Howmet Aerospace (HWM)
Forward P/E is 33.15x against a peer median of 20.35x, a ratio of 1.63x — above the fair range — with trailing P/E 42.27x and PEG 1.07. The growth exception applies: latest-quarter revenue grew 24.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), far above the group median, and the PEG of 1.07 is at or below the ~1.5 line, so the premium is paid for by delivered growth. Delivered demand check: the aerospace & defense group's median growth was 11.0% year over year — demand rising.
What would change this label: Move to OVERVALUED if revenue growth falls below 11% year over year for two quarters, or if the PEG rises above 1.5, while the forward P/E stays above about 23.4x (1.15x the peer median), because the premium would then no longer be paid for by growth. Move to UNDERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to about 18.3x or below (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates while revenue growth stays above 20% year over year.
Howmet Aerospace makes the metal parts and fasteners that go into aircraft engines and airframes, and its sales grew 24.1% in the latest quarter, more than double the pace of similar companies. Its shares do cost a lot more than those peers per dollar of earnings, but here the faster growth pays for that extra price. On balance the shares look fairly priced — expensive, but earned.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Howmet Aerospace returned +994.58% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Howmet Aerospace: -36.5% (2026-08-18 to 2026-10-23). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 33.15x against a peer median of 20.35x, a ratio of 1.63x — above the fair range — with trailing P/E 42.27x and PEG 1.07. The growth exception applies: latest-quarter revenue grew 24.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), far above the group median, and the PEG of 1.07 is at or below the ~1.5 line, so the premium is paid for by delivered growth. Delivered demand check: the aerospace & defense group's median growth was 11.0% year over year — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 33.1× against a peer median of 20.4×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the aerospace & defense group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 11.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. This company grew much faster than the group, at 24.1%. Latest-quarter sales growth was +24.1% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Howmet Aerospace (HWM) | $196.00 | 33.1× | 42.3× |
| NOC | — | 18.7× | 17.3× |
| TDG | — | 24.3× | 34.4× |
| GD | — | 20.2× | 21.6× |
| HONA | — | 20.4× | 27.1× |
| LHX | — | 20.9× | 26.1× |
| Peer median | 20.4× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $2.5B | — | $534M | 1.33 | $479M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $2.3B | — | $580M | 1.44 | $359M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $2.2B | — | $372M | — | $530M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $2.1B | — | $385M | 0.95 | $423M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $2.1B | — | $407M | 1.00 | $344M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $1.9B | — | $344M | 0.84 | $134M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $1.9B | — | $314M | — | $378M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $1.8B | — | $332M | 0.81 | $162M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $1.9B | — | $266M | 0.65 | $342M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $1.8B | — | $243M | 0.59 | $95M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $1.7B | — | $236M | — | $403M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $1.7B | — | $188M | 0.45 | $132M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | Howmet Aerospace Inc. |
| Chief executive | John C. Plant (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howmet_Aerospace) |
| Sector | Industrials — Aerospace & Defense — makes lightweight metal parts and fasteners for aircraft engines and airframes |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $196.00 |
| Market value (market cap) | $76.6B — share price times shares outstanding of 398,801,399 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $9.1B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $1.9B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $1.8B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +994.58% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -36.5% (2026-08-18 to 2026-10-23) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E (5-year median): not computed in the Phase 1 batch — UNVERIFIED
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000004281.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000004281.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/HWM/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.