Worthington Steel Inc (WS)
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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.
The business model works and is not financially at risk: $201.2 million of cash from operations in fiscal 2026, $1,197.6 million of equity, only $172.2 million of net debt at the May 31, 2026 balance sheet date, and a dividend covered several times over. Nothing supports red — no going-concern doubt, no negative equity, no interest coverage below one, no listing risk. Yellow stands anyway, for two operating reasons that are both open. First, fiscal 2026 earnings had to be halved sixteen days after the first announcement because further impairments surfaced during the company's own year-end controls — that it found and disclosed the error itself speaks in its favor, but the audited version in the annual report (10-K) was still outstanding on July 28, 2026, as was the auditors' statement on the effectiveness of internal control. Second, the group has leaned out with $1.4 billion of debt for the largest acquisition in its history, and integrating a European company over which it does not even hold instruction rights during the transition period is unproven. Add to that a year whose sign depended on a single unconsolidated joint venture. None of this is a substance risk — but they are open operating questions, and open questions call for the more cautious grade. This light says nothing about price: whether a price-to-sales ratio of a little over 0.5 is cheap is for the scanners to decide, not for this assessment. The decision is yours.
symbol.quality_note
On June 24, 2026 Worthington Steel reported earnings of $0.34 per share for the fiscal year that ended May 31. Sixteen days later it replaced that release in its entirety: year-end closing work for the annual report had turned up further impairments, and $0.34 became $0.17. The business underneath is healthier than either number suggests — adjusted earnings came to $2.24 per share, more than the year before. At the same time the company borrowed $1.4 billion to buy Klöckner & Co, against a market value of about $1.84 billion (data as of July 28, 2026). Not investment advice — just the question of how old the number on your screen really is.
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Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 28, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at WS since then.
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Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 36.00 $ — 38% 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
Uses AIWorthington Steel setzt kommerziell verfügbare KI- und Machine-Learning-Werkzeuge seit dem Geschäftsjahr 2026 im Rahmen des eigenen Transformationsprogramms intern ein (Produktivität, Entscheidungsunterstützung, vorausschauende Wartung, automatisiertes Berichtswesen), erzielt damit aber keinerlei Umsatz — KI ist Werkzeug, nicht Produkt, und die Risikoabschnitte behandeln nur Risiken aus der eigenen Nutzung, nicht eine Bedrohung des Stahlverarbeitungs-Geschäfts.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„We have begun using commercially available artificial intelligence tools (“AI”) and traditional machine learning (“ML”) technologies to enhance productivity and support internal decision-making. We are not engaged in high-risk or autonomous AI systems that materially influence customer-facing decisions or critical infrastructure."
Wir haben begonnen, kommerziell verfügbare Werkzeuge der künstlichen Intelligenz („KI“) und herkömmliche Machine-Learning-Technologien („ML“) einzusetzen, um die Produktivität zu steigern und die interne Entscheidungsfindung zu unterstützen. Wir betreiben keine risikoreichen oder autonomen KI-Systeme, die kundenbezogene Entscheidungen oder kritische Infrastruktur wesentlich beeinflussen.
„During the third quarter of fiscal 2026, we continued integrating commercially available AI technologies into our long-term transformation strategy. Through these efforts, we continue to use AI to generate insights, evaluate strategies, and automate routine tasks, improving productivity and strengthening internal decision-making. We are developing and refining AI solutions in areas such as predictive maintenance and intelligent reporting, which drive greater value through smarter, more connected systems."
Im dritten Quartal des Geschäftsjahres 2026 haben wir kommerziell verfügbare KI-Technologien weiter in unsere langfristige Transformationsstrategie eingebunden. Dabei nutzen wir KI weiterhin, um Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, Strategien zu bewerten und Routineaufgaben zu automatisieren; das steigert die Produktivität und stärkt die interne Entscheidungsfindung. Wir entwickeln und verfeinern KI-Lösungen in Bereichen wie vorausschauender Wartung und intelligentem Berichtswesen, die über klügere, stärker vernetzte Systeme mehr Wert schaffen.
„During the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we continued to execute upon our transformation strategy through the deployment of commercially available AI technologies. We are using AI to gain insight, assess strategies and automate low-value tasks thereby enhancing productivity and supporting internal decision-making. We are testing use cases like predictive maintenance and intelligent reporting."
Im ersten Quartal des Geschäftsjahres 2026 haben wir unsere Transformationsstrategie durch den Einsatz kommerziell verfügbarer KI-Technologien weiter umgesetzt. Wir nutzen KI, um Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, Strategien zu bewerten und geringwertige Aufgaben zu automatisieren, und steigern damit die Produktivität und unterstützen die interne Entscheidungsfindung. Wir erproben Anwendungsfälle wie vorausschauende Wartung und intelligentes Berichtswesen.
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-04-09 · 10-Q 2026-01-08 · 10-Q 2025-10-10 · 10-K 2025-07-29 · 10-Q 2025-04-11 · 10-K 2024-08-02
Rated on July 28, 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.
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 27.8% above the current price.
- Consensus
- Sell
- Analyst Ratings
- 2
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05/31/2027 | 4.29 | 4.29 – 4.29 | 0 | 92.4% | 1 |
| 05/31/2028 | 4.87 | 4.87 – 4.87 | 0 | 13.5% | 1 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Next Reporting Date
- Expected Earnings per Share
- 1.16 $
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 ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 0.25 | – | 739 | -8.50 | 1.70 | 68 | 33 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.27 | -72.50 | 687 | -14.70 | 2.00 | 54 | 25 |
| 2025: Q2 | 1.13 | 4.30 | 833 | -8.60 | 6.70 | 54 | 8 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.73 | 29.90 | 873 | 4.70 | 4.20 | -6 | -36 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.38 | 49.50 | 872 | 18.00 | 2.20 | 99 | 75 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.21 | -23.60 | 770 | 12.00 | 1.40 | 63 | 117 |
| 2026: Q2 | -1.13 | -200.00 | 929 | 11.60 | -6.20 | 45 | 8 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Annual Figures
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,127 | 222 | 171 | 3.42 | 153 | 661 | 1,367 |
| 2022 | 4,069 | 227 | 180 | 3.61 | 39 | 1,133 | 2,084 |
| 2023 | 3,608 | 120 | 87 | 1.74 | 315 | 1,029 | 1,764 |
| 2024 | 3,431 | 195 | 155 | 3.11 | 200 | 985 | 1,866 |
| 2025 | 3,093 | 147 | 111 | 2.24 | 230 | 1,074 | 1,962 |
| 2026 | 3,444 | 105 | 17 | 0.35 | 201 | 1,072 | 2,269 |
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
The core business carries itself: net sales rose 11.3 percent to $3,443.8 million in fiscal 2026 (ended May 31, 2026), adjusted earnings per share went from $2.16 to $2.24 and adjusted EBIT from $149.1 million to $161.1 million. The company attributes the revenue gain primarily to higher direct volumes, including the first-time consolidation of the Sitem Group, and only then to prices; total tonnage fell 5.5 percent (3,586,817 tons after 3,793,752) because low-revenue toll processing collapsed. Operationally, 2026 was the better year.
The financial release of June 24, 2026 was superseded in its entirety on July 10, 2026: $0.34 per share became $0.17, and $15.5 million of operating income became a $1.4 million operating loss. The trigger was additional impairments in Electrical Steel that only surfaced during year-end closing controls. It was already the second correction of the same release within 16 days — the June 25, 2026 filing had itself carried a corrected version because a footnote in the reconciliation table was erroneously duplicated. The audited annual report (10-K) for fiscal 2026 had not been filed as of July 28, 2026. One day before that first release the Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer, the executive responsible for financial reporting, announced his retirement and left the same day — not, the filing states, as the result of any disagreement over accounting.
At May 31, 2026 the balance sheet was sound — unaudited, since it appears only in the financial release: $2,252.4 million of total assets, $1,197.6 million of equity, net debt of only $172.2 million. One day later $1.4 billion of new debt arrived for Klöckner ($700 million of notes at 7.750 percent due 2033 plus a $700 million term loan); consolidation also pulls roughly $899.7 million of Klöckner's own borrowings onto the books. The company's unaudited pro forma statements of May 26, 2026 show $2,274.9 million of long-term debt as of February 28, 2026 — more than the market value of about $1.84 billion — alongside $6,106.1 million of total assets, $1,718.7 million of equity and $9,702.7 million of trailing twelve-month net sales. The term loan carries no financial maintenance covenant. The quarterly report (10-Q) for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 brings the first reported, but still unaudited, figures for the combined group; audited figures only come with the annual report (10-K) for fiscal 2027.
Automotive accounted for 52 percent of fiscal 2025 net sales, 33 points of it from the Detroit Three; two individual customers stood at 14 and 12 percent. On top of that sits the Mexican 50 percent joint venture: $20.3 million of equity income in fiscal 2026 against pre-tax earnings of $7.1 million — without it, the year would have been negative before tax.
The impairment costs no liquidity: operations generated $201.2 million in fiscal 2026 (prior year $230.3 million), and after $121.2 million of capital spending $80.0 million of free cash flow remained. The dividend of $0.64 per share cost $32.6 million and is covered several times over; trailing twelve-month adjusted EBITDA was $245.3 million.
Worthington Steel is a sound steel processor with a reporting problem and a transformation risk. Operationally, fiscal 2026 was better than the year before — $3,443.8 million of net sales, $2.24 of adjusted earnings per share, $80.0 million of free cash flow. What was actually reported, however, came to just $0.17 per share, after $112.2 million was written off in Electrical Steel and the company had to replace its own financial release in its entirety sixteen days later. At the same time it has borrowed $1.4 billion to buy Klöckner & Co — against a market value of about $1.84 billion (data as of July 28, 2026) and a balance sheet that knows nothing about it yet. Not investment advice.
- Worthington Steel reached our research list through the filing stream at the U.S. securities regulator, the SEC: on July 10, 2026 the company superseded its own financial release of June 24, 2026 in its entirety by amendment (Form 8-K/A). Amendments to earnings releases are rare. The striking contradiction in our data — a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.1 alongside a price-to-sales ratio of a little over 0.5, as of July 28, 2026 — has the same origin: it still carries the withdrawn $0.34 per share.
- Data cut-off and evidence chain: every figure through fiscal 2025 comes from the audited annual report (10-K, filed July 29, 2025), the nine-month figures from the quarterly report (10-Q) as of February 28, 2026, and all fiscal 2026 annual figures from the corrected financial release of July 10, 2026 — which is unaudited. The annual report for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026 had not been filed as of July 28, 2026.
- Not to be confused: Worthington Steel, Inc. (NYSE: WS) has been independent since December 1, 2023 and is not the same company as its former parent, which today is called Worthington Enterprises, Inc. The fiscal year ends May 31; references to "fiscal 2026" cover essentially June 2025 through May 2026. Analyses here are evergreen, and a daily price is never a reason to buy.
About the Company
Worthington Steel, Inc. ist ein Stahlverarbeiter in Nordamerika.
| Employees | 6,000 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Columbus, OH |
| Address | 100 West Old Wilson Bridge Road, 43085 Columbus, United States |
| Phone | 614 840 3462 |
| Website | worthingtonsteel.com |
| IPO Date | 1. Dec 2023 |
| ISIN | US9821041012 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| John B. Blystone | Executive Chairman | 1954 |
| Geoffrey G. Gilmore | CEO, President & Director | 1972 |
| Timothy A. Adams | VP & CFO | 1965 |
| Clifford J. Larivey | President of Flat-Roll Steel Processing | 1974 |
| William C. Wertz | VP & Chief Information Officer | – |
| Melissa H. Dykstra | Vice President of Corporate Communication & Investor Relations | – |
| Joseph Y. Heuer | VP, General Counsel & Secretary | 1977 |
| Nikki M. Ballinger | Vice President of Human Resources | – |
| Brad Kern | Senior Vice President of Operations | – |
| Dan Magnussen | Treasurer | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Insider Transactions
| Date | Person | Role | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. Jul 2026 | Gilmore Geoffrey G | President and CEO | Other | 10,555 | 32.16 | 339,449 |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Gilmore Geoffrey G | President and CEO | Other | 23,664 | 0.00 | – |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Blystone John B | Executive Chairman | Other | 6,408 | 32.16 | 206,081 |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Blystone John B | Executive Chairman | Other | 14,750 | 0.00 | – |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Larivey Clifford | President Flat Rolled Stl Proc | Other | 1,297 | 32.16 | 41,712 |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Larivey Clifford | President Flat Rolled Stl Proc | Other | 2,906 | 0.00 | – |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Adams Timothy A | Chief Financial Officer | Other | 1,266 | 32.16 | 40,715 |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Adams Timothy A | Chief Financial Officer | Other | 2,837 | 0.00 | – |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Klingler Jeffrey R | Chief Operating Officer | Other | 3,861 | 32.16 | 124,170 |
| 7. Jul 2026 | Klingler Jeffrey R | Chief Operating Officer | Other | 8,655 | 0.00 | – |
Reportable transactions by officers and major shareholders from SEC Form 4 filings. "Other" includes things like stock grants and option exercises without a buy/sell character.
View all insider transactions →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.