CluenexVulcan Materials VMC
Vulcan Materials scores average on business quality (5.4 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Vulcan Materials does
Vulcan Materials produces construction aggregates like crushed stone, sand, and gravel, selling directly to contractors and builders for infrastructure and commercial projects. The business is positioning to cash in on surging demand for heavy materials required to build power-hungry data centers.
- What it does best
Vulcan dominates local supply markets through massive regional quarry networks, protecting pricing power with an operating margin of 19.85% that beats peer KNF's 8.56%. High freight costs for heavy stone create natural geographic monopolies that new entrants cannot easily undercut.
- The main risk
Net debt sits at $4.2B with an interest coverage ratio of 7.0x, leaving the balance sheet exposed to prolonged construction downturns or persistent high interest rates that inflate debt-servicing costs.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Gross margin sits at 27.5% and FCF margin ranks in the sector's top decile at the 83rd percentile, driven by pricing discipline that yields stronger cash conversion as volumes scale.
Geographic concentration of quarries locks in regional contractors who face prohibitive trucking costs, supported by an operating margin ranking in the sector's top quartile at 78th percentile.
Revenue grew 7.1% to $8.1B, showing a steady expansion rate that improves upon the uneven trajectory seen across prior annual periods.
Net debt stands at $4.2B with interest covered 7.0x by earnings, while free cash flow reached $1.0B, pointing to a moderately leveraged but cash-generative balance sheet getting stronger.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
2 sold $4.4M outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on VMC
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Vulcan Materials scores average on the Cluenex quality check (5.4 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is fair, moat fair, growth steady and financial health fair.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 2 sold $4.4M outside pre-planned sales.
Oct 29, 2026.
See VMC today
- Today's verdict on VMC, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Vulcan Materials (VMC)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/vmc/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.