Compass Minerals International
CMP on NYSE. Compass Minerals sells salt and plant nutrition to businesses and consumers. Market value $951m.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to September 2025.
Should I look at this?
Look carefully before going further
Why it could be worth it
Read the warning sign in its own filings
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $8.19 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 14.1 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 3 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 30 of 100. Price score: 73 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$22.66 a share, 38% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $16.40 to $34.50.
Pays no dividend
Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $78 million in the past 12 months, $128 million in the year to September 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $1.0bn | $1.2bn | $1.2bn | $1.1bn | $1.2bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 10.2% | 3.6% | 6.4% | -10.5% | 2.0% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 3.42 | 3.59 | 1.56 | 2.95 | 3.62 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.03bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive3 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)4 of 7 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)No
- Debt3.62× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 2.4% a year
- Buying back its own sharesNo, 23% more shares since 2020
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $215 million last quarter, about the same as a year ago.
- A loss of $6 million, compared with a loss of $17 million a year ago.
- It keeps 9 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, after losing 1 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $78 million, down from $117 million.
- 1% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
- Debt is $672 million more than cash, down from $761 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $209m |
| December 2024 | $307m |
| March 2025 | $495m |
| June 2025 | $215m |
| September 2025 | $228m |
| December 2025 | $396m |
| March 2026 | $453m |
| June 2026 | $215m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | Not reported |
| December 2024 | -$24m |
| March 2025 | -$32m |
| June 2025 | -$17m |
| September 2025 | -$7m |
| December 2025 | $19m |
| March 2026 | $13m |
| June 2026 | -$6m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 12 December 2025
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 5 November 2026
Who owns it
5 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 4 last quarter. 233 funds in all.
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $918,335
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irenic CapitalAdam Katz | $33m | 2.4% | Cut |
| Engine CapitalArnaud Ajdler | $20m | 1.9% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $2m | <0.1% | Added |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $918,335 | <0.1% | |
| Barrow HanleyBarrow Hanley team | $1,556 | <0.1% | New |
Largest holders overall
- Koch$219m
- SailingStone Capital Partners$104mCut
- BlackRock$96mAdded
- State Street$76mAdded
- American Century Companies$71mAdded
- Vanguard Capital Management$55m
- Irenic Capital$33mCut
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$30mAdded
- Jacobs Levy Equity Management$28mNew
- Gumshoe Capital Management$27mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
5 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor6.1%−2.1 ptsSince 31 March 2026
- STATE STREET CORPORATIONPassive investor5.5%+0.6 ptsSince 31 March 2026
- M Partners Fund LPPassive investorat least 5.5%(filed with 2 related holders)Since 11 November 2025
- American Century Investment Management, Inc.Passive investorat least 5.4%(filed with 3 related holders)Since 30 June 2026
- Gumshoe Capital Management LLCPassive investorat least 3.2%−1.8 pts(filed with 3 related holders)Since 30 June 2025
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 6.1%−2.1 pts | 31 March 2026 | |
STATE STREET CORPORATION Passive investor | 5.5%+0.6 pts | 31 March 2026 | |
M Partners Fund LP Passive investor | at least 5.5% (filed with 2 related holders) | 11 November 2025 | |
American Century Investment Management, Inc. Passive investor | at least 5.4% (filed with 3 related holders) | 30 June 2026 | |
Gumshoe Capital Management LLC Passive investor | at least 3.2%−1.8 pts (filed with 3 related holders) | 30 June 2025 | |
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
No insider bought or sold on the open market in the last 12 months.
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.
1 serious warning sign in Compass Minerals International’s filings.
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 12 Dec 2025, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 8 later 8-Ks.
Weak checks on its own accounts
SeriousThe company said its checks on its own accounts did not work at the end of its latest quarter. Mistakes could slip into the numbers.
“Based on that evaluation, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that as a result of the material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting as described below, the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective as of June 30, 2026.”
Show the full paragraph
Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) as amended (the Exchange Act) under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s management. Based on that evaluation, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that as a result of the material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting as described below, the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective as of June 30, 2026.
From the 10-Q filed 6 August 2026, Part I, Item 4. Controls and Procedures. Read it in the filing
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
- It carries a lot of debt: 3.6× its equity.
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.