# First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/FM.TO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z. Financial observations: FY1997–FY2025.

Listing currency: CAD. Reporting currency: USD.

## 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: CAD 37.39 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

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

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 2

- Years with a net loss: 6

- Operating margin variation: 0.61×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 0.10×

- FY2017: 0.06×

- FY2018: 0.20×

- FY2019: 0.12×

- FY2020: 0.14×

- FY2021: 0.36×

- FY2022: 0.29×

- FY2023: 0.01×

- FY2024: 0.17×

- FY2025: 0.18×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

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

- ROIC, median of available years: 3.0%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 0.8%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -4.9 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 23.0%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 27.8%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 24.4%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -0.3%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 1.9%

- FY2017: 0.8%

- FY2018: 3.3%

- FY2019: 1.8%

- FY2020: 2.8%

- FY2021: 10.7%

- FY2022: 10.7%

- FY2023: 0.4%

- FY2024: 3.1%

- FY2025: 3.9%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 0.30×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $268M

- Net income, five-year total: $886M

- Return on incremental invested capital: 13.9%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 1.0 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 7.9 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 32.8%

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

- FY2021: 1.19×

- FY2022: 1.05×

- FY2023: 1.19×

- FY2024: -325.50×

- FY2025: 1.00×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 1.9% vs 3.1%

- Per-share earnings: -0.46 to -0.03 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 2.0%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 3.8%

- Market cap gain: $15B

- Cumulative retained earnings: $949M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 2.0%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 3.8%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $0.42

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.46

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$0.03

- Buyback history: 0 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: $0

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $729M

- ROIC, first three-year median: 1.9%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 3.1%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -$0.07

- FY2017: -$0.46

- FY2018: $0.64

- FY2019: -$0.08

- FY2020: -$0.26

- FY2021: $1.20

- FY2022: $1.49

- FY2023: -$1.38

- FY2024: $0.00

- FY2025: -$0.03

### accounting: pass

- latest-year receivables to sales index (DSRI) exceeds 1.465

- Sloan accruals: -6.5%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 2.65×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 3.6%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.02×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -5.0%

- FY2017: -5.7%

- FY2018: -6.5%

- FY2019: -3.8%

- FY2020: -7.4%

- FY2021: -8.1%

- FY2022: -5.2%

- FY2023: -10.0%

- FY2024: -6.8%

- FY2025: -6.5%

## Holders

## Price story

Up 133% since Oct 2023 · sales +9.1%

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:01.786Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-07-23: First Quantum expects rise in Cobre Panama maintenance costs ([ca.finance.yahoo.com](https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/first-quantum-expects-rise-cobre-220545003.html))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +9.1%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: $2.7B 

- FY2017: $3.3B 

- FY2018: $4.0B 

- FY2019: $4.1B 

- FY2020: $5.1B 

- FY2021: $7.2B 

- FY2022: $7.6B 

- FY2023: $6.5B 

- FY2024: $4.8B 

- FY2025: $5.2B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 27.8%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: 12.7% 

- FY2017: 10.1% 

- FY2018: 24.7% 

- FY2019: 19.4% 

- FY2020: 21.2% 

- FY2021: 35.5% 

- FY2022: 28.8% 

- FY2023: 20.0% 

- FY2024: 28.1% 

- FY2025: 27.8% 

## Owner memo

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

### How it makes money

Operates in copper; annual sales are USD 5.2 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2025: revenue 5237000000; grossProfit 1458000000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 20% to 28.1% during 2023–25; it earns 3% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 20%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 28.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 27.8%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.019498793399838146],[2017,0.008319345362987831],[2018,0.033351303355108775],[2019,0.01824372335386073],[2020,0.028162209338569916],[2021,0.10665024630541872],[2022,0.10716747234482059],[2023,0.0037504564820450394],[2024,0.03141033289583582],[2025,0.0389516129032258]]; median 0.02978627111720287. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 8 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2018: growth capex 1279000000; upkeep 864000000; owner earnings 441000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 2.9002267573696145.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2020: growth capex 0; upkeep 610000000; owner earnings 420000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 995000000; owner earnings 989000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 1167000000; owner earnings 1090694516.9712794. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); Dividend observations: [[2016,7000000],[2017,5000000],[2018,5000000],[2019,5000000],[2020,5000000],[2021,5000000],[2022,75000000],[2023,93000000],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 18.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); FM.TO SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 18.536 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 4.2 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:34:39.933Z); Closing price 37.39 CAD; reporting-to-trading FX 1.4190435646374344; FY2025 annual sales per share 6.28440025137601; price multiple 4.192720378405365. FY2025 cash earnings/share -0.033600001344000055. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

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

- 2016-10: CAD 12.74 per share

- 2016-11: CAD 15.34 per share

- 2016-12: CAD 13.35 per share

- 2017-01: CAD 16.41 per share

- 2017-02: CAD 13.82 per share

- 2017-03: CAD 14.13 per share

- 2017-04: CAD 13.01 per share

- 2017-05: CAD 11.39 per share

- 2017-06: CAD 10.97 per share

- 2017-07: CAD 13.78 per share

- 2017-08: CAD 15.05 per share

- 2017-09: CAD 14.01 per share

- 2017-10: CAD 14.43 per share

- 2017-11: CAD 14.83 per share

- 2017-12: CAD 17.61 per share

- 2018-01: CAD 18.34 per share

- 2018-02: CAD 20.91 per share

- 2018-03: CAD 18.09 per share

- 2018-04: CAD 18.50 per share

- 2018-05: CAD 20.35 per share

- 2018-06: CAD 19.37 per share

- 2018-07: CAD 20.29 per share

- 2018-08: CAD 16.37 per share

- 2018-09: CAD 14.71 per share

- 2018-10: CAD 13.14 per share

- 2018-11: CAD 12.20 per share

- 2018-12: CAD 11.04 per share

- 2019-01: CAD 15.21 per share

- 2019-02: CAD 15.09 per share

- 2019-03: CAD 15.15 per share

- 2019-04: CAD 14.15 per share

- 2019-05: CAD 9.84 per share

- 2019-06: CAD 12.44 per share

- 2019-07: CAD 12.16 per share

- 2019-08: CAD 8.16 per share

- 2019-09: CAD 11.13 per share

- 2019-10: CAD 11.13 per share

- 2019-11: CAD 12.15 per share

- 2019-12: CAD 13.17 per share

- 2020-01: CAD 10.36 per share

- 2020-02: CAD 9.92 per share

- 2020-03: CAD 7.19 per share

- 2020-04: CAD 8.50 per share

- 2020-05: CAD 8.07 per share

- 2020-06: CAD 10.82 per share

- 2020-07: CAD 11.32 per share

- 2020-08: CAD 12.91 per share

- 2020-09: CAD 11.87 per share

- 2020-10: CAD 15.31 per share

- 2020-11: CAD 18.43 per share

- 2020-12: CAD 22.85 per share

- 2021-01: CAD 21.30 per share

- 2021-02: CAD 27.43 per share

- 2021-03: CAD 23.95 per share

- 2021-04: CAD 28.33 per share

- 2021-05: CAD 29.70 per share

- 2021-06: CAD 28.57 per share

- 2021-07: CAD 26.72 per share

- 2021-08: CAD 26.28 per share

- 2021-09: CAD 23.45 per share

- 2021-10: CAD 29.30 per share

- 2021-11: CAD 27.23 per share

- 2021-12: CAD 30.27 per share

- 2022-01: CAD 31.31 per share

- 2022-02: CAD 37.17 per share

- 2022-03: CAD 43.28 per share

- 2022-04: CAD 36.83 per share

- 2022-05: CAD 36.62 per share

- 2022-06: CAD 24.42 per share

- 2022-07: CAD 23.40 per share

- 2022-08: CAD 23.24 per share

- 2022-09: CAD 23.45 per share

- 2022-10: CAD 24.03 per share

- 2022-11: CAD 31.98 per share

- 2022-12: CAD 28.29 per share

- 2023-01: CAD 30.87 per share

- 2023-02: CAD 29.81 per share

- 2023-03: CAD 31.07 per share

- 2023-04: CAD 32.92 per share

- 2023-05: CAD 28.44 per share

- 2023-06: CAD 31.34 per share

- 2023-07: CAD 39.11 per share

- 2023-08: CAD 36.30 per share

- 2023-09: CAD 32.09 per share

- 2023-10: CAD 16.07 per share

- 2023-11: CAD 11.11 per share

- 2023-12: CAD 10.85 per share

- 2024-01: CAD 12.20 per share

- 2024-02: CAD 12.85 per share

- 2024-03: CAD 14.56 per share

- 2024-04: CAD 17.48 per share

- 2024-05: CAD 17.51 per share

- 2024-06: CAD 17.97 per share

- 2024-07: CAD 16.90 per share

- 2024-08: CAD 16.97 per share

- 2024-09: CAD 18.44 per share

- 2024-10: CAD 17.99 per share

- 2024-11: CAD 19.13 per share

- 2024-12: CAD 18.53 per share

- 2025-01: CAD 18.19 per share

- 2025-02: CAD 17.95 per share

- 2025-03: CAD 19.35 per share

- 2025-04: CAD 18.51 per share

- 2025-05: CAD 20.33 per share

- 2025-06: CAD 24.19 per share

- 2025-07: CAD 23.29 per share

- 2025-08: CAD 24.07 per share

- 2025-09: CAD 31.48 per share

- 2025-10: CAD 29.12 per share

- 2025-11: CAD 31.84 per share

- 2025-12: CAD 36.80 per share

- 2026-01: CAD 38.49 per share

- 2026-02: CAD 40.84 per share

- 2026-03: CAD 33.26 per share

- 2026-04: CAD 33.26 per share

- 2026-05: CAD 42.44 per share

- 2026-06: CAD 38.74 per share

- 2026-07: CAD 38.86 per share

- 2026-08: CAD 46.10 per share

- 2026-09: CAD 38.23 per share

- 2026-10: CAD 39.00 per share

## Annual estimated value (CAD per share)

- FY2021: low CAD 19.56 per share, central CAD 25.59 per share, high CAD 29.40 per share

- FY2022: low CAD 21.82 per share, central CAD 24.44 per share, high CAD 27.93 per share

- FY2023: low CAD 14.10 per share, central CAD 15.76 per share, high CAD 17.96 per share

- FY2024: low CAD 8.67 per share, central CAD 9.69 per share, high CAD 11.04 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

## 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.