Cash fell by the oddest number in REX American Resources’ latest filing: 62.1%, from $241.0 million to $91.3 million. That happened during six months in which revenue rose 6.3% and operating cash flow nearly tripled to $38.0 million.
The income statement has a much sunnier shape. Gross profit climbed from $14.3 million to $53.3 million, lifting gross margin from 9.0% to 31.6%. Diluted earnings per share rose from $0.22 to $1.06. Revenue rose, but REX kept dramatically more of the sales dollar.
The business is built around the crush spread, the gap between what REX gets for ethanol and byproducts and what it pays for corn. Management describes the operating discipline this way:
"We attempt to match quantities of ethanol, distillers grains and distillers corn oil sales contracts with an appropriate quantity of corn purchase contracts over a given time period when we can obtain a satisfactory margin resulting from the crush spread inherent in the contracts we have executed."
REX American Resources, 10-Q, September 3, 2026
That language matters because the six-month improvement is mostly a margin event, not a volume story. Revenue reached $168.5 million from $158.6 million, while gross profit grew more than three times as fast. The filing does not give a single new spread figure that lets readers pin the improvement to one product or contract.
Cash generation improved, but cash on hand did not. REX spent $35.0 million on capital expenditures, up from $28.9 million, and used $3.9 million in financing activities, including share repurchases and payments to noncontrolling-interest holders. Management also points to timing in working capital:
"These inflows were offset by various changes to working capital of approximately $21.1 million, most significantly caused by: Use of cash of approximately $9.9 million due to a decrease in accounts payable, primarily related to the timing of inventory receipts and vendor payments."
REX American Resources, 10-Q, September 3, 2026
Inventory and accounts receivable both declined year over year, so the balance-sheet movement is not an inventory-build story. The cash drop instead leaves an open accounting map: operating inflows were positive, disclosed uses consumed some of them, and the complete bridge includes more than the figures highlighted here.
The commodity exposure is not theoretical. REX says corn prices can move with crop conditions, weather, trade policy, tariffs, and international disruptions. Its risk table estimates that a 10% adverse price change over the following twelve months would reduce pretax income by $59.3 million for ethanol and $42.7 million for corn, assuming normal operating capacity. Those are sensitivities, not reported losses, and they highlight a source of potential earnings volatility alongside the cash changes disclosed in the filing.
The stock closed at $42.47 on September 2, up 1.7% that day and 24.3% over six months, while the latest annual revenue was only $650.5 million, barely above the prior year’s $642.5 million. The market context is therefore as cyclical as the filing: a sharp earnings improvement sits alongside a business whose historical revenue has moved in large steps, including a 22.9% decline in fiscal 2025.
REX’s next reported period will give the cleanest comparison point: whether the $91.3 million cash balance is rebuilding after the current spending and working-capital uses.