Insteel Industries
IIIN on NYSE. Insteel Industries sells steel wire reinforcing products for concrete construction to concrete product manufacturers. Market value $576m.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to September 2025.
We can't read total debt from the filing, so debt is left out.
The company doesn't report operating profit, so we work it out from pre-tax profit and interest.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Materials stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $-1.67 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
The filings do not give us enough to work this out.
The filings do not give us enough to work this out.
Quality score: 67 of 100. Price score: 50 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$30.17 a share, 24% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $24.35 to $38.80.
Dividend: 3.7% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: a shortfall of $10 million in the past 12 months, $19 million in the year to September 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $591m | $827m | $649m | $529m | $648m |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 14.6% | 19.6% | 6.4% | 4.8% | 8.3% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.02bn | 0.02bn | 0.02bn | 0.02bn | 0.02bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive4 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 8 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- DebtUnknown
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 6.5% a year
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $198 million last quarter, up 10% on a year ago.
- Profit: $9 million, down 41% on a year ago.
- Over the past 12 months it spent $10 million more cash than it brought in. A year earlier it had $52 million spare.
- About the same number of shares as a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $134m |
| December 2024 | $130m |
| March 2025 | $161m |
| June 2025 | $180m |
| September 2025 | $177m |
| December 2025 | $160m |
| March 2026 | $173m |
| June 2026 | $198m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $5m |
| December 2024 | $1m |
| March 2025 | $10m |
| June 2025 | $15m |
| September 2025 | $15m |
| December 2025 | $8m |
| March 2026 | $5m |
| June 2026 | $9m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 23 October 2025
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 15 October 2026
Who owns it
5 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 4 last quarter. 188 funds in all.
- Bruce & Co.R. Jeffrey Bruce
- Value
- $10m
- Share of fund
- 2.8%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Eagle Investment ManagementMatthew McLennan | $31m | <0.1% | Added |
| Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce | $11m | <0.1% | Added |
| Bruce & Co.R. Jeffrey Bruce | $10m | 2.8% | |
| Diamond Hill Capital ManagementRic Dillon (founder) | $9m | <0.1% | New |
| Boston PartnersBoston Partners team | $505,790 | <0.1% | New |
Sold out this quarter
- Delphi ManagementScott BlackSold out
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$46mCut
- Mirae Asset Global Etfs Holdings$36mAdded
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$35mAdded
- First Eagle Investment Management$31mAdded
- Vanguard Capital Management$25m
- Geode Capital Management$16mAdded
- Robotti Robert$14mAdded
- Jane Street Group$13mAdded
- Citadel Advisors$12mAdded
- State Street$12mCut
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
2 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor7.4%−7.0 ptsSince 30 June 2026
- Global X Management CO LLCPassive investor6.3%+1.2 ptsSince 30 June 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 7.4%−7.0 pts | 30 June 2026 | |
Global X Management CO LLC Passive investor | 6.3%+1.2 pts | 30 June 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
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 1 sold $112,952.
- Wagner RichardSenior Vice President and COOSold
- Date
- 27 August 2026
- Shares
- 1,640
- Price
- $30.31
- Value
- $49,704
- Wagner RichardSenior Vice President and COOSold
- Date
- 26 February 2026
- Shares
- 1,679
- Price
- $37.67
- Value
- $63,248
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 August 2026 | Wagner Richard Senior Vice President and COO | Sold | 1,640 | $30.31 | $49,704 |
| 26 February 2026 | Wagner Richard Senior Vice President and COO | Sold | 1,679 | $37.67 | $63,248 |
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 23 Oct 2025, plus the 10-Q filed 16 Jul 2026 and 10 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.