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WCC, WESCO Intl

Trading Companies & Distributors capital-intensive

Wesco provides innovative solutions to meet customer needs across commercial and industrial businesses, technology companies, telecommunications providers, and utilities.

We employ approximately 21,000 people, maintain relationships with more than 35,000 suppliers, and serve nearly 130,000 customers worldwide.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

WCC · WESCO Intl

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$23.5B

+7.8% YoY · 14% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $24.2B 5-yr avg $21.5B

Gross margin 21% 5-yr avg 21%

Operating margin 5.3% 5-yr avg 5.6%

ROIC 9% 5-yr avg 10%

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

Free cash flow margin 1% 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 CSS (39%), EES (38%) and UBS (23%).
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 20% and operating margin about 4.4% 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 2.8%–6.7% band over the years, so steadiness itself is the evidence — the lever is unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line. Inventory runs near 15% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. 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 8%). 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.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 3 segments, the largest CSS at 39%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

CSS39%$9.1B
EES38%$9.0B
UBS23%$5.5B

By geographyUnited States74%Canada14%Other International12%

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
$7.3B	$7.7B	$8.2B	$8.4B	$12.3B	$18.2B	$21.4B	$22.4B	$21.8B	$23.5B	$24.2B	RevenueRevenue
20%	19%	19%	19%	19%	21%	22%	22%	22%	21%	21%	Gross marginGross mgn
14%	14%	14%	14%	15%	15%	14%	15%	15%	15%	15%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$331M	$319M	$352M	$346M	$347M	$802M	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.3B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
4.5%	4.2%	4.3%	4.1%	2.8%	4.4%	6.7%	6.3%	5.6%	5.2%	5.3%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$102M	$163M	$227M	$223M	$101M	$465M	$861M	$766M	$718M	$640M	$676M	Net incomeNet inc.
23%	35%	20%	21%	18%	20%	24%	23%	24%	25%	25%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$300M	$149M	$297M	$224M	$544M	$67M	$11M	$493M	$1.1B	$125M	$318M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$67M	$64M	$63M	$62M	$122M	$199M	$179M	$181M	$183M	$198M	$200M	DepreciationDeprec.
$119M	($93M)	($10M)	($80M)	$302M	($628M)	($1.1B)	($502M)	$172M	($753M)	($604M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$18M	$22M	$36M	$44M	$57M	$55M	$99M	$92M	$95M	$100M	$103M	CapexCapex
0.2%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.3%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$282M	$128M	$261M	$180M	$487M	$12M	($88M)	$401M	$1.0B	$25M	$216M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
3.8%	1.7%	3.2%	2.2%	4.0%	0.1%	−0.4%	1.8%	4.6%	0.1%	0.9%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$282M	$128M	$261M	$180M	$487M	$12M	($88M)	$401M	$1.0B	$25M	$216M	Free cash flowFCF
3.8%	1.7%	3.2%	2.2%	4.0%	0.1%	−0.4%	1.8%	4.6%	0.1%	0.9%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$51M	$0	$0	$28M	$3.7B	$0	$187M	$0	$221M	$36M	$900K	AcquisitionsAcquis.
—	—	$0	$0	$30M	$0	$0	$77M	$82M	$88M	$91M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$5M	$107M	$127M	$150M	$0	$0	$11M	$75M	$425M	$75M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
8%	6%	9%	8%	4%	8%	12%	11%	10%	9%	9%	ROICROIC
5%	8%	11%	10%	3%	12%	19%	15%	14%	13%	13%	Return on equityROE
—	—	11%	10%	2%	12%	19%	14%	13%	11%	11%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$110M	$118M	$96M	$151M	$449M	$213M	$527M	$524M	$703M	$605M	$697M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$1.0B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$2.5B	$3.0B	$3.7B	$3.6B	$3.5B	$4.1B	$4.3B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$821M	$956M	$949M	$1.0B	$2.2B	$2.7B	$3.5B	$3.6B	$3.5B	$4.0B	$4.2B	InventoryInvent.
$685M	$800M	$794M	$830M	$1.7B	$2.1B	$2.7B	$2.4B	$2.7B	$3.0B	$3.5B	Accounts payablePayables
$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.4B	$2.9B	$3.5B	$4.4B	$4.8B	$4.3B	$5.0B	$5.0B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$2.1B	$2.4B	$2.4B	$2.5B	$5.5B	$6.4B	$8.3B	$8.4B	$8.4B	$9.5B	$10.0B	Current assetsCur. assets
$874M	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$3.0B	$3.0B	$3.8B	$3.4B	$3.8B	$4.3B	$4.7B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.4×	2.3×	2.2×	2.3×	1.8×	2.1×	2.2×	2.5×	2.2×	2.2×	2.1×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$3.2B	$3.2B	$3.2B	$3.3B	$3.3B	$3.3B	$3.3B	GoodwillGoodwill
$4.4B	$4.7B	$4.6B	$5.0B	$11.9B	$12.6B	$14.8B	$15.1B	$15.1B	$16.5B	$17.0B	Total assetsAssets
$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$5.0B	$4.8B	$5.5B	$5.4B	$5.1B	$5.8B	$5.8B	Total debtDebt
$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$4.5B	$4.6B	$4.9B	$4.8B	$4.4B	$5.2B	$5.1B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
$2.0B	$2.1B	$2.1B	$2.3B	$3.3B	$3.8B	$4.5B	$5.0B	$5.0B	$5.0B	$5.1B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
48.3M	48.4M	47.2M	43.5M	46.6M	52.0M	52.4M	52.3M	50.6M	49.5M	49.5M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$151.78	$158.79	$173.24	$192.22	$264.36	$350.34	$408.78	$428.02	$431.20	$474.97	$489.84	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.10	$3.38	$4.82	$5.14	$2.16	$8.95	$16.42	$14.64	$14.18	$12.93	$13.65	EPS (diluted)EPS
$5.84	$2.64	$5.52	$4.15	$10.45	$0.24	$-1.69	$7.67	$19.89	$0.51	$4.36	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$5.84	$2.64	$5.52	$4.15	$10.45	$0.24	$-1.69	$7.67	$19.89	$0.51	$4.36	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
—	—	$0.00	$0.00	$0.65	$0.00	$0.00	$1.46	$1.61	$1.79	$1.83	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.37	$0.44	$0.77	$1.01	$1.22	$1.05	$1.90	$1.76	$1.87	$2.02	$2.08	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$40.69	$43.83	$45.24	$52.10	$71.72	$72.74	$85.00	$96.31	$98.24	$101.65	$103.09	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+13.5%/yr	+12.4%/yr
Owner earnings / share	−23.7%/yr	−45.4%/yr
EPS	+22.4%/yr	+43.1%/yr
Dividends / share	—	+22.5%/yr
Capital spending / share	+20.7%/yr	+10.7%/yr
Book value / share	+10.7%/yr	+7.2%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

EES+6.7%
“EES organic sales for 2025 grew by 7.5%, driven primarily by volume growth of approximately 4%, primarily as a result of growth in the OEM and construction businesses, and by the impact of changes in price, which favorably impacted organic sales by approximately 4%.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
UBS-4.9%
“UBS organic sales for 2025 declined by 1.0%, reflecting volume declines in the Utility business primarily as a result of reduced public power activity.”
✓ direction matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

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

Share count

50Mpeak FY2022

ROIC

9%low FY2020

Gross margin

21%low FY2020

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

207.2×peak FY2021

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$25Mowner earningsvs.$640Mnet incomelow FY2022

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 reported $640M of profit but $25M of owner earnings: $615M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$640M

Owner earnings$25M · 0% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$640M	$718M	$766M	$861M	$465M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$198M	+$183M	+$181M	+$179M	+$199M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$41M	+$29M	+$48M	+$46M	+$31M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$753M	+$172M	−$502M	−$1.1B	−$628M
Cash from operations	$125M	$1.1B	$493M	$11M	$67M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$100M	−$95M	−$92M	−$99M	−$55M
Owner earnings	$25M	$1.0B	$401M	($88M)	$12M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	0%	5%	2%	0%	0%

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 $41M), owner earnings is nearer ($15M).

Much of fiscal 2025's profit didn't arrive as operating cash; it sits in “working capital & other” above. That can be a real inventory or timing swing, or profit that doesn't run through operating cash at all: a heavy tax year, equity-method earnings, or investment income booked through investing. For a year like this, owner earnings understates the cash earned; the full cash-flow statement carries the rest.

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?

Can it pay its interest? 15.0×

Comfortable

Operating income $1.2B ÷ interest expense $82M

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.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $5.2B · 4.2× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $605M − debt $5.8B

What this means
Netting $605M of cash and short-term investments against $5.8B of debt leaves $5.2B owed, about 4.2× a year's operating profit (4.7× 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? 82d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 63 + DIO 79 − DPO 60 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 8%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median, range 4%–12%; 9% latest = NOPAT $925M ÷ invested capital $10.3B

Industry peers: median 15%

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 9% 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.
Owner-earnings margin 0%

Thin, recently turned positive

latest $25M = operating cash $125M − maintenance capex $100M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 2%)

Industry peers: median 5%

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 0% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $41M of SBC) leaves ($15M).
Are earnings backed by cash? 0.20×

Thinly cash-backed

Cash from ops $125M ÷ net income $640M

In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.

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?

Where do the earnings go? 648%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $163M ÷ Owner Earnings $25M

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $25M of Owner Earnings, $163M (648%) went back to shareholders, $88M dividends, $75M buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Net of $41M stock comp, the real buyback was about $35M. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
Investing or harvesting? 0.51×

Harvesting

Capex $100M ÷ depreciation $198M

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 · 4 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 · $23.5B

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× · 2.20×

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 Near

Debt ≤ working capital · $5.8B vs $5.2B 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 Miss

Uninterrupted dividends · 4 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 Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +331%

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 $14.53/share (latest year $13.14), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $103.31/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% 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 4% → 6% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 4% early to 6% lately, median 4% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 11%

What this means
Reinvested capital came back at only a modest incremental return — near the cost of capital, where extra growth adds little per dollar. The record shows whether it is a soft stretch or a thinning moat.
Owner earnings growth +11%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 11% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · 2.8% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +0.3%/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?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“Our competitive position could be adversely affected if we do not successfully integrate AI into our operations, processes, and offerings at the pace or scale achieved by competitors, or if competing solutions deliver superior performance, cost savings, or customer outcomes.”

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

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$10.0B

Cash & short-term investments$697M
Receivables$4.3B
Inventory$4.2B
Other current assets$771M

Current liabilities$4.7B

Debt due within a year$23M
Accounts payable$3.5B
Other current liabilities$1.2B

Current ratio2.12×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.22×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.15×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$5.3Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$23M due · $697M 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+13.8%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters2.3× → 2.1×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$25Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($1.9B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$6.7B$949M of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $6.8B (annual-report basis)

From the company's latest filing.

Lease obligations

the lease note, SEC EDGAR →

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, operating and finance leases together, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.

Operating leasesFinance leases

'26$266M

'27$235M

'28$193M

'29$152M

'30$113M

later$218M

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$266Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year

Total lease payments$1.2Bevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take

On the balance sheet$1.0Bthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability

True leverage: debt plus leases

On-balance-sheet debt$5.8B

Lease obligations (present value)$1.0B

Total fixed claims on the business$6.8B

Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $6.8B, of which the leases are 15%. 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 $3.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$617M · 19%
Dividends$277M · 8%
Buybacks$975M · 29%
Retained (debt / cash)$1.4B · 44%

Returned to owners$1.3B
46% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $277M as dividends and $975M as buybacks.
Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $4.4B and cash and short-term investments rose $586M.
Average price paid for buybacks$53.93
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 7M shares were bought for $395M, about $53.93 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $43.41 (2019) to $126.85 (2022); its heaviest year, 2019, paid $43.41 ($150M).
Net change in share count2.4%
The diluted count rose from 48M to 50M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$1.79/sh
Paid in 4 of the years on record. It was cut at least once along the way.
Return on what it retained8%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($3.0B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $254M, so each retained $1 added about 0.08 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$5.1B31% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity66%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$4.2Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $617M of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

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	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Mr. Engel	$9.9M	$38.8M	$12M
2022	Mr. Engel	$11.2M	$15.5M	($88M)
2023	Mr. Engel	$10.3M	$30.3M	$401M
2024	Mr. Engel	$11.5M	$2.1M	$1.0B
2025	Mr. Engel	$12.3M	$19.3M	$25M

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 ownership2.6%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
CEO pay ratio176:1
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$41M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 3% 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 WESCO Intl 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.

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

Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?2.2% vs 2.9%
The owner-earnings margin averaged 2.9% early in the record and 2.2% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.
Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$1.4B → $5.8B
Debt rose from $1.4B to $5.8B while owner earnings went from about $223M to $478M — about 6.3 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 12 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.
Look hereDid reported profit become cash?0.78×
Across the record the business reported $4.3B of net income but generated $3.3B of operating cash, a 0.78-to-one conversion. Profit that does not turn into cash over many years is the classic mark of earnings that are softer than they look. Ask where the gap sits, receivables, inventory, or costs being capitalized rather than expensed.
Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?25% → 35% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $1.9B to $8.5B while revenue grew 231%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (25% of revenue then, 35% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean

Did the share count rise anyway?

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?
≈$3.6B · 15% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
“Our top ten customers accounted for approximately 15% of our sales in 2025.”verify →

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

Peers, Trading Companies & Distributors

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
ARWArrow Electronics Inc.	$30.9B	12%	3.6%	10%	1%
FERGFerguson Enterprises	$30.8B	31%	8.9%	21%	5%
GPCGenuine Parts Company	$24.3B	35%	7.1%	15%	5%
WCCWESCO Intl	$23.5B	20%	4.5%	8%	2%
AVTAvnet Inc.	$22.2B	12%	2.3%	7%	1%
GWWW.W. Grainger Inc.	$17.9B	39%	11.9%	29%	8%
TELTE Connectivity plc	$17.3B	33%	16.3%	15%	13%
RSReliance Inc.	$14.3B	29%	8.3%	11%	7%
Group median	—	30%	7.7%	13%	5%

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 WESCO Intl has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, WESCO Intl earns about $464M on its 2.0% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 0.1% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($464M) Net of stock comp (−$46M)

—

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 · ’16→’25+11%/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 $216M on 49M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-29; net debt $5.1B. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). 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 WCC against another business →

The owners of WCC: the meeting and the votes →

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

Manual order: ← WBTN its page in the Manual WCN →

Industry order: ← URI the Trading Companies & Distributors chapter WLFC →