Armstrong World Industries
AWI on NYSE. Armstrong World Industries sells ceilings and walls to distributors and contractors. Market value $6.9bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Worth a closer look
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
Nothing stood out in the numbers we check.
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $3.54 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 17.0 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 23 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 100 of 100. Price score: 68 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$164.87 a share, 10% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $150.28 to $206.08.
Dividend: 0.8% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $1.1bn | $1.2bn | $1.3bn | $1.4bn | $1.6bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 23.5% | 22.6% | 25.0% | 25.9% | 26.6% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.04 | 0.74 | 0.49 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.05bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)9 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.49× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 11.6% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 7% fewer since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $472 million last quarter, up 11% on a year ago.
- Profit: $97 million, up 10% on a year ago.
- It keeps 26 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 27 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $247 million, up from $219 million.
- 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $450 million more than cash, up from $441 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $387m |
| December 2024 | $368m |
| March 2025 | $383m |
| June 2025 | $425m |
| September 2025 | $425m |
| December 2025 | $388m |
| March 2026 | $410m |
| June 2026 | $472m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $77m |
| December 2024 | $62m |
| March 2025 | $69m |
| June 2025 | $88m |
| September 2025 | $86m |
| December 2025 | $66m |
| March 2026 | $67m |
| June 2026 | $97m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 24 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 27 October 2026
Who owns it
8 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 8 last quarter. 477 funds in all.
- Yacktman Asset ManagementStephen Yacktman
- Value
- $121m
- Share of fund
- 1.5%
- Cooke & BielerCooke & Bieler partners
- Value
- $37m
- Share of fund
- 0.4%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egerton CapitalJohn Armitage | $148m | 1.4% | Added |
| Yacktman Asset ManagementStephen Yacktman | $121m | 1.5% | |
| Gates Capital ManagementJeff Gates | $82m | 2.7% | Added |
| Cooke & BielerCooke & Bieler partners | $37m | 0.4% | |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $34m | <0.1% | Added |
| SouthernSun Asset ManagementMichael Cook | $32m | 4.3% | Added |
| Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce | $11m | <0.1% | New |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $549,439 | <0.1% | Cut |
Sold out this quarter
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$827m
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$356m
- Vanguard Capital Management$309m
- London CO of Virginia$264mCut
- State Street$231m
- Bank of Montreal /can$177mCut
- Fuller & Thaler Asset Management$177mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$167mAdded
- Citadel Advisors$165mAdded
- Egerton Capital$148mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
3 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor11.5%Since 30 June 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor5.2%Since 31 March 2026
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor5.2%Since 31 March 2026
- The London CompanyPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 September 2025
- Capital International InvestorsPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 11.5% | 30 June 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 5.2% | 31 March 2026 | |
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 5.2% | 31 March 2026 | |
The London Company Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 September 2025 | |
Capital International Investors Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 31 March 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 1 insider bought $99,998 of shares on the open market.
- TEMPLIN ROY WDirectorBought
- Date
- 27 February 2026
- Shares
- 575
- Price
- $173.91
- Value
- $99,998
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 February 2026 | TEMPLIN ROY W Director | Bought | 575 | $173.91 | $99,998 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 24 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 28 Jul 2026 and 9 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.