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X, United States Steel

Steel capital-intensive Capital build-outCyclical

A metals and mining business, a price-taker on a global commodity.

Latest annual: FY2024 10-K

X · United States Steel

The business

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

Revenue · FY2024

$15.6B

−13.4% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $15.2B 5-yr avg $16.7B

Gross margin 9% 5-yr avg 11%

Operating margin −0.2% 5-yr avg 7.2%

ROIC −0% 5-yr avg 13%

Owner-earnings margin −2% 5-yr avg 6%

Free cash flow margin −9% 5-yr avg 2%

The business in brief

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

Situation: Capital build-out. Capital spending has surged to 15% of sales, today's earnings are charged less depreciation than tomorrow's will be. 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: Gross margin has run about 6.6% and operating margin about 1.5% 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. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −11% and 26% 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 14% 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.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 3%, above 15% in 3 of 10 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. 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.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2015–2024

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2015’15	2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	TTMTTMMar 2025
											Income statement
$11.6B	$10.3B	$12.3B	$12.8B	$12.9B	$9.7B	$19.0B	$21.1B	$18.1B	$15.6B	$15.2B	RevenueRevenue
4%	6%	11%	—	7%	2%	—	20%	12%	10%	9%	Gross marginGross mgn
4%	3%	3%	3%	2%	3%	2%	2%	3%	3%	3%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
($1.2B)	($201M)	$669M	$1.1B	($230M)	($1.1B)	$4.9B	$3.2B	$799M	$240M	($36M)	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−10.4%	−2.0%	5.5%	8.8%	−1.8%	−11.0%	26.1%	15.0%	4.4%	1.5%	−0.2%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($1.6B)	($440M)	$387M	$1.1B	($630M)	($1.2B)	$4.2B	$2.5B	$895M	$384M	$97M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	—	—	—	—	4%	23%	15%	12%	—	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$360M	$754M	$826M	$938M	$682M	$138M	$4.1B	$3.5B	$2.1B	$919M	$573M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$547M	$507M	$501M	$521M	$616M	$643M	$791M	$791M	$916M	$913M	$952M	DepreciationDeprec.
$1.5B	$687M	($62M)	($698M)	$696M	$660M	($875M)	$190M	$289M	($378M)	($476M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$500M	$306M	$505M	$1.0B	$1.3B	$725M	$863M	$1.8B	$2.6B	$2.3B	$2.0B	CapexCapex
4.3%	3.0%	4.1%	7.8%	9.7%	7.4%	4.6%	8.4%	14.3%	14.6%	13.2%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($140M)	$448M	$321M	$417M	$66M	($587M)	$3.2B	$2.7B	$1.2B	$6M	($379M)	Owner earningsOwner earn.
−1.2%	4.4%	2.6%	3.3%	0.5%	−6.0%	17.0%	12.9%	6.6%	0.0%	−2.5%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($140M)	$448M	$321M	($63M)	($570M)	($587M)	$3.2B	$1.7B	($476M)	($1.4B)	($1.4B)	Free cash flowFCF
−1.2%	4.4%	2.6%	−0.5%	−4.4%	−6.0%	17.0%	8.2%	−2.6%	−8.7%	−9.4%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	—	$0	$0	$0	$625M	$0	$0	—	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$29M	$31M	$35M	$36M	$35M	$8M	—	—	—	—	$8M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	$0	$0	$75M	$88M	$0	$150M	$849M	$175M	$0	—	BuybacksBuybacks
-19%	-4%	15%	20%	-3%	-12%	46%	23%	6%	1%	-0%	ROICROIC
-67%	-19%	12%	27%	-15%	-31%	46%	25%	8%	3%	1%	Return on equityROE
−69%	−21%	11%	26%	−16%	−31%	—	—	—	—	1%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$755M	$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.0B	$749M	$2.0B	$2.5B	$3.5B	$2.9B	$1.4B	$594M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$864M	$976M	$1.2B	$1.4B	$956M	$914M	$2.0B	$1.5B	—	—	$1.5B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$2.1B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$2.1B	$1.8B	$1.4B	$2.2B	$2.4B	$2.1B	$2.2B	$2.4B	InventoryInvent.
$1.4B	$1.6B	$2.1B	$2.5B	$2.0B	$1.8B	$2.8B	$2.9B	—	—	$2.9B	Accounts payablePayables
$1.5B	$947M	$763M	$1.1B	$771M	$537M	$1.4B	$971M	$2.1B	$2.2B	$984M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$3.9B	$4.4B	$4.8B	$4.8B	$3.8B	$4.4B	$7.2B	$7.9B	$6.9B	$5.2B	$4.9B	Current assetsCur. assets
$2.1B	$2.3B	$2.8B	$3.2B	$2.6B	$2.7B	$3.9B	$4.0B	$3.9B	$3.4B	$3.4B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.8×	1.9×	1.7×	1.5×	1.5×	1.7×	1.9×	2.0×	1.8×	1.6×	1.5×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$7M	—	—	—	—	$4M	$920M	$920M	$920M	$920M	$920M	GoodwillGoodwill
$9.2B	$9.2B	$9.9B	$11.0B	$11.6B	$12.1B	$17.8B	$19.5B	$20.5B	$20.2B	$20.1B	Total assetsAssets
$3.2B	$3.1B	$2.7B	$2.5B	$3.8B	$5.3B	$3.9B	$4.0B	$4.3B	$4.2B	$4.2B	Total debtDebt
$2.5B	$1.6B	$1.2B	$1.5B	$3.0B	$3.3B	$1.4B	$465M	$1.4B	$2.8B	$3.6B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-5.6×	-0.9×	3.0×	6.7×	-1.6×	-3.8×	15.8×	19.9×	11.1×	10.0×	-0.5×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$2.4B	$2.3B	$3.3B	$4.2B	$4.1B	$3.8B	$9.0B	$10.2B	$11.0B	$11.3B	$11.2B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
											Per share
146M	157M	177M	178M	171M	197M	280M	277M	255M	254M	226M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$79.22	$65.49	$69.40	$71.49	$75.47	$49.52	$67.62	$76.06	$70.70	$61.57	$67.39	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-11.24	$-2.81	$2.19	$6.25	$-3.68	$-5.92	$14.88	$9.11	$3.50	$1.51	$0.43	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.96	$2.86	$1.82	$2.34	$0.39	$-2.98	$11.51	$9.80	$4.64	$0.02	$-1.68	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.96	$2.86	$1.82	$-0.35	$-3.33	$-2.98	$11.51	$6.27	$-1.86	$-5.39	$-6.35	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.20	$0.04	—	—	—	—	$0.04	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$3.42	$1.95	$2.86	$5.61	$7.30	$3.69	$3.08	$6.39	$10.09	$9.00	$8.89	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$16.67	$14.51	$18.81	$23.55	$23.87	$19.25	$32.13	$36.89	$43.26	$44.67	$49.80	Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.43 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

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

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−2.8%/yr	−4.0%/yr
Owner earnings / share	—	−42.8%/yr
Dividends / share	−27.2%/yr (5-yr)	−27.2%/yr
Capital spending / share	+11.3%/yr	+4.3%/yr
Book value / share	+11.6%/yr	+13.4%/yr

The record, charted

FY2015–2024

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

Share count

254Mpeak FY2021

ROIC

1%low FY2015

Gross margin

10%low FY2020

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

472.8×peak FY2024

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$6Mowner earningsvs.$384Mnet incomelow FY2020

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.

FY2015FY2024

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2020–FY2024cash-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 2024 the business earned $6M of owner earnings, the operating cash left after the $913M it takes just to hold its position. It put $1.4B more into growth; free cash flow, after that spending, was ($1.4B).

Reported net income$384M

Owner earnings$6M · 0% of revenue

	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021	FY2020
Reported net income	$384M	$895M	$2.5B	$4.2B	($1.2B)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$913M	+$916M	+$791M	+$791M	+$643M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$378M	+$289M	+$190M	−$875M	+$660M
Cash from operations	$919M	$2.1B	$3.5B	$4.1B	$138M
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$913M	−$916M	−$791M	−$863M	−$725M
Owner earnings	$6M	$1.2B	$2.7B	$3.2B	($587M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	−$1.4B	−$1.7B	−$978M	—	—
Free cash flow	($1.4B)	($476M)	$1.7B	$3.2B	($587M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	0%	7%	13%	17%	-6%

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 $913M, roughly its depreciation, the rate its assets wear out). The other $1.4B 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.

Much of fiscal 2024'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

FY2024 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 10.0×

Comfortable

Operating income $240M ÷ interest expense $24M

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? $2.8B · 11.8× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $1.4B − debt $4.2B

What this means
Netting $1.4B of cash and short-term investments against $4.2B of debt leaves $2.8B owed, about 11.8× a year's operating profit (17.5× 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? 16d

Tight

DSO 35 + DIO 56 − DPO 75 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 1%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range -19%–46%; 1% latest = NOPAT $210M ÷ invested capital $14.2B

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 1% 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 $6M = operating cash $919M − maintenance capex $913M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (10-yr median 3%)

Industry peers: median 6%

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 3% median across 10 years. It chose to put $1.4B more into growth, so free cash flow this year was ($1.4B) — the gap is investment, not weakness.
Are earnings backed by cash? 2.39×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $919M ÷ net income $384M

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? 133%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $8M ÷ Owner Earnings $6M

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $6M of Owner Earnings, $8M (133%) went back to shareholders, $8M dividends, $0 buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
Investing or harvesting? 2.50×

Expanding

Capex $2.3B ÷ depreciation $913M

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 5 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 · $15.6B

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 Near

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.55×

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 · $4.2B vs $1.9B 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 Miss

Uninterrupted dividends · 6 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 —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
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 $5.60/share (latest year $1.70), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $50.12/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, 2015–2024

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% 3 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 −2% → 7% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −2% early to 7% lately, median 2% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 16%

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 +16%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 16% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · −11.0% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +6.3%/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 6 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.

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, 2025

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$4.9B

Cash & short-term investments$594M
Receivables$1.5B
Inventory$2.4B
Other current assets$485M

Current liabilities$3.4B

Debt due within a year$109M
Accounts payable$2.9B
Other current liabilities$417M

Current ratio1.45×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.75×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.17×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$1.5Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$109M due · $594M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2025 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−10.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.9× → 1.5×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$9.9Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($3.8B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$4.3B$74M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2015–2024

Over the record, the business generated $14.3B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.

Reinvested$11.8B · 82%
Dividends$174M · 1%
Buybacks$1.3B · 9%
Retained (debt / cash)$1.0B · 7%

Returned to owners$1.5B
20% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $174M as dividends and $1.3B as buybacks.
Average price paid for buybacks$22.53
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 59M shares were bought for $1.3B, about $22.53 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $16.64 (2019) to $27.17 (2018); its heaviest year, 2022, paid $22.58 ($849M).
Net change in share count54.5%
The diluted count rose from 146M to 226M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$0.04/sh
Paid in 6 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 27% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Return on what it retained27%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($4.1B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $1.1B, so each retained $1 added about 0.27 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.

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
2020	Mr. Burritt	$8.6M	$17.1M	($587M)
2021	Mr. Burritt	$18.8M	$28.9M	$3.2B
2022	Mr. Burritt	$19.0M	$22.6M	$2.7B
2023	Mr. Burritt	$16.7M	$56.7M	$1.2B

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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why United States Steel 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 2015–2024.

2 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?54.5%
Diluted shares grew 54.5% over 2015–2024, even as the company spent $1.3B on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
Look hereAre "one-time" charges a yearly habit?6 of 10 years
Management took an impairment or write-down in 6 of the last 10 years, $861M 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 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.

Peers, Steel

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
NUENucor Corporation	$32.5B	13%	9.2%	12%	9%
STLDSteel Dynamics Inc.	$18.2B	16%	11.2%	17%	9%
XUnited States Steel	$15.6B	8%	3.0%	3%	3%
GLWCorning Incorporated	$15.6B	36%	12.7%	6%	7%
AAAlcoa	$12.8B	—	4.6%	5%	2%
CMCCommercial Metals	$7.8B	16%	5.7%	9%	6%
ATIATI Inc	$4.6B	15%	6.5%	8%	-0%
CRSCarpenter Technology	$2.9B	17%	6.0%	5%	5%
Group median	—	16%	6.3%	7%	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 United States Steel has delivered.

United States Steel’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, the mark of a build-out: total capital spending outruns the cash the business throws off today. So the tool opens on the steady-state base (maintenance capex in place of the build-out spend), the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, United States Steel earns about $461M on its 2.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 0.0% 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 ($461M) Net of stock comp Steady-state · maintenance capex (($340M))

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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 · ’20→’24−18%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’15→’24+16%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’22–’24)—

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 ($1.4B) on 226M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2025-04-28; net debt $3.6B. The base opens on the steady-state figure (the latest year is negative on total capex mid-build-out); clear Steady-state to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($2.0B) runs well above depreciation ($952M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about ($340M), 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.

Weigh X against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "United States Steel (X), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/X, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← WYNN its page in the Manual XEL →

Industry order: ← WS the Steel chapter