2,173.8%. That is Dycom’s year-over-year jump in operating cash flow for the six months ended August 1, from $3.5 million to $79.1 million.
The number is almost comically large because the starting point was tiny. Still, it marks a sharp change in the cash profile of a contractor whose revenue rose 45.6% to $2.0 billion. Net income increased only 18.6%, to $115.6 million, and net margin fell from 7.1% to 5.8%.
So the latest 10-Q offers two versions of the same expansion: much more work moving through the business, and less profit retained from each dollar of it. The cash improvement is real in the reported figures, but the margin has not kept pace with the top line.
Dycom attributes the revenue increase, excluding acquired businesses, mainly to fiber-to-the-home deployments, including rural fiber programs. That organic piece added $541.2 million in contract revenue over the six-month comparison.
“Excluding amounts generated by the acquired businesses, contract revenues increased by $541.2 million during the six months ended August 1, 2026 compared to the six months ended July 26, 2025, primarily due to net revenue increases in fiber-to-the-home deployments, including rural fiber deployment programs.”
Dycom 10-Q, August 27, 2026
The company is not describing growth as purely acquisition-driven. Fiber work supplied a large part of the increase even after acquired businesses were removed from the comparison.
The pressure showed up below revenue. Dycom said labor and subcontracted labor costs decreased 2.2%, primarily because of the mix of work, while income before taxes was also affected by costs to scale operations. Acquisition accounting added $94.0 million of amortization expense for the six months, a non-cash charge tied to acquired customer relationships, backlog, and trade names.
“Income before income taxes is impacted by amortization expense resulting from the application of acquisition accounting for the acquired businesses, which resulted in $48.1 million and $94.0 million of amortization expense for the three and six months ended August 1, 2026 associated with finite-lived intangible assets related to customer relationships, backlog and trade names identified during the preliminary purchase price allocation.”
Dycom 10-Q, August 27, 2026
That accounting charge is not cash leaving the business, but it does reduce reported income. The filing also reports interest expense of $73.5 million for the six months, up from $29.6 million, because borrowings were higher. Cash on hand climbed from $28.5 million to $340.1 million.
Working capital supplies another unresolved detail. Accounts receivable rose 43.4%, to $2.3 billion, roughly in line with revenue growth, while inventory increased 19.0%. Capex rose only 6.6%, to $139.8 million, so capital spending took a smaller share of revenue and free-cash-flow margin improved by 3.3 percentage points.
The longer record makes the expansion less exotic. Annual revenue climbed from $3.8 billion in 2023 to $5.5 billion in 2026, while annual net margin stayed near 5%. Dycom has been getting larger without turning that scale into a visibly wider reported margin.
At the latest close, Dycom had a $9.1 billion market capitalization, $2.1 billion of net debt, and a 32.2-times price-to-earnings ratio. Those figures put attention on the same question as the 10-Q: how much of the new revenue becomes durable earnings after labor mix, acquisition amortization, and financing costs are accounted for.
Dycom’s next reported period will give the cleanest factual check through two lines: whether operating cash flow remains positive at this scale and how accounts receivable moves alongside revenue. For now, the filing’s trade-off is simple enough: more work, more cash, thinner margin.
Source: Dycom Industries’ 10-Q filed August 27, 2026.