Equity Brief · Consumer Defensive2026-09-16
CALM·Consumer Defensive

Last results 30 Sept 2026

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.

I · AI Analysis

The brief

Cal-Maine Foods produces, grades, packages, and distributes shell eggs and prepared egg products across the United States [Yahoo Finance]. The company offers conventional eggs as well as specialty products including cage-free, organic, brown, and nutritionally enhanced eggs under brands like Egg-Land's Best and Land O' Lakes [Yahoo Finance]. It sells to national grocery chains, club stores, independent supermarkets, and foodservice distributors [Yahoo Finance].

Cal-Maine Foods is the largest egg producer in the United States, operating across conventional, specialty, and prepared food segments [Yahoo Finance]. The company recently settled a major price-fixing lawsuit requiring distribution of 53 million free eggs across 17 states, and missed revenue and earnings targets in its latest quarter, causing its stock to fall 7.49% over the past month [Simply Wall St.]. Despite the legal settlement and recent miss, the company maintains a healthy balance sheet with no net debt and strong free cash flow generation [Sentinellis calculation].

Cal-Maine is financially healthy with strong cash generation, but operating margins collapsed in the latest quarter and forward earnings expectations signal material weakness ahead.

The brief AI analysisConfidence 7/10

Sentinellis health

Financially healthy

7.5/10

7.5+ strong · 4.5–7.5 moderate · under 4.5 weak

Profitability

15% of score6.7/10
Net margin+10.9%Gross margin+23.1%· need ≥ 30.7%, the lower third of Consumer Defensive in our library

Returns on capital

15% of score10.0/10
ROIC+15.9%Return on equity+12.0%

Growth & momentum

20% of score0.0/10
Revenue growth-49.9%· need > +5% YoYOperating margin trend-50.3pp YoY· need not down > 3pp YoY

Balance sheet

25% of score10.0/10
Current ratio7.7xNet debt / EBITDA-1.9xInterest coverage572.3xDebt / equity—· no data

Cash generation

15% of score10.0/10
Free cash flow$328.5MCash vs reported profit$479.8M vs $316.7M

Value creation

10% of score10.0/10
ROIC vs cost of capital+10.3pp

Sentinellis calculation from the published statements — not a score reported by any data source. Each category is scored on the checks that had data; missing inputs are excluded rather than counted as failures.

Market capitalisation

$3.5B

Revenue (TTM)

$2.9B

Explainers

How we read these numbers

Plain-English guides · no account needed

II · Recent news

What moved

6 stories · ranked by relevance

  • Company2026-09-15

    Cal Maine Foods (CALM) Stock Looks Fairly Priced Despite Free Egg Settlement

    Simply Wall St.

  • Company2026-09-15

    Cal-Maine Foods (CALM), What Is Behind The Fresh Attention?

    Simply Wall St.

  • Sector2026-09-09

    17 states have an ‘unusual’ problem in big price-fixing settlement: Distributing 53 million free eggs to Americans

    Fortune

  • Company2026-09-14

    Q2 Earnings Highlights: Cal-Maine (NASDAQ:CALM) Vs The Rest Of The Perishable Food Stocks

    StockStory

  • Company2026-09-09

    Cal-Maine Foods Announces Fiscal 2027 First Quarter Earnings Release and Conference Call Schedule - Quiver Quantitative

    Quiver Quantitative

  • Company2026-09-09

    Cal-Maine Foods Schedules First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Release, Conference Call and Webcast - GlobeNewswire

    GlobeNewswire

Premium · Free with any account

Operating margin in the latest quarter fell to negative 10.8%, down 50.3 percentage points from 39.6% a year earlier, meaning the company lost money on operations even as it reported positive trailing net margin [Sentinellis calculation].

1 of 5 risks in this report

Risks

5

Opportunities

5

Red flags

2

Leadership

10

11 more findings in the full report — free with any account.

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III · Related

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Produced 16 Sept 2026, 09:13 UTC

Figures come from company filings and market data. The Sentinellis health score and the wording attached to it are our interpretation of those figures, not numbers the company reported.

Not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell. Sentinellis holds no positions in the companies it covers, takes no payment from issuers, and has no broker referral arrangements.

How every figure and score is calculated