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WLDN, Willdan Group Inc.

Construction & Engineering diversified CyclicalSerial acquirer

Willdan Group Inc. is a provider of professional, technical and consulting services to utilities, private industry, and public agencies at all levels of government.

As resource and infrastructure needs undergo continuous change, we help organizations and their communities evolve and thrive by providing a wide range of technical services for energy solutions, greenhouse gas reduction, and government infrastructure needs.

Through engineering, program management, policy advisory, and software and data analytics, we plan, design and deliver comprehensive, innovative, cost-effective and proven solutions to improve efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability in energy and infrastructure to our clients.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

WLDN · Willdan Group Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2026

$682M

+20.5% YoY · 9% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $684M 5-yr avg $508M

Gross margin 38% 5-yr avg 36%

Operating margin 6.5% 5-yr avg 2.4%

ROIC 12% 5-yr avg 6%

Owner-earnings margin 6% 5-yr avg 6%

Free cash flow margin 6% 5-yr avg 6%

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 Energy (85%) and Engineering and Consulting (15%).
Situation: Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power. Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 40% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 5 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 34% and operating margin about 4.7% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. The operating margin has swung widely — from −2.5% to 7.7% — on a steadier 34% gross margin, so what moves it sits below the gross line, in operating spend and one-off charges more than in the cost of the product itself. 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%). By owner earnings: roughly 4% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently, and customers and suppliers fund the business through negative working capital. 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 →

Energy is 85% of revenue, with Engineering and Consulting the other meaningful segment at 15%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2026

Energy85%$576M
Engineering and Consulting15%$106M

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, 2015–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2015’15	2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2026’26	TTMTTMApr 2026
											Income statement
$108M	$209M	$273M	$272M	$443M	$354M	$429M	$510M	$566M	$682M	$684M	RevenueRevenue
41%	31%	28%	34%	30%	38%	33%	35%	36%	38%	38%	Gross marginGross mgn
$8M	$12M	$14M	$13M	$9M	($9M)	($7M)	$22M	$31M	$44M	$44M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
7.7%	5.5%	5.0%	4.7%	2.1%	−2.5%	−1.6%	4.3%	5.5%	6.5%	6.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$9M	$8M	$12M	$10M	$5M	($8M)	($8M)	$11M	$23M	$53M	$56M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	27%	11%	18%	-4%	—	—	25%	15%	—	—	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$12M	$22M	$11M	$8M	$12M	$10M	$9M	$39M	$72M	$80M	$52M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$460K	$3M	$4M	$6M	$15M	$17M	$17M	$16M	$15M	$19M	$20M	DepreciationDeprec.
$2M	$9M	($8M)	($15M)	($21M)	($15M)	($8M)	$7M	$27M	($3M)	($37M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$492K	$2M	$2M	$2M	$7M	$9M	$10M	$10M	$8M	$9M	$9M	CapexCapex
0.5%	0.8%	0.8%	0.8%	1.5%	2.4%	2.2%	1.9%	1.5%	1.4%	1.3%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$11M	$20M	$9M	$5M	$5M	$1M	($169K)	$29M	$64M	$71M	$43M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
10.6%	9.5%	3.3%	2.0%	1.1%	0.4%	−0.0%	5.7%	11.3%	10.4%	6.3%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$11M	$20M	$9M	$5M	$5M	$1M	($169K)	$29M	$64M	$71M	$43M	Free cash flowFCF
10.6%	9.5%	3.3%	2.0%	1.1%	0.4%	−0.0%	5.7%	11.3%	10.4%	6.3%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	$9M	$15M	$124M	$72M	—	—	$2M	$7M	$36M	$4M	AcquisitionsAcquis.
66%	21%	21%	5%	3%	-2%	-2%	6%	11%	15%	12%	ROICROIC
31%	17%	17%	7%	3%	-5%	-5%	5%	10%	17%	18%	Return on equityROE
31%	17%	17%	7%	3%	−5%	−5%	5%	10%	17%	18%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$18M	$16M	$14M	$15M	$5M	$11M	$9M	$23M	$74M	$66M	$28M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$13M	$30M	$38M	$61M	$58M	$67M	$60M	$70M	$66M	$65M	$81M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$3M	$17M	$21M	$37M	$34M	$37M	$29M	$33M	$34M	$46M	$42M	Accounts payablePayables
$10M	$13M	$18M	$25M	$24M	$31M	$31M	$36M	$32M	$19M	$39M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$46M	$75M	$83M	$136M	$175M	$149M	$174M	$192M	$236M	$252M	$220M	Current assetsCur. assets
$18M	$51M	$56M	$91M	$132M	$117M	$127M	$115M	$138M	$162M	$131M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.5×	1.5×	1.5×	1.5×	1.3×	1.3×	1.4×	1.7×	1.7×	1.6×	1.7×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$0	$22M	$38M	$98M	$128M	$130M	$130M	$131M	$141M	$180M	$180M	GoodwillGoodwill
$49M	$108M	$138M	$301M	$440M	$394M	$410M	$416M	$465M	$544M	$512M	Total assetsAssets
$355K	$6M	$3M	$72M	$131M	$114M	$107M	$97M	$89M	$48M	$101M	Total debtDebt
($18M)	($10M)	($12M)	$56M	$126M	$103M	$99M	$74M	$15M	($17M)	$73M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
519.3×	64.5×	123.5×	18.2×	1.9×	-1.7×	—	—	—	—	11.5×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$30M	$50M	$71M	$144M	$167M	$179M	$182M	$200M	$234M	$305M	$310M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.2%	0.6%	1.0%	2.3%	2.7%	4.7%	2.0%	1.0%	1.3%	1.7%	1.9%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
7.7M	8.6M	9.2M	9.8M	11.8M	12.5M	13.0M	13.6M	14.2M	15.1M	15.4M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$13.97	$24.39	$29.86	$27.89	$37.66	$28.40	$32.98	$37.49	$39.72	$45.22	$44.46	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$1.22	$0.97	$1.32	$1.03	$0.41	$-0.68	$-0.65	$0.80	$1.58	$3.49	$3.66	EPS (diluted)EPS
$1.47	$2.33	$0.97	$0.56	$0.42	$0.10	$-0.01	$2.15	$4.47	$4.69	$2.81	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$1.47	$2.33	$0.97	$0.56	$0.42	$0.10	$-0.01	$2.15	$4.47	$4.69	$2.81	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.06	$0.19	$0.24	$0.22	$0.56	$0.68	$0.74	$0.73	$0.59	$0.62	$0.59	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$3.93	$5.83	$7.72	$14.78	$14.22	$14.39	$13.95	$14.69	$16.45	$20.23	$20.17	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	11-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+11.3%/yr	+9.8%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+11.1%/yr	+113.9%/yr
EPS	+10.0%/yr	—
Capital spending / share	+23.1%/yr	−1.8%/yr
Book value / share	+16.1%/yr	+7.1%/yr

The record, charted

FY2015–2026

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

Share count

15Mpeak FY2026

ROIC

15%low FY2021

Gross margin

38%low FY2017

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

-0.2×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.

$71Mowner earningsvs.$53Mnet 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.

FY2015FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2026cash-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 2026 the business turned $53M of profit into $71M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$53M

Owner earnings$71M · 10% of revenue

	FY2026	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$53M	$23M	$11M	($8M)	($8M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$19M	+$15M	+$16M	+$17M	+$17M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$12M	+$7M	+$5M	+$8M	+$17M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$3M	+$27M	+$7M	−$8M	−$15M
Cash from operations	$80M	$72M	$39M	$9M	$10M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$9M	−$8M	−$10M	−$10M	−$9M
Owner earnings	$71M	$64M	$29M	($169K)	$1M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	10%	11%	6%	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 $12M), owner earnings is nearer $59M.

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

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 8.7×

Comfortable

Operating income $44M ÷ interest expense $5M

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? $48M · 1.1× operating profit

Modest net debt

Cash $66M − debt $114M

What this means
Netting $66M of cash and short-term investments against $114M of debt leaves $48M owed, about 1.1× a year's operating profit (2.6× 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? -5d

Negative, funded by others

DSO 35 + DIO 0 − DPO 39 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. (Little or no inventory, a services / asset-light model, so the inventory leg is ~0.)

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 6%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range -2%–66%; 13% latest = NOPAT $44M ÷ invested capital $353M

Industry peers: median 3%

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 13% 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 10%

Solid, recently turned positive

latest $71M = operating cash $80M − maintenance capex $9M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 3%)

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 $12M of SBC) leaves $59M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.52×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $80M ÷ net income $53M

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? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Investing or harvesting? 0.50×

Harvesting

Capex $9M ÷ depreciation $19M

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 Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $682M

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 Near

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.56×

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 · $114M vs $90M 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) · 2 loss years

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 · none paid

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 · +188%

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 $1.90/share (latest year $3.48), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $20.17/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, 2015–2026

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

Profitable years 8 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 2 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 4 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 6% → 5% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 6% early, 5% lately, median 5%.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 8%

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 +14%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 14% a year over the record.
Worst year 2021 · −2.5% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2021, understand why before trusting the good years.

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.

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, Apr 3, 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$220M

Cash & short-term investments$28M
Receivables$81M
Other current assets$111M

Current liabilities$131M

Debt due within a year$3M
Accounts payable$42M
Other current liabilities$87M

Current ratio1.68×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.68×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.22×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$89Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$3M due · $28M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Apr 3, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+1.8%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.8× → 1.7×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$98Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value$19MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$67M$19M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$20Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2015–2026

Over the record, the business generated $274M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$59M · 21%
Retained (debt / cash)$215M · 79%

Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $101M and cash and short-term investments rose $10M.
Net change in share count98.9%
The diluted count rose from 8M to 15M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.
Return on what it retained36%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($114M over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $41M, so each retained $1 added about 0.36 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$215M40% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equity59%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital

Cash spent acquiring$265Mover 10 years buying other businesses, against $59M 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. Bieber	$3.0M	$960k	$1M
2022	Mr. Bieber	$2.1M	−$1.4M	($169K)
2023	Mr. Bieber	$1.6M	$2.7M	$29M
2024	Mr. Bieber	$2.4M	$5.0M	$64M
2026	Mr. Bieber	$3.6M	$10.6M	$71M

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 ownership5.6%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$12M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 2% of revenue, equal to 27% 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 Willdan Group 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 2015–2026.

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

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?98.9%
Diluted shares grew 98.9% over 2015–2026. 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 hereDid debt outgrow the business?$355K → $101M
Debt rose from $355K to $101M while owner earnings went from about $13M to $55M — under 0.1 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 1.9 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.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did reported profit become cash?
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, FY2026

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Acquisitions 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.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
MEDPMedpace Holdings	$2.5B	—	17.6%	27%	22%
EVHEvolent Health	$1.9B	23%	-12.2%	-6%	-11%
ICFIICF International	$1.9B	36%	6.9%	8%	7%
ONTOnterris Inc.	$831M	35%	-4.8%	-5%	3%
NEONeoGenomics Inc.	$727M	42%	-8.5%	-7%	-4%
MGMistras Group Inc	$724M	32%	2.9%	3%	4%
WLDNWilldan Group Inc.	$682M	35%	4.9%	8%	4%
EXPOExponent	$582M	—	20.8%	44%	22%
Group median	—	35%	3.9%	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 Willdan Group Inc. has delivered.

Willdan Group 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, Willdan Group Inc. earns about $31M on its 4.5% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 10.4% 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 ($31M) Net of stock comp (−$13M)

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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→’26+160%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’15→’26+14%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’26)—

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 $43M on 15M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-06; 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. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh WLDN against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Willdan Group Inc. (WLDN), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/WLDN, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← WKC its page in the Manual WLFC →

Industry order: ← VSECU the Construction & Engineering chapter WXM →