Cardinal Ethanol

CRDE

Chemicals · Basic Materials

Price

$19000.00

+0.00 (+0.00%)

Market Cap

$277.5M

Winston Score

Winston is serious

Mixed quality — meaningful strengths and weaknesses.

Data as of Aug 23, 2026 · filings through Jun 30, 2024

How the score breaks down

Quality

Mixed

Growth

Weak

Cash Flow

Good

Stability

Strong

Valuation

Good

Dividends

Good

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Winston Score History

The full picture

Cardinal Ethanol is a small company based in Indiana that turns corn into ethanol, a type of alcohol used mainly as a fuel additive blended into gasoline. Its core product is fuel-grade ethanol, which it sells to fuel blenders, refiners, and distributors across the United States. The company also sells distillers grains, a leftover from the ethanol-making process, as animal feed to livestock farmers.

Cardinal Ethanol makes money by selling ethanol and distillers grains, so its profits depend heavily on the spread between corn prices and ethanol prices. It operates a single plant in Union City, Indiana, making it a small, regionally focused producer with limited geographic diversification. The company's strong return on invested capital suggests it runs its plant efficiently, but its biggest risk is commodity price swings — when corn gets expensive or ethanol prices fall, margins can shrink quickly.

Share count broadly stable

0.0% over 4y

The share count has stayed roughly flat over this period — little dilution or buyback activity.

Diluted shares outstanding: 15K (2019) → 15K (2023)

Score breakdown

Every number that matters to educated investors.

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Quality

Profit per sale

Gross Margin

11.6%

Thin — 11.6% gross margin

Profit after running costs

Operating Margin

7.5%

Modest — 7.5% operating margin

Return on the money invested

ROCE

15.4%

Strong — 15.4% return on capital

ROIC between 15% and 25%. Every dollar invested in the business earns 15 to 25 cents back per year.

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Growth

Sales growth

Sales YoY

-32.8%

Shrinking sales (-32.8% YoY)

Profit growth

EPS YoY

-39.8%

Earnings shrinking (-39.8% YoY)

Earnings per share down more than 10%. Either a bad year, or a real decline.

How steady the profit is

EPS Consistency

2/8 quarters

Earnings rarely grow — volatile business

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Cash Flow

Profit that turns into cash

Cash Conversion

87%

Modest — 87% of profit becomes cash

Spare cash per sale

FCF Margin

3.3%

Thin free cash flow (3.3%)

FCF margin between 0% and 10%. Some cash from sales, but not a lot.

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Stability

What it owes vs what it owns

Debt / Equity

0.34

Conservative — low debt load (0.34)

Covers its interest

Interest Cover

14.76x

Comfortably covers interest (14.8x)

Interest coverage above 8. Profits cover interest many times over.

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Valuation

Price vs profit

P/E Ratio (TTM)

8.5x

Attractive valuation — P/E 8.5

P/E under 10. The price tag is small relative to last year's profit.

Cheaper or dearer next year

P/E vs Forward

N/A

not available

Data not available

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Dividends

Dividend

Dividend Yield

4.21%

Healthy income — 4.21% yield

Generous yield. Worth checking whether the payout is sustainable.

Dividend record

Dividend Growth

-70.9%

Dividend cut (-70.9% YoY) — warning sign

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