# Champion Iron (CIA.AU)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/CIA.AU

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z. Financial observations: FY2013–FY2026.

Listing currency: AUD. Reporting currency: CAD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: AUD 2.43 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low AUD 2.64 per share, central AUD 3.64 per share, high AUD 4.23 per share. Buy at or below the central value AUD 3.64 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 13.7% at the stated quote. About 13.7% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; AU 10-year bond 5.2% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 3 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 3

- Years with a net loss: 2

- Operating margin variation: 2.84×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -656.90×

- FY2019: 0.40×

- FY2020: 0.42×

- FY2021: 0.60×

- FY2022: 0.60×

- FY2023: 0.27×

- FY2024: 0.28×

- FY2025: 0.20×

- FY2026: 0.17×

### moat: fail

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: 16.7%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -21.6%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 22.5%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 5.1%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 12.8 pp

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -21.6%

- FY2018: -29.5%

- FY2019: 76.5%

- FY2020: 59.5%

- FY2021: >100%

- FY2022: 47.8%

- FY2023: 16.1%

- FY2024: 17.3%

- FY2025: 10.0%

- FY2026: 8.7%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 0.07×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: CAD 84M

- Net income, five-year total: CAD 1.3B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 9.3%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -739.4 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 17.7%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2022: 0.26×

- FY2023: 0.05×

- FY2024: 0.43×

- FY2025: -1.80×

- FY2026: 0.56×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2017 to 2026 (9 years)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -21.6% vs 10.0%

- Per-share earnings: -0.05 to 0.30 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 0.6%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 1.3%

- Market cap gain: CAD 2.4B

- Cumulative retained earnings: CAD 1.2B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 0.6%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 1.3%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2017

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2026

- Per-share value change: CAD 0.35

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: CAD -0.05

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: CAD 0.30

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.50

- Average buyback yield: 7.0%

- Buyback history: 5 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: CAD 12M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: CAD 1.8B

- ROIC, first three-year median: -21.6%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 10.0%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: CAD -0.05

- FY2018: CAD -0.14

- FY2019: CAD 0.18

- FY2020: CAD 0.18

- FY2021: CAD 0.89

- FY2022: CAD 0.99

- FY2023: CAD 0.38

- FY2024: CAD 0.44

- FY2025: CAD 0.27

- FY2026: CAD 0.30

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -7.6%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.85×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 2.7%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 2.58×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.00×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -2.1%

- FY2018: 6.6%

- FY2019: -13.9%

- FY2020: -24.9%

- FY2021: -10.6%

- FY2022: 2.6%

- FY2023: -1.5%

- FY2024: -8.9%

- FY2025: -5.3%

- FY2026: -7.6%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 72% since Jan 2024 · sales +10.2%

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:12.977Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

Price needs cash profits to grow 0.8% a year for ten years

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +10.2%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: CAD 51K 

- FY2018: CAD 0 

- FY2019: CAD 655M 

- FY2020: CAD 785M 

- FY2021: CAD 1.3B 

- FY2022: CAD 1.5B 

- FY2023: CAD 1.4B 

- FY2024: CAD 1.5B 

- FY2025: CAD 1.6B 

- FY2026: CAD 1.8B 

### Gross margin · FY2026

gross margin 23.1%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2019: 44.1% 

- FY2020: 46.3% 

- FY2021: 63.8% 

- FY2022: 65.6% 

- FY2023: 32.3% 

- FY2024: 41.3% 

- FY2025: 25.0% 

- FY2026: 23.1% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in steel; annual sales are CAD 1.8 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2026: revenue 1769731000; grossProfit 408624000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 23.1% to 41.3% during 2024–26; it earns 16.7% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 41.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 25%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2026: grossProfit / revenue = 23.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); 10-year return on capital observations [[2017,-0.21562038325324268],[2018,-0.29522974879053576],[2019,0.7654449188959632],[2020,0.594828712033316],[2021,1.1549413279711322],[2022,0.47848829368290446],[2023,0.1611472329719812],[2024,0.1729755929702298],[2025,0.1003112153069685],[2026,0.08652561804490519]]; median 0.1670614129711055. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Earns 9.3% on new investment; paid dividends in 9 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2019: growth capex 57763000; upkeep 14551000; owner earnings 83046000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.6955542711268453.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2020: growth capex 131507000; upkeep 22001000; owner earnings 88848000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.480134611921484.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2021: growth capex 141759000; upkeep 35177000; owner earnings 464044600. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.30548572270855.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2022: growth capex 102739883.71564794; upkeep 421650116.28435206; owner earnings 134068083.71564794. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.7663261894124956.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2023: growth capex 0; upkeep 294664000; owner earnings 9718800. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2024: growth capex 101263731.05284593; upkeep 242010268.94715407; owner earnings 100369131.05284593. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.0089130989838797.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); FY2026: growth capex 183681172.71107113; upkeep 230184827.28892887; owner earnings 95282972.71107113. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.9277439345648042.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); Incremental return on capital 0.09303859432610996, from the economics test's unchanged annual inputs.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); Dividend observations: [[2017,0],[2018,28439000],[2019,28439000],[2020,28439000],[2021,28439000],[2022,57093000],[2023,103344000],[2024,103448000],[2025,103635000],[2026,106650000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 9.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); CIA.AU SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 9.515 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes cash profits grow 0.8% yearly over ten years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:44:15.091Z); Ten-year compound average after fade. Initial solved rate -0.0008889497726617982. Price 2.43; FX 1.0186175594807898; discount 0.1; same standard ten-year fade to terminal 0.03. FY2016 owner earnings/share -0.014806720158569821 → FY2026 0.17103326268990443. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (AUD per share)

- 2016-10: AUD 0.24 per share

- 2016-11: AUD 0.50 per share

- 2016-12: AUD 0.50 per share

- 2017-01: AUD 1.25 per share

- 2017-02: AUD 1.00 per share

- 2017-03: AUD 1.02 per share

- 2017-04: AUD 0.98 per share

- 2017-05: AUD 0.89 per share

- 2017-06: AUD 1.00 per share

- 2017-07: AUD 1.00 per share

- 2017-08: AUD 1.04 per share

- 2017-09: AUD 1.02 per share

- 2017-10: AUD 1.07 per share

- 2017-11: AUD 1.45 per share

- 2017-12: AUD 1.45 per share

- 2018-01: AUD 1.39 per share

- 2018-02: AUD 1.30 per share

- 2018-03: AUD 1.18 per share

- 2018-04: AUD 1.41 per share

- 2018-05: AUD 1.45 per share

- 2018-06: AUD 1.33 per share

- 2018-07: AUD 1.38 per share

- 2018-08: AUD 1.31 per share

- 2018-09: AUD 1.35 per share

- 2018-10: AUD 1.28 per share

- 2018-11: AUD 1.26 per share

- 2018-12: AUD 1.11 per share

- 2019-01: AUD 1.45 per share

- 2019-02: AUD 1.74 per share

- 2019-03: AUD 2.16 per share

- 2019-04: AUD 2.22 per share

- 2019-05: AUD 3.18 per share

- 2019-06: AUD 3.01 per share

- 2019-07: AUD 3.19 per share

- 2019-08: AUD 2.32 per share

- 2019-09: AUD 2.48 per share

- 2019-10: AUD 2.13 per share

- 2019-11: AUD 2.25 per share

- 2019-12: AUD 2.68 per share

- 2020-01: AUD 2.46 per share

- 2020-02: AUD 2.00 per share

- 2020-03: AUD 1.51 per share

- 2020-04: AUD 2.00 per share

- 2020-05: AUD 2.80 per share

- 2020-06: AUD 2.86 per share

- 2020-07: AUD 2.79 per share

- 2020-08: AUD 3.08 per share

- 2020-09: AUD 2.90 per share

- 2020-10: AUD 3.36 per share

- 2020-11: AUD 4.51 per share

- 2020-12: AUD 4.75 per share

- 2021-01: AUD 5.11 per share

- 2021-02: AUD 5.43 per share

- 2021-03: AUD 5.48 per share

- 2021-04: AUD 6.81 per share

- 2021-05: AUD 6.56 per share

- 2021-06: AUD 6.38 per share

- 2021-07: AUD 7.60 per share

- 2021-08: AUD 5.89 per share

- 2021-09: AUD 4.83 per share

- 2021-10: AUD 4.40 per share

- 2021-11: AUD 4.49 per share

- 2021-12: AUD 5.44 per share

- 2022-01: AUD 6.45 per share

- 2022-02: AUD 6.44 per share

- 2022-03: AUD 7.81 per share

- 2022-04: AUD 7.32 per share

- 2022-05: AUD 7.60 per share

- 2022-06: AUD 5.39 per share

- 2022-07: AUD 4.80 per share

- 2022-08: AUD 5.19 per share

- 2022-09: AUD 4.83 per share

- 2022-10: AUD 4.68 per share

- 2022-11: AUD 6.36 per share

- 2022-12: AUD 7.31 per share

- 2023-01: AUD 7.15 per share

- 2023-02: AUD 7.37 per share

- 2023-03: AUD 7.14 per share

- 2023-04: AUD 6.47 per share

- 2023-05: AUD 6.00 per share

- 2023-06: AUD 6.08 per share

- 2023-07: AUD 5.98 per share

- 2023-08: AUD 6.09 per share

- 2023-09: AUD 6.30 per share

- 2023-10: AUD 7.12 per share

- 2023-11: AUD 7.60 per share

- 2023-12: AUD 8.39 per share

- 2024-01: AUD 8.53 per share

- 2024-02: AUD 7.73 per share

- 2024-03: AUD 7.41 per share

- 2024-04: AUD 7.16 per share

- 2024-05: AUD 7.02 per share

- 2024-06: AUD 6.40 per share

- 2024-07: AUD 6.28 per share

- 2024-08: AUD 6.27 per share

- 2024-09: AUD 7.35 per share

- 2024-10: AUD 5.86 per share

- 2024-11: AUD 5.73 per share

- 2024-12: AUD 5.75 per share

- 2025-01: AUD 5.57 per share

- 2025-02: AUD 5.43 per share

- 2025-03: AUD 4.86 per share

- 2025-04: AUD 4.57 per share

- 2025-05: AUD 4.33 per share

- 2025-06: AUD 4.17 per share

- 2025-07: AUD 4.17 per share

- 2025-08: AUD 4.50 per share

- 2025-09: AUD 4.67 per share

- 2025-10: AUD 5.54 per share

- 2025-11: AUD 5.80 per share

- 2025-12: AUD 6.07 per share

- 2026-01: AUD 5.88 per share

- 2026-02: AUD 5.37 per share

- 2026-03: AUD 5.28 per share

- 2026-04: AUD 4.67 per share

- 2026-05: AUD 4.45 per share

- 2026-06: AUD 3.92 per share

- 2026-07: AUD 3.41 per share

- 2026-08: AUD 3.51 per share

- 2026-09: AUD 3.08 per share

- 2026-10: AUD 2.71 per share

## Annual estimated value (AUD per share)

- FY2023: low AUD 4.72 per share, central AUD 6.49 per share, high AUD 7.53 per share

- FY2024: low AUD 4.39 per share, central AUD 5.96 per share, high AUD 6.87 per share

- FY2025: low AUD 2.90 per share, central AUD 4.08 per share, high AUD 4.76 per share

- FY2026: low AUD 2.85 per share, central AUD 3.86 per share, high AUD 4.45 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

Prior published observations retained from 2026-10-15T06:49:36.724Z where newer inputs omit a numeric field or fiscal period.

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.

## Reported holder observations