Pure Cycle
PCYO on Nasdaq. Pure Cycle sells water, wastewater, land, and rental homes to Denver-area customers. Market value $262m.
Price checks use the past 12 months to May 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to August 2025.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See Utilities stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $2.44 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 21.3 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 5 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 63 of 100. Price score: 60 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$10.99 a share, 13% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $9.70 to $12.44.
Pays no dividend
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $6 million in the past 12 months, $12 million in the year to August 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $17m | $23m | $15m | $29m | $26m |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 30.8% | 43.9% | 14.2% | 42.6% | 29.4% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.00 | n/a | n/a | 0.05 | 0.05 |
| 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)5 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.05× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 0.2% a year
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to May 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $8 million last quarter, up 60% on a year ago.
- Profit: $3 million, up 31% on a year ago.
- It keeps 38 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 35 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $6 million, down from $7 million.
- About the same number of shares as a year ago.
- Debt is $6 million more than cash. A year ago it had $8 million more cash than debt.
- Sales grew on a year ago in 3 of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| August 2024 | $13m |
| November 2024 | $6m |
| February 2025 | $4m |
| May 2025 | $5m |
| August 2025 | $11m |
| November 2025 | $9m |
| February 2026 | $5m |
| May 2026 | $8m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| August 2024 | $7m |
| November 2024 | $4m |
| February 2025 | $809,000 |
| May 2025 | $2m |
| August 2025 | $6m |
| November 2025 | $5m |
| February 2026 | $1m |
| May 2026 | $3m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 12 November 2025
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 7 October 2026
Who owns it
5 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 5 last quarter. 117 funds in all.
- Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl
- Value
- $541,133
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $512,474
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heartland AdvisorsBill Nasgovitz | $7m | 0.3% | Cut |
| Cannell CapitalJ. Carlo Cannell | $3m | 2.4% | New |
| Diamond Hill Capital ManagementRic Dillon (founder) | $871,783 | <0.1% | Added |
| Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl | $541,133 | <0.1% | |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $512,474 | <0.1% |
Sold out this quarter
Largest holders overall
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
2 investors own more than 5%; 1 of them is pushing for change.
- Maran Capital Management, LLCActivistWants board seatsat least 14.7%0.0 pts(filed with 7 related holders)Since 4 August 2026
What they said
Item 4 is hereby amended to add the following: On August 4, 2026, Maran Capital Management, LLC, Maran Partners Fund, LP, Maran Partners GP, LLC, Maran SPV1 LP, Maran SPV GP, LLC, Plaisance SPV I, LLC and Daniel J. Roller (collectively, "Maran") delivered a letter to the Issuer…
Read the filing - Magnolia Capital Fund, LPPassive investorat least 7.5%(filed with 2 related holders)Since 30 June 2026
- Daniel R. KozlowskiActivistWants board seatsSold down below 5%Since 21 May 2026
What they said
Item 4 is hereby amended to add the following: On May 21, 2026, Daniel J. Roller resigned from his position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Issuer (the "Board"). On July 7, 2026, Daniel Kozlowski resigned from his position as a member of the Board. Maran Capital…
Read the filing
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Maran Capital Management, LLC Activist Wants board seats | at least 14.7%0.0 pts (filed with 7 related holders) | 4 August 2026 | What they saidItem 4 is hereby amended to add the following: On August 4, 2026, Maran Capital Management, LLC, Maran Partners Fund, LP, Maran Partners GP, LLC, Maran SPV1 LP, Maran SPV GP, LLC, Plaisance SPV I, LLC and Daniel J. Roller (collectively, "Maran") delivered a letter to the Issuer… Read the filing |
Magnolia Capital Fund, LP Passive investor | at least 7.5% (filed with 2 related holders) | 30 June 2026 | |
Daniel R. Kozlowski Activist Wants board seats | Sold down below 5% | 21 May 2026 | What they saidItem 4 is hereby amended to add the following: On May 21, 2026, Daniel J. Roller resigned from his position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Issuer (the "Board"). On July 7, 2026, Daniel Kozlowski resigned from his position as a member of the Board. Maran Capital… Read the filing |
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 $757,246.
- Kozlowski Daniel RDirectorSold
- Date
- 17 November 2025
- Shares
- 68,778
- Price
- $11.01
- Value
- $757,246
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 November 2025 | Kozlowski Daniel R Director | Sold | 68,778 | $11.01 | $757,246 |
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 Nov 2025, plus the 10-Q filed 8 Jul 2026 and 7 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
- Sales have barely grown: 0.2% a year.
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.