The Saudi Nuclear Deal Isn’t a Uranium Story for Cameco. It’s a Westinghouse Story.

Jabran Kundi

Wed, July 29, 2026 at 11:19 AM PDT 4 min read

Uranium stocks rose this past week, but Cameco (CCJ) stands out from the group. The gains followed a recent nuclear power agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia. This deal opens the door for U.S. companies to sell reactor technology and nuclear equipment to Saudi Arabia, with most uranium firms benefiting from the news, but Cameco has another reason to rise that the others do not. The company is a uranium miner, so it benefits from the same wave lifting the sector. But it also owns 49% of Westinghouse, the company that builds the AP1000 reactor at the center of the Saudi deal. That puts Cameco in a much stronger position. It mines the uranium, supplies the reactor through Westinghouse, and shares in the decades of fuel and servicing each reactor would need afterwards. 

The deal, however, is not final yet. It still needs a feasibility study and congressional review. President Donald Trump has also tied the deal to the condition that Saudi Arabia normalizes its relations with Israel. Building reactors takes years, so the money is a long way off as well.

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Cameco has seen this play out before, though. CCJ stock jumped 23% in a single day last October when Westinghouse signed an $80 billion U.S. reactor deal. Saudi Arabia is just the start. Westinghouse says other countries are looking at the same reactor. 

Does the Saudi Deal Justify the Premium?

Cameco's valuation is difficult to judge on its earnings. The forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 66.8 times has no meaningful five-year average to compare against, since the company was loss-making through most of the uranium downturn. Meanwhile, the forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 15.6 times sits above the company's five-year average near 10 times. While the premium is steep, it is also slightly misleading. For half of that five-year window, Cameco was a pure uranium mining firm. Today, the company also owns 49% of Westinghouse, a reactor business that the old average didn't factor in.

The EPS outlook helps explain the premium. Analysts expect earnings growth of 30% in fiscal 2026 before surging 54% in fiscal 2027. The acceleration is primarily due to rising demand for nuclear power and the reactor deals being secured through Westinghouse. The balance sheet also looks clean. Cameco holds around $790 million in cash against roughly $726 million in debt. That is a strong position to be in for a company worth $37.9 billion by market capitalization. The latest Saudi deal is a clear indicator of why investors are willing to pay a premium for a name that mines uranium and holds a large share of the firm that builds the reactors.