Friedman Industries Inc. Common Stock (FRD)
🔔 Watch stock
symbol.quality_heading
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
With a cyclical, the entry point in the price cycle decides more than any metric — and Friedman is showing all the signs of peak earnings right now: a cheap price-to-earnings ratio, a forward P/E above it, a share price 37 percent over the fiscal-year high. Whoever deliberately bets on a continued friendly steel price environment can take that on; whoever mistakes the doubled revenue figure for structural growth buys at the top of the cycle. The next set of numbers is due on August 6, 2026. The decision is yours.
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Our scanner reports triple-digit revenue growth, but at the small steel processor Friedman Industries that is the upswing of a price cycle — measured, of all places, from a loss-making low — plus an acquisition. We read the annual report (10-K): a profit that hangs almost entirely on the steel price spread, a prior year that stayed in the black only thanks to futures contracts, and a cheap price-to-earnings ratio sitting right at peak earnings. Not investment advice — just an honest look at what a cheap price-to-earnings ratio is really worth at the top of a steel cycle.
Read the analysis
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 17, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at FRD since then.
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Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 14 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
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Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 33.30 $ — 82% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralFriedman Industries verarbeitet und handelt Stahl (Coil- und Rohr-Segment); in den sechs geprüften Filings — vier 10-Qs und zwei 10-Ks — findet sich keine einzige Erwähnung von künstlicher Intelligenz, Machine Learning oder verwandten Begriffen: keine KI-Umsatzquelle, kein KI-Geschäftsrisiko in den Risk Factors und kein belegter operativer KI-Einsatz. Die einzigen Treffer auf „automat…“ stehen in der Cybersecurity-Beschreibung (Item 1C der 10-Ks: automatisierte Intrusion-Detection und Phishing-Trainings) und haben keinen KI-Bezug.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-02-09 · 10-Q 2025-11-10 · 10-Q 2025-08-07 · 10-Q 2025-02-07 · 10-K 2026-06-11 · 10-K 2025-06-12
Rated on July 8, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Next Reporting Date
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | -0.16 | -197.30 | 94 | -18.90 | -1.20 | 3 | 2 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.75 | 7.80 | 129 | -2.30 | 4.10 | -12 | -13 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.71 | 95.90 | 135 | 17.70 | 3.70 | 16 | 14 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.32 | – | 152 | 42.70 | 1.50 | 0 | -2 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.43 | – | 168 | 78.60 | 1.80 | -5 | -6 |
| 2026: Q1 | 1.29 | 72.00 | 192 | 48.40 | 4.80 | -3 | -4 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Valued with plenty of substance (price-to-sales 0.37, price-to-book 1.6), roughly $151 million of equity, high liquidity in current assets, a very good Altman Z-score. A small but reliable dividend payer with a low payout ratio.
The doubling is measured from the loss-making low of the steel price cycle (fourth quarter of 2024) and amplified by the Century acquisition ($61.5 million). Annual results are a roller coaster between $78 and $647 million of revenue with two loss years — not a structural trend.
In fiscal year 2025, roughly 99 percent of pre-tax profit ($7.6 of $7.7 million) came from futures contracts, not from the steel business; in 2026 too, $3.4 of $26.4 million came from hedging plus a $1.4 million paper gain. Operating cash flow ($8.5 million) well below the reported profit.
A thin cash box ($2.45 million), the credit facility secured by practically all assets nearly doubled from $47.7 to $92.6 million for the acquisition. Concentration risks: one customer at 15 percent of revenue, few suppliers with a "material adverse effect" warning.
The optically cheap price-to-earnings ratio of 12.5 sits at peak earnings (about 39 on the prior year's profit); the forward P/E of 14.4 signals expected earnings decline. The share price stands roughly 37 percent above the fiscal-year high, and as a micro cap the stock is illiquid.
Friedman Industries is a thoroughly solid small steel processor with a substance-heavy balance sheet — but the doubled revenue figure that triggers the scanner is a steel price upswing from a loss-making low plus an acquisition, not structural growth. Profit hangs on the price cycle and partly on futures contracts, the cheap price-to-earnings ratio sits at the peak, and the share price has run far ahead of the story. A considered cyclical investment for those who know the cycle, not a growth stock. Not investment advice.
- The fiscal year ends March 31; "fiscal year 2026" is April 2025 through March 2026. The quarterly figures for January through March 2026 are derived from the annual report (10-K) — there is no separate quarterly filing for a fiscal fourth quarter.
- As a smaller reporting company, Friedman is exempt from the risk-factors chapter ("Item 1A. Risk Factors — Not required"); disclosure is correspondingly thinner than at larger companies.
- Price and valuation figures are dated July 6-8, 2026; analyses are evergreen, daily prices are not a buy argument.
About the Company
Friedman Industries, Incorporated befasst sich mit der Herstellung und Verarbeitung von Stahlprodukten in den USA. Das Unternehmen ist in zwei Segmenten tätig: Flat-Roll Products und Tubular Products.
| Employees | 381 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Longview, TX |
| Website | friedmanindustries.com |
| IPO Date | 17. Mar 1992 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Michael J. Taylor | Chairman of the Board, President & CEO | 1959 |
| Alex LaRue CPA | CFO, Secretary & Treasurer | 1986 |
| Gaurav Chhibbar | Chief Operating Officer | 1987 |
| Kimberly Thomas | Director of Human Resources | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.