Basic Materials: valuation, profitability, growth and balance sheets
At the close of October 30, 2026, the 21 Basic Materials companies with trailing earnings were worth $1.26T together, 27.2 times their last four reported quarters of net income, against 25.8 for all covered companies; the sector’s own median since 2010 is 21.5, and its median company trades at 23.6. In Q2 2026 the sector kept 11.3% of revenue as net income, grew revenue +12.4% on the year and carried net debt of 1.11 times its trailing EBITDA.
The sector read as one company: sums over its members for every ratio, the median company beside them. Weekly valuation since 2010, quarterly margins, growth and balance sheets since 2009; each chart the sector’s own line with its median since the start dashed, and Materials sector ETF (XLB) in grey on the right-hand axis from the day it was listed. The newest period is drawn hollow while it is still being reported.
Valuation
Price to earnings · market value over trailing twelve months of net income, weekly
The sum of the sector’s market values over the sum of its trailing earnings. Shaded stretches are weeks when the sector’s trailing earnings were a loss in sum, so no multiple exists; the earnings yield below stays defined there, below zero. Readings above 100 leave a gap.
Earnings yield · trailing earnings over market value, percent; negative when the sector lost money in sum
The ten-year Treasury paid 4.9% in the latest week.
Price to sales · market value over trailing twelve months of revenue
Price to book · market value over stockholders' equity
Free cash flow yield · trailing twelve months over market value, percent
REITs and brokers carry no capex line in the extract and are left out.
Dividend yield · trailing twelve months over market value, percent
Profitability
Gross margin · revenue less cost of revenue, percent of revenue, by calendar quarter
Operating margin · percent of revenue
Net margin · percent of revenue
Return on equity · trailing twelve months of net income over stockholders' equity, percent
Return on assets · trailing twelve months of net income over total assets, percent
Growth
Revenue growth · year over year, percent
Earnings growth · net income, year over year, percent; gaps beyond ±100%
Shaded where the sector’s year-ago quarter was a loss in sum, so no growth rate exists.
Share of companies growing revenue · percent of members with revenue up on the year
Balance sheets
Net debt · long-term debt less cash and equivalents, billions of dollars, the sector's members, complete quarters
A member that reports long-term debt only in its 10-K carries that figure through the year. Levels rise partly with coverage in the early years.
Net debt to EBITDA · long-term debt less cash, over trailing operating income plus depreciation and amortization
Debt to equity · long-term debt over stockholders' equity
Share of companies with net cash · more cash and equivalents than long-term debt, percent
The 27 Basic Materials companies
Each company at the close of November 2, 2026 and its latest reported quarter, largest first. Margins and growth are the latest quarter’s; the multiples and yields use trailing twelve months. An asterisk marks a company whose share count is the diluted weighted figure because its cover page lists several classes.
| Company | Market value | P/E | P/S | P/B | FCF yield | Dividend yield | Net margin | Revenue growth | Return on equity | Net debt to EBITDA | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linde plcLIN | $238.6B | 34.0 | 6.6 | 6.0 | 2.1% | 1.2% | 18.0% | +9.2% | 17.8% | 1.28 | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Southern Copper CorporationSCCO | $151.4B | 23.8 | 8.8 | 11.2 | 3.7% | 2.2% | 38.4% | +39.1% | 47.0% | 0.29 | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Newmont CorporationNEM | $113.4B | 12.3 | 4.3 | 3.2 | 8.9% | 1.0% | 38.9% | +15.2% | 25.9% | — | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Freeport-McMoRanFCX | $90.4B | — | 3.6 | 4.5 | — | 1.0% | — | −8.1% | — | 0.45 | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Howmet Aerospace Inc.HWM | $84.7B | 41.3 | 8.7 | 14.7 | 2.3% | — | 21.0% | +29.4% | 35.6% | 1.16 | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.APD | $70.4B | — | 5.6 | 5.1 | — | 2.3% | -45.6% | +4.6% | -0.3% | — | Q3 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Nucor CorporationNUE | $63.0B | 21.8 | 1.7 | 2.9 | 2.5% | 0.8% | 11.1% | +23.0% | 13.0% | — | Q2 FY2026, Jul 4, 2026 |
| Vulcan Materials Company(Holding Company)VMC | $37.1B | 33.6 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 2.1% | 0.7% | 16.6% | −4.7% | 13.1% | 1.65 | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Kimberly-Clark Corp.KMB | $36.0B | 18.4 | 2.2 | 20.6 | 5.1% | 4.7% | 8.2% | +0.6% | 111.7% | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Steel Dynamics IncSTLD | $35.8B | 18.3 | 1.6 | 3.6 | 3.1% | 0.8% | 11.6% | +34.8% | 19.9% | 1.01 | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Martin Marietta MaterialsMLM | $33.2B | 13.5 | 5.0 | 2.9 | 2.4% | 0.6% | 12.9% | +21.0% | 21.3% | 2.41 | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| PPG Industries, Inc.PPG | $27.6B | 17.6 | 1.6 | 3.3 | 4.6% | 2.3% | 10.4% | +6.6% | 18.5% | — | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Dow Inc.DOW | $24.7B | — | — | 1.5 | — | — | 4.1% | +13.0% | — | — | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.IFF | $24.1B | — | — | 1.7 | 2.2% | 1.7% | 2.6% | — | — | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| ATI Inc.ATI | $23.7B | 42.6 | 4.7 | 11.8 | 1.8% | — | 13.3% | +26.5% | 27.7% | — | Q3 FY2026, Sep 27, 2026 |
| Amrize LtdAMRZ | $23.1B | 18.4 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 4.7% | — | 14.8% | +2.2% | 9.8% | — | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Packaging Corp of AmericaPKG | $23.0B | 33.3 | 2.4 | 4.9 | 3.2% | 1.9% | 7.7% | +14.7% | 14.8% | 1.95 | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Reliance, Inc.RS | $22.8B | 20.6 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 2.1% | — | 7.7% | +42.8% | 14.3% | 0.77 | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Smurfit Westrock plcSW | $22.8B | 45.8 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 4.5% | 4.1% | 1.1% | +1.1% | 2.8% | 2.98 | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| LyondellBasell Industries N.V. Class ALYB | $21.6B | — | 0.7 | 1.9 | 11.2% | 5.2% | — | +10.0% | — | — | Q3 FY2026, Sep 30, 2026 |
| International Paper Co.IP | $19.4B | — | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.5% | 5.0% | -0.2% | −2.2% | -23.8% | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| DuPont de Nemours, Inc. Common StockDD | $19.1B | 347.3 | 2.7 | 1.4 | — | 2.2% | 7.9% | +4.0% | 0.4% | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| CF Industries Holding, Inc.CF | $18.2B | — | 2.4 | 3.2 | 10.5% | 1.7% | — | +17.6% | — | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Ball CorporationBALL | $18.0B | — | — | 3.1 | 4.6% | 1.2% | — | — | — | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Carpenter Technology CorpCRS | $14.4B | 25.3 | 4.5 | 6.6 | 2.4% | 0.3% | 20.4% | +8.8% | 26.1% | 0.60 | Q1 FY2027, Sep 30, 2026 |
| Coeur Mining, Inc.CDE | $13.7B | 16.1 | 4.3 | 1.3 | 8.4% | — | 11.2% | +125.9% | 8.2% | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
| Hecla Mining CompanyHL | $9.1B | 27.2 | — | 3.4 | 5.3% | 0.1% | 35.3% | — | 12.5% | — | Q2 FY2026, Jun 30, 2026 |
A P/E or price to book is shown only where earnings or equity are positive. All sectors.
Method
- Aggregates
- the covered companies read as one company: sums of market value, earnings, revenue, equity and cash flow over the companies carrying both lines of a ratio, so a loss-maker lowers the market's P/E as it would in an index; a ratio with a non-positive denominator is withheld, so a sector's P/E has no reading while its trailing earnings are a loss in sum (the earnings yield, earnings over value, is shown negative instead).
- Medians
- the median company, over companies with a positive denominator (and, for P/E, positive trailing earnings).
- Point in time
- a week's value is the close on its last trading day times the shares on the newest quarterly filing first filed by that day; the earnings, revenue, equity and cash flow are that quarter's trailing twelve months, so a past reading uses only what had been filed.
- Shares
- the cover-page count on the filing, on today's split basis; where the cover line is blank (multi-class filers list each class separately) the quarter's diluted weighted count stands in; a count a thousandfold away from what the quarter's net income and diluted EPS imply was filed in the wrong unit and is put on the implied scale (60 companies: ABNB, ACN, AFRM, APP, ASTS, BLK, BMNR, CMCSA, CME, COIN, CPNG, CRCL, CRWV, CVNA, DASH, DDOG, DELL, EL, EXPE, F, FCNCA, FOXA, GOOGL, H, HEI, HOOD, IBKR, IOT, LAMR, LEN, MA, MDLN, META, MSTR, NET, NKE, NWS, OKTA, PLTR, QSR, RBLX, RBRK, RDDT, REGN, RIVN, RKT, RL, ROKU, RPRX, SHOP, SPG, TEAM, TOST, TSN, TW, UPS, VG, WDAY, XYZ, ZM).
- Quarters
- fiscal quarters are assigned to calendar quarters by their midpoint; a quarter is complete once at least 90% of the prior quarter's reporters have filed it.
- Growth
- each company's quarter against its own quarter a year earlier (nearest end to 365 days back, within 45 days), summed over the matched pairs; earnings growth is withheld when the year-ago sum is not positive.
- Margins
- gross margin is revenue less cost of revenue over revenue; banks and insurers report no revenue under the mapped concepts, so the Financial sector's margins cover its non-bank members.
- Leverage
- long-term debt less cash and equivalents, over trailing operating income plus depreciation and amortization; a company reporting long-term debt only in its 10-K carries that figure through the following three quarters.
- Survivorship
- the companies are today's, so the early years are the history of the firms that survived to be covered now, and the first weeks are dropped until coverage reaches half its peak.
- Market line
- S&P 500 (SPY) daily closes on the right-hand axis of every market chart, and each sector's own sector fund (XLB, XLC, XLY, XLP, XLE, XLF, XLV, XLI, XLRE, XLK, XLU), and an industry group its own (SMH), on its charts, from the market data mirror, so a reading can be seen against what the index or the sector was doing; a fund's line starts when it was listed.
531 companies, 458 with a trailing P/E at the latest close. Income statements, balance sheets and cash flows from each company's SEC 10-K and 10-Q filings (this site's extract); split-adjusted daily closes from a market data vendor. Every figure is computed from the filings; nothing here is a forecast or a recommendation.