Curtiss Wright
CW on NYSE. Curtiss-Wright sells engineered products and services to aerospace, defense, nuclear, and industrial customers. Market value $20.0bn.
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?
Good business, but not cheap right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See cheaper Industrials stocks on the list
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $3.13 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 29.8 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 13 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 97 of 100. Price score: 32 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$540.79 a share, 4% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $521.66 to $808.16.
Dividend: 0.2% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $2.5bn | $2.6bn | $2.8bn | $3.1bn | $3.5bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 15.1% | 16.6% | 17.0% | 16.9% | 18.1% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.58 | 0.64 | 0.45 | 0.43 | 0.38 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn | 0.04bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)8 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.38× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 7.9% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 4% fewer since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $924 million last quarter, up 5% on a year ago.
- Profit: $151 million, up 25% on a year ago.
- It keeps 19 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 18 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $625 million, up from $503 million.
- 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $480 million more than cash, down from $627 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $799m |
| December 2024 | $824m |
| March 2025 | $806m |
| June 2025 | $877m |
| September 2025 | $869m |
| December 2025 | $947m |
| March 2026 | $914m |
| June 2026 | $924m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $111m |
| December 2024 | $118m |
| March 2025 | $101m |
| June 2025 | $121m |
| September 2025 | $125m |
| December 2025 | $137m |
| March 2026 | $128m |
| June 2026 | $151m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 12 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 5 November 2026
Who owns it
6 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 5 last quarter. 945 funds in all.
- Century ManagementArnold Van Den Berg
- Value
- $247,788
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $93m | 0.8% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $60m | 0.1% | Added |
| GMOJeremy Grantham | $2m | <0.1% | New |
| First Eagle Investment ManagementMatthew McLennan | $2m | <0.1% | Added |
| Polen CapitalDan Davidowitz | $2m | <0.1% | Added |
| Century ManagementArnold Van Den Berg | $247,788 | <0.1% |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$3.4bn
- State Street$1.3bnAdded
- Vanguard Capital Management$1.3bn
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$1.2bnAdded
- Invesco$1.2bnAdded
- Massachusetts Financial Services$624mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$561mCut
- Banque Cantonale Vaudoise$513mAdded
- VAN ECK Associates$444mCut
- TD Asset Management$419mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
1 investor owns more than 5%.
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor5.2%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 5.2% | 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 $148,999 of shares on the open market. 8 sold $30m, $16m of it under preset trading plans.
- Wyche Larry DDirectorSold
- Date
- 28 August 2026
- Shares
- 100
- Price
- $596.74
- Value
- $59,674
- Watts John CEVP & Chief Growth OfficerSold
- Date
- 27 August 2026
- Shares
- 1,035
- Price
- $619.46
- Value
- $641,141
- Lyash Jeffrey J.DirectorBought
- Date
- 10 August 2026
- Shares
- 209
- Price
- $711.62
- Value
- $148,999
- Watts John CEVP & Chief Growth OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 200
- Price
- $770.56
- Value
- $154,112
- Bamford Lynn MChair and CEO, DirectorSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 12 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,500
- Price
- $758.20
- Value
- $2m
- Ogilby Gary ASenior VP & Corp ControllerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 9 June 2026
- Shares
- 399
- Price
- $721.95
- Value
- $288,058
- Bamford Lynn MChair and CEO, DirectorSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 9 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,500
- Price
- $721.72
- Value
- $2m
- Watts John CEVP & Chief Growth OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 27 May 2026
- Shares
- 220
- Price
- $752.91
- Value
- $165,640
- Ogilby Gary ASenior VP & Corp ControllerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 18 March 2026
- Shares
- 252
- Price
- $689.14
- Value
- $173,663
- Farkas K ChristopherExecutive VP and CFOSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 18 March 2026
- Shares
- 1,265
- Price
- $689.69
- Value
- $872,458
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 August 2026 | Wyche Larry D Director | Sold | 100 | $596.74 | $59,674 |
| 27 August 2026 | Watts John C EVP & Chief Growth Officer | Sold | 1,035 | $619.46 | $641,141 |
| 10 August 2026 | Lyash Jeffrey J. Director | Bought | 209 | $711.62 | $148,999 |
| 15 June 2026 | Watts John C EVP & Chief Growth Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 200 | $770.56 | $154,112 |
| 12 June 2026 | Bamford Lynn M Chair and CEO, Director | Sold under a preset trading plan | 2,500 | $758.20 | $2m |
| 9 June 2026 | Ogilby Gary A Senior VP & Corp Controller | Sold under a preset trading plan | 399 | $721.95 | $288,058 |
| 9 June 2026 | Bamford Lynn M Chair and CEO, Director | Sold under a preset trading plan | 2,500 | $721.72 | $2m |
| 27 May 2026 | Watts John C EVP & Chief Growth Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 220 | $752.91 | $165,640 |
| 18 March 2026 | Ogilby Gary A Senior VP & Corp Controller | Sold under a preset trading plan | 252 | $689.14 | $173,663 |
| 18 March 2026 | Farkas K Christopher Executive VP and CFO | Sold under a preset trading plan | 1,265 | $689.69 | $872,458 |
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 12 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 8 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
- It isn't cheap on profits: 29.8× operating profit.
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.