.62Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.51$1.40$1.50$1.61$2.16$2.18$2.47$2.33$3.31$5.02$4.53EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.09$2.54$0.92$0.48$5.11$-0.49$-0.21$1.76$7.56$6.91$3.00Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$0.09$2.11$0.32$0.48$5.11$-1.02$-0.21$1.76$6.99$6.21$3.00Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.22$0.22$0.24$0.24$0.24$0.24$0.24$0.24$0.24$0.32$0.32Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$1.12$1.54$2.13$1.85$1.32$2.52$1.76$1.90$2.32$2.37$2.14Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$9.59$10.87$11.75$12.32$14.70$18.62$20.63$22.81$25.82$30.68$30.73Book value / shareBVPS
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+15.3%/yr+14.0%/yr
Owner earnings / share+62.5%/yr+6.2%/yr
EPS+28.8%/yr+18.4%/yr
Dividends / share+4.1%/yr+5.8%/yr
Capital spending / share+8.7%/yr+12.4%/yr
Book value / share+13.8%/yr+15.9%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count
55Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
18%low FY2016
Gross margin
11%low FY2023
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
-0.2×peak FY2016

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$379Mowner earningsvs.$275Mnet incomelow FY2021

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

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 earned $379M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $92M it takes just to hold its position. It put $38M more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was $341M.

Reported net income$275M
Owner earnings$379M · 5% of revenue
FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income$275M$181M$126M$133M$116M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$92M+$96M+$107M+$99M+$106M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$21M+$15M+$12M+$7M+$10M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$83M+$217M−$46M−$156M−$152M
Cash from operations$470M$508M$199M$83M$80M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$92M−$96M−$103M−$95M−$106M
Owner earnings$379M$413M$96M($11M)($26M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$38M−$31M−$28M
Free cash flow$341M$382M$96M($11M)($54M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue5%6%2%0%-1%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position (here about $92M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $38M of its capital spending is growth it chose, not upkeep it owed; charged only with the maintenance it must do, the business earns well more than the year's free cash flow shows. 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 $21M), owner earnings is nearer $358M.

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 →

Will it survive?

  • Comfortable
    Operating income $412M ÷ interest expense $20M
    What this means

    Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.

  • Net cash
    Cash $536M − debt $470M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $66M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Negative, funded by others
    DSO 35 + DIO 2 − DPO 40 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

  • Solid through the cycle
    10-yr median, range 5%–18%; 18% latest = NOPAT $295M ÷ invested capital $1.6B
    Industry peers: median 8%
    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 10 years (it ran 18% most recently), 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.

  • Thin, recently turned positive
    latest $379M = operating cash $470M − maintenance capex $92M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 2%)
    Industry peers: median 3%
    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 5% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $21M of SBC) leaves $358M.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $470M ÷ net income $275M
    What this means

    How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

  • Reinvests most of it
    Dividends + buybacks $23M ÷ Owner Earnings $379M
    What this means

    Of $379M Owner Earnings, $23M (6%) went back to shareholders, $17M dividends, $6M buybacks. But the buybacks barely exceed stock issued to employees ($21M SBC), net of dilution, little was truly returned. 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? 1.41×
    Expanding
    Capex $130M ÷ depreciation $92M
    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 · 5 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 Pass
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $7.6B
    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 Miss
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.26×
    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 Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $470M vs $485M 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 Pass
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · no losses
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Pass
    Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)
    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 Pass
    Earnings +33% over the record · +230%
    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 $3.58/share (latest year $5.07), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $30.98/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 10 of 10
    What this means

    Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 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 4% → 5% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 4% early to 5% lately, median 4% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 15%
    What this means

    Every extra dollar the business reinvested came back at a high incremental return — the lens GBM read for a moat that reinvests rather than merely harvests. The record and the 10-K are where you check whether the rate holds.

  • Owner earnings growth +22%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 22% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2016 · 2.9% op. margin
    What this means

    Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.

  • Share count +0.6%/yr
    What this means

    Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.

  • Dividend record rising
    What this means

    Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

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 Named as a competitive risk

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.

“Many factors, including the financial condition of and potential disruptions related to artificial intelligence ("AI") in the industries we serve, could adversely affect our customers and their willingness to fund capital expenditures in the future.”

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$2.1B
  • Cash & short-term investments$381M
  • Receivables$754M
  • Inventory$41M
  • Other current assets$965M
Current liabilities$1.7B
  • Debt due within a year$57M
  • Accounts payable$647M
  • Other current liabilities$967M
Current ratio1.28×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.26×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.23×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$471Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$57M due · $381M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−5.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.4× → 1.3×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$641Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($388M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$928M$475M of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $951M (annual-report basis)
Deferred revenue$572Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

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$61M
'27$397M
'28$8M
'29$600K
'30$100K
later$7M

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$61Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year
Within two years$458Mthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions
Biggest single year$397Min 2027the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest
Total scheduled principal$473Mevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$381M
One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$379M
Together, against $61M due next year12.5×

Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $759M against the $61M due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 12 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the balance-sheet debt.

Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.

'26$178M
'27$155M
'28$109M
'29$60M
'30$18M
later$10M

Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.

Due in the next 12 months$178Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year
Total lease payments$531Mevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take
On the balance sheet$481Mthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability

True leverage: debt plus leases

On-balance-sheet debt$470M
Lease obligations (present value)$481M
Total fixed claims on the business$951M

Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $951M, of which the leases are 51%, more than the debt itself. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.

Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $2.2B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

  • Reinvested$995M · 46%
  • Dividends$127M · 6%
  • Buybacks$62M · 3%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$966M · 45%
  • Returned to owners$189M

    14% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $127M as dividends and $62M as buybacks.

  • Average price paid for buybacks$20.01

    Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 2M shares were bought for $32M, about $20.01 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $16.50 (2020) to $23.15 (2021), and 2021, near the top of that range, was also its heaviest buyback year ($15M).

  • Net change in share count5.4%

    The diluted count rose from 52M to 55M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend record$0.32/sh

    Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 4% a year. It was never cut over the span.

  • Return on what it retained23%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($1.0B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $234M, so each retained $1 added about 0.23 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

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$1.0B24% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equity51%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiring$1.3Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $995M of capital spent building

$3M written down across 1 year (2016): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. 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 yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2021$3.4M$3.1M($26M)
2022$2.6M$2.4M($11M)
2023$7.0M$8.5M$96M
2024$5.7M$14.9M$413M
2025Mr. McCormick$17.5M$23.2M$379M

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. A dash under the name means the filing tags the figure without naming the officer.

  • Insider ownership1.1%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • CEO pay ratio280:1

    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$21M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 5% 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 Primoris Services 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.

1 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 5 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?5.4%

    Diluted shares grew 5.4% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $62M on buybacks. The repurchases were a treadmill: stock issued to staff outran them, so owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did debt outgrow the business?
  • Did reported profit become cash?
  • Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
  • Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

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 →
  • How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
    ≈$4.0B · 53% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
    “Our customer base is reasonably concentrated, with our top ten customers accounting for approximately 53.1% of our revenue in 2025, 41.3% of our revenue in 2024 and 41.1% of our revenue in 2023.”verify →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions, Contingencies 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, Construction & Engineering

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.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
FLRFluor Corporation$15.5B3%1.2%8%0%
MTZMasTec$14.3B4.8%8%5%
JJacobs Solutions$12.0B25%4.4%6%5%
KBRKbr, Inc.$7.8B12%6.4%13%4%
PRIMPrimoris Services$7.6B11%4.5%12%2%
DYDycom Industries$5.5B6.4%10%3%
GVAGranite Construction$4.4B11%2.2%4%1%
MYRGMYR Group$3.7B11%3.5%12%3%
Group median11%4.5%9%3%
IV

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 Primoris Services has delivered.

Primoris Services’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.

$

Through the cycle, Primoris Services earns about $125M on its 1.6% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 5.0% 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

The assumptions

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 · ’16→’25+23%/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.

Free cash flow $165M on 54M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-01; net debt $73M. 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. Capex ($117M) runs well above depreciation ($94M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $190M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Primoris Services (PRIM), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/PRIM, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← PRI its page in the Manual PRK →

Industry order: ← PLPC the Construction & Engineering chapter PWR →