Worthington Steel Inc (WS)
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On June 24, 2026 Worthington Steel reported earnings of $0.34 per share for the fiscal year that ended May 31. Sixteen days later it replaced that release in its entirety: year-end closing work for the annual report had turned up further impairments, and $0.34 became $0.17. The business underneath is healthier than either number suggests — adjusted earnings came to $2.24 per share, more than the year before. At the same time the company borrowed $1.4 billion to buy Klöckner & Co, against a market value of about $1.84 billion (data as of July 28, 2026). Not investment advice — just the question of how old the number on your screen really is.
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AI Rating
Uses AIWorthington Steel setzt kommerziell verfügbare KI- und Machine-Learning-Werkzeuge seit dem Geschäftsjahr 2026 im Rahmen des eigenen Transformationsprogramms intern ein (Produktivität, Entscheidungsunterstützung, vorausschauende Wartung, automatisiertes Berichtswesen), erzielt damit aber keinerlei Umsatz — KI ist Werkzeug, nicht Produkt, und die Risikoabschnitte behandeln nur Risiken aus der eigenen Nutzung, nicht eine Bedrohung des Stahlverarbeitungs-Geschäfts.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„We have begun using commercially available artificial intelligence tools (“AI”) and traditional machine learning (“ML”) technologies to enhance productivity and support internal decision-making. We are not engaged in high-risk or autonomous AI systems that materially influence customer-facing decisions or critical infrastructure."
Wir haben begonnen, kommerziell verfügbare Werkzeuge der künstlichen Intelligenz („KI“) und herkömmliche Machine-Learning-Technologien („ML“) einzusetzen, um die Produktivität zu steigern und die interne Entscheidungsfindung zu unterstützen. Wir betreiben keine risikoreichen oder autonomen KI-Systeme, die kundenbezogene Entscheidungen oder kritische Infrastruktur wesentlich beeinflussen.
„During the third quarter of fiscal 2026, we continued integrating commercially available AI technologies into our long-term transformation strategy. Through these efforts, we continue to use AI to generate insights, evaluate strategies, and automate routine tasks, improving productivity and strengthening internal decision-making. We are developing and refining AI solutions in areas such as predictive maintenance and intelligent reporting, which drive greater value through smarter, more connected systems."
Im dritten Quartal des Geschäftsjahres 2026 haben wir kommerziell verfügbare KI-Technologien weiter in unsere langfristige Transformationsstrategie eingebunden. Dabei nutzen wir KI weiterhin, um Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, Strategien zu bewerten und Routineaufgaben zu automatisieren; das steigert die Produktivität und stärkt die interne Entscheidungsfindung. Wir entwickeln und verfeinern KI-Lösungen in Bereichen wie vorausschauender Wartung und intelligentem Berichtswesen, die über klügere, stärker vernetzte Systeme mehr Wert schaffen.
„During the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we continued to execute upon our transformation strategy through the deployment of commercially available AI technologies. We are using AI to gain insight, assess strategies and automate low-value tasks thereby enhancing productivity and supporting internal decision-making. We are testing use cases like predictive maintenance and intelligent reporting."
Im ersten Quartal des Geschäftsjahres 2026 haben wir unsere Transformationsstrategie durch den Einsatz kommerziell verfügbarer KI-Technologien weiter umgesetzt. Wir nutzen KI, um Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, Strategien zu bewerten und geringwertige Aufgaben zu automatisieren, und steigern damit die Produktivität und unterstützen die interne Entscheidungsfindung. Wir erproben Anwendungsfälle wie vorausschauende Wartung und intelligentes Berichtswesen.
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-04-09 · 10-Q 2026-01-08 · 10-Q 2025-10-10 · 10-K 2025-07-29 · 10-Q 2025-04-11 · 10-K 2024-08-02
Rated on July 28, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | 0.25 | – | 739 | -8.50 | 1.70 | 68 | 33 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.27 | -72.50 | 687 | -14.70 | 2.00 | 54 | 25 |
| 2025: Q2 | 1.13 | 4.30 | 833 | -8.60 | 6.70 | 54 | 8 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.73 | 29.90 | 873 | 4.70 | 4.20 | -6 | -36 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.38 | 49.50 | 872 | 18.00 | 2.20 | 99 | 75 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.21 | -23.60 | 770 | 12.00 | 1.40 | 63 | 117 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
The core business carries itself: net sales rose 11.3 percent to $3,443.8 million in fiscal 2026 (ended May 31, 2026), adjusted earnings per share went from $2.16 to $2.24 and adjusted EBIT from $149.1 million to $161.1 million. The company attributes the revenue gain primarily to higher direct volumes, including the first-time consolidation of the Sitem Group, and only then to prices; total tonnage fell 5.5 percent (3,586,817 tons after 3,793,752) because low-revenue toll processing collapsed. Operationally, 2026 was the better year.
The financial release of June 24, 2026 was superseded in its entirety on July 10, 2026: $0.34 per share became $0.17, and $15.5 million of operating income became a $1.4 million operating loss. The trigger was additional impairments in Electrical Steel that only surfaced during year-end closing controls. It was already the second correction of the same release within 16 days — the June 25, 2026 filing had itself carried a corrected version because a footnote in the reconciliation table was erroneously duplicated. The audited annual report (10-K) for fiscal 2026 had not been filed as of July 28, 2026. One day before that first release the Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer, the executive responsible for financial reporting, announced his retirement and left the same day — not, the filing states, as the result of any disagreement over accounting.
At May 31, 2026 the balance sheet was sound — unaudited, since it appears only in the financial release: $2,252.4 million of total assets, $1,197.6 million of equity, net debt of only $172.2 million. One day later $1.4 billion of new debt arrived for Klöckner ($700 million of notes at 7.750 percent due 2033 plus a $700 million term loan); consolidation also pulls roughly $899.7 million of Klöckner's own borrowings onto the books. The company's unaudited pro forma statements of May 26, 2026 show $2,274.9 million of long-term debt as of February 28, 2026 — more than the market value of about $1.84 billion — alongside $6,106.1 million of total assets, $1,718.7 million of equity and $9,702.7 million of trailing twelve-month net sales. The term loan carries no financial maintenance covenant. The quarterly report (10-Q) for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 brings the first reported, but still unaudited, figures for the combined group; audited figures only come with the annual report (10-K) for fiscal 2027.
Automotive accounted for 52 percent of fiscal 2025 net sales, 33 points of it from the Detroit Three; two individual customers stood at 14 and 12 percent. On top of that sits the Mexican 50 percent joint venture: $20.3 million of equity income in fiscal 2026 against pre-tax earnings of $7.1 million — without it, the year would have been negative before tax.
The impairment costs no liquidity: operations generated $201.2 million in fiscal 2026 (prior year $230.3 million), and after $121.2 million of capital spending $80.0 million of free cash flow remained. The dividend of $0.64 per share cost $32.6 million and is covered several times over; trailing twelve-month adjusted EBITDA was $245.3 million.
Worthington Steel is a sound steel processor with a reporting problem and a transformation risk. Operationally, fiscal 2026 was better than the year before — $3,443.8 million of net sales, $2.24 of adjusted earnings per share, $80.0 million of free cash flow. What was actually reported, however, came to just $0.17 per share, after $112.2 million was written off in Electrical Steel and the company had to replace its own financial release in its entirety sixteen days later. At the same time it has borrowed $1.4 billion to buy Klöckner & Co — against a market value of about $1.84 billion (data as of July 28, 2026) and a balance sheet that knows nothing about it yet. Not investment advice.
- Worthington Steel reached our research list through the filing stream at the U.S. securities regulator, the SEC: on July 10, 2026 the company superseded its own financial release of June 24, 2026 in its entirety by amendment (Form 8-K/A). Amendments to earnings releases are rare. The striking contradiction in our data — a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.1 alongside a price-to-sales ratio of a little over 0.5, as of July 28, 2026 — has the same origin: it still carries the withdrawn $0.34 per share.
- Data cut-off and evidence chain: every figure through fiscal 2025 comes from the audited annual report (10-K, filed July 29, 2025), the nine-month figures from the quarterly report (10-Q) as of February 28, 2026, and all fiscal 2026 annual figures from the corrected financial release of July 10, 2026 — which is unaudited. The annual report for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026 had not been filed as of July 28, 2026.
- Not to be confused: Worthington Steel, Inc. (NYSE: WS) has been independent since December 1, 2023 and is not the same company as its former parent, which today is called Worthington Enterprises, Inc. The fiscal year ends May 31; references to "fiscal 2026" cover essentially June 2025 through May 2026. Analyses here are evergreen, and a daily price is never a reason to buy.
About the Company
Worthington Steel, Inc. ist ein Stahlverarbeiter in Nordamerika.
| Employees | 6,000 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Columbus, OH |
| Website | worthingtonsteel.com |
| IPO Date | 1. Dec 2023 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| John B. Blystone | Executive Chairman | 1954 |
| Geoffrey G. Gilmore | CEO, President & Director | 1972 |
| Timothy A. Adams | VP & CFO | 1965 |
| Jeffrey R. Klingler M.D. | Executive VP & COO | 1973 |
| Clifford J. Larivey | President of Flat-Roll Steel Processing | 1974 |
| William C. Wertz | VP & Chief Information Officer | – |
| Melissa H. Dykstra | Vice President of Corporate Communication & Investor Relations | – |
| Joseph Y. Heuer | VP, General Counsel & Secretary | 1977 |
| Nikki M. Ballinger | Vice President of Human Resources | – |
| Brad Kern | Senior Vice President of Operations | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 27, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.