MeritValue

Core & Main, Inc.

CNMdata completeness 100%7 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

Core & Main, Inc. earns about 15% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 19% of its shares over 5 years — the marks of a durable business run for its owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $19.43 and $172.32 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025FY 2026
Revenue$5B1$6.65B2$6.7B3$7.44B3$7.65B3
Net income$166M4$366M5$371M6$411M6$441M6
Operating cash flow−$31M7$401M8$1.07B9$621M9$650M9
Capital expenditure$20M10$25M11$39M12$35M12$46M12
Free cash flow (derived)−$51M7$376M8$1.03B9$586M9$604M9
Total debt$1.47B13$1.46B14$1.88B15$2.26B16$2.15B16
Cash & equivalents$1M17$177M18$1M19$8M20$220M20
Diluted shares244.5M246.2M227.8M201.4M197.9M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$100.93
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$22.29
Free cash flow it threw off
$30.53
Debt you’d be carrying
$108.56

10 shares is a claim on $100.93 of net worth that earned you $22.29 and generated $30.53 of cash last year, against $108.56 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
15% avg · 5y
FY22 11%FY23 21%FY24 18%FY25 11%FY26 12%

It earned about 15% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — comfortably above the cost of funding, a moderate advantage.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
−19% shares · 5y

Share count is down 19% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice. Total debt has risen 46% over the same window.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $19.43 and $172.32 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$172.32
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$604M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$89.78
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$604M
Earnings Power Value
$19.43
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$371M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$22.9
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $89.78
The three cases
Bear0.0%$33.87
Base20.0%$89.78
Bull20.0%$89.78

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 20.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-30 · accession 0001856525-24-000036 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-29 · accession 0001856525-25-000081 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2024-01-28 · accession 0001856525-26-000031 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-30 · accession 0001856525-24-000036 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-29 · accession 0001856525-25-000081 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2024-01-28 · accession 0001856525-26-000031 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-30 · accession 0001856525-24-000036 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-29 · accession 0001856525-25-000081 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2024-01-28 · accession 0001856525-26-000031 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-30 · accession 0001856525-24-000036 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-29 · accession 0001856525-25-000081 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2024-01-28 · accession 0001856525-26-000031 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-30 · accession 0001856525-23-000011 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-29 · accession 0001856525-24-000036 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2024-01-28 · accession 0001856525-25-000081 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2025-02-02 · accession 0001856525-26-000031 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-30 · accession 0001856525-23-000011 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-29 · accession 0001856525-24-000036 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2024-01-28 · accession 0001856525-25-000081 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2025-02-02 · accession 0001856525-26-000031 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)