Industrials

Last Updated: 29 October 2026

Halma plc is a group of specialist technology companies that make safety, environmental, analysis and healthcare products, such as fire detectors, water-quality sensors, optical components and medical devices. Its fiscal year ends on 31 March. Since the last version of this report (15 June 2026) Halma has bought Dreampath Diagnostics, Pyxis, itemedical and Näslund Medical, sold NovaBone, and on 24 September 2026 raised its FY2027 margin guidance to 23.5%–24%. H1 FY2027 results are due on 19 November 2026. Every figure below comes from Halma's results announcements, trading updates, annual report and RNS notifications. There are no analyst opinions, price targets or ratings anywhere in it.

Share prices, and figures worked out from them, are not shown for London-listed companies on ChartsView.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	HLMA — London Stock Exchange; also traded over the counter in the US as HLMAF
Sector	Industrials — safety, environmental and analysis, and healthcare technology
Revenue (FY2026)	£2,582.3m for the year to 31 March 2026 (FY2025: £2,248.1m), up 14.9%; organic constant-currency growth +16.6%
Adjusted EBIT (FY2026)	£594.5m, up 22.2%, at a 23.0% return on sales (22.7% excluding a £9.3m one-off licence gain); statutory profit before tax £490.7m, up 27.7%
EPS (FY2026)	Statutory basic EPS 98.57p, up 25.6%; adjusted EPS 114.05p, up 21.0%
Dividend per share	24.74p total dividend for FY2026 (interim 9.63p, final 15.11p), up 7%; the 47th year in a row of dividend increases of 5% or more
Net debt	£769.1m at 31 March 2026, including leases (FY2025: £535.8m); 1.16x adjusted EBITDA
Employees	9,461 on average in FY2026 (FY2025: 9,038), in more than 20 countries (2026 Annual Report)
CEO / Leadership	Marc Ronchetti, Group Chief Executive; Carole Cran, Chief Financial Officer; Dame Louise Makin, Chair
Shares in issue	379,645,332 ordinary shares at 31 March 2026, of which 1,967,057 held by the Employee Benefit Trust

2. The Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Fast organic growth: organic constant-currency revenue grew 16.6% in FY2026, and on 24 September 2026 Halma still expected low double-digit organic growth in FY2027, with order intake ahead of revenue and the prior year.
• Margin guidance raised: Halma raised its FY2027 adjusted EBIT margin guidance to 23.5%–24% from about 22.7%, after the return on sales rose to 23.0% in FY2026 from 21.6%.
• Long dividend record: the FY2026 dividend of 24.74p was the 47th consecutive year of 5%-plus increases, covered 4.73 times by adjusted earnings, and FY2026 was the 23rd year in a row of record adjusted profit.
• Acquisition engine: Halma completed a record £447m of acquisitions in FY2026 and six more worth up to £515m in FY2027 to 24 September 2026, while selling three businesses for about £83m.
• High returns on capital: adjusted return on total invested capital was 16.2% in FY2026, against a weighted average cost of capital Halma estimates at 10.2%.

Bear Case

• One large customer: a single data-centre photonics customer accounted for about 20% of group revenue in FY2026 (FY2025: 15%) and about half of Environmental & Analysis revenue.
• Photonics growth slowing: photonics revenue grew 52% in FY2026, but Halma expects about 30% in FY2027 and says trends in this market "remain dynamic".
• Weaker cash conversion and higher debt: adjusted cash conversion fell to 93% from 112%, and net debt rose to £769.1m from £535.8m after record acquisition spending.
• Dollar exposure: about 52% of revenue is in US dollars; Halma says a 1% move in the dollar changes revenue by about £13.6m and adjusted EBIT by about £3.7m.

3. Revenue Segments

Halma reports three sectors. Figures are for FY2026.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Environmental & Analysis (£1,037.7m)	40%	Environmental monitoring, water analysis and treatment, and optical and photonics products, including optical switches for data centres. Revenue +33.6% (organic +35.7%); profit £250.6m at a 24.1% margin.
Safety (£947.5m)	37%	Fire detection and suppression, safety interlocks, worker and public safety, emergency communications and infrastructure safety. Revenue +5.0% (organic +6.5%); profit £253.6m at a 26.8% margin.
Healthcare (£598.4m)	23%	Ophthalmology, vital signs monitoring, interventional and surgical devices, women's health and asset tracking. Revenue +4.9% (organic +6.3%); profit £143.1m at a 23.9% margin.

By destination, the US took £1,237.1m (48%, organic +26.2%), mainland Europe £500.2m (19%), the UK £344.7m (13%), Asia Pacific £333.1m (13%), Africa, Near and Middle East £86.2m (4%) and other countries £81.0m (3%). Follow sterling, the US dollar and industrial markets on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Halma's companies sell specialist products, often needed to meet safety, health or environmental rules, to industrial, building, utility and healthcare customers. Each company runs largely on its own within its sector, and the group adds to them by buying businesses in related niches. R&D spending was £122.6m in FY2026, 4.7% of revenue.

The moat. Many Halma products are small but important parts of safety or regulated systems, where approvals, reliability and know-how matter more than price. Spreading revenue over many niches and countries has helped Halma deliver 23 years in a row of record adjusted profit.

Capital allocation. Halma reinvests most of its cash in acquisitions and keeps leverage within an operating range of up to 2x net debt to adjusted EBITDA. In FY2026 it spent £428.7m on acquisitions (net of cash acquired), paid £89.7m of dividends and bought £33.5m of shares for employee share plans.

5. Financial Health

Halma reports in sterling under IFRS for years to 31 March. GAAP EPS is statutory basic EPS; Adjusted EPS is Halma's adjusted EPS, which excludes the amortisation of acquired intangibles and other adjusting items. Long-term debt is non-current borrowings at each year end (lease liabilities are shown separately).

Fiscal Year	Revenue (£m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2022	1,525.3	+15.7%	64.54p	65.48p	18.88p	£287.6m
FY2023	1,852.8	+21.5%	62.04p	76.34p	20.20p	£677.3m
FY2024	2,034.1	+9.8%	71.23p	82.40p	21.61p	£711.9m
FY2025	2,248.1	+10.5%	78.49p	94.23p	23.12p	£703.8m
FY2026	2,582.3	+14.9%	98.57p	114.05p	24.74p	£756.7m

FY2022 growth is against FY2021 revenue of £1,318.2m. Revenue and EPS are from the ten-year summary in the 2026 Annual Report; dividends from Halma's dividend history; borrowings from each year's balance sheet. Current borrowings were £72.5m, £1.0m, £0.3m, £35.6m and £48.9m for FY2022 to FY2026.

Quarter / Half	Revenue (£m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
H2 FY2026 (Oct 2025–Mar 2026)	1,344.9 (+14.6%)	58.73p (derived)	49.13p (derived)
H1 FY2026 (Apr–Sep 2025)	1,237.4 (+15.2%)	55.32p	49.44p
FY2026 total	2,582.3	114.05p	98.57p

Halma reports half-yearly. H2 figures are the full year less H1 and the H2 EPS figures are approximate because EPS is not strictly additive; Halma said H2 revenue was up 14.6% on a year earlier, with organic growth of 15.8%. H1 FY2027 (April to September 2026) results are due on 19 November 2026.

Cash flow and balance sheet. In FY2026 cash generated from operations was £593.1m and net cash inflow from operating activities, after £112.5m of tax, was £480.6m. Capital expenditure was £71.0m: property, plant and equipment £54.9m, software £1.0m, other intangibles £0.3m and capitalised development £14.8m. Depreciation and amortisation was £130.2m, made up of depreciation and impairment of property, plant and equipment £55.0m, software amortisation £1.3m, amortisation of development costs and other intangibles £11.5m, a £0.8m impairment reversal and amortisation of acquired intangibles £63.2m. At 31 March 2026 cash and bank balances were £143.4m, current borrowings £48.9m, non-current borrowings £756.7m and lease liabilities £107.8m.

Outlook. On 24 September 2026 Halma said it still expects low double-digit organic constant-currency revenue growth in FY2027, including about 5 percentage points from photonics, and raised its adjusted EBIT margin guidance to 23.5%–24%. At exchange rates of $1.35 and €1.17 to the pound it expects a currency headwind of about £8m on revenue and £2m on profit.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Adjusted EBIT	£594.5m for FY2026 at a 23.0% return on sales (£585.2m and 22.7% excluding the Nuvonic one-off); H1 FY2026 £282.0m at 22.8%
Adjusted EPS	114.05p for FY2026, up 21.0%; statutory basic EPS 98.57p
EBITDA (FY2026)	Adjusted EBITDA £661.5m (Halma measure); statutory EBITDA about £656.0m = operating profit before finance items and disposals £525.8m plus D&A £130.2m (wider total, including acquired-intangible amortisation, from the cash flow reconciliation)
Free cash flow	About £409.6m for FY2026: net cash inflow from operating activities £480.6m less capital expenditure £71.0m (FY2026 cash flow statement)
Net debt	Borrowings £805.6m (£48.9m current plus £756.7m non-current) plus leases £107.8m less cash £143.4m = about £770m; Halma reports £769.1m at 31 March 2026, 1.16x adjusted EBITDA
Return on total invested capital	Adjusted ROTIC 16.2% for FY2026 (FY2025: 15.0%)
Dividend per share	24.74p for FY2026, covered 4.73 times by adjusted earnings
Short interest (% of float)	No net short positions of 0.5% or more disclosed to the FCA at 29 October 2026 (latest disclosed: AQR Capital Management 0.5% on 23 June 2026, via Investegate's FCA list); US over-the-counter line HLMAF 355,580 shares short, 0.09% of float, at 31 August 2026 (MarketBeat)
Days to cover	21.3 days for the thinly traded HLMAF line (MarketBeat, 31 August 2026); not published for the London line

7. What Are They Building

Healthcare additions. On 7 July 2026 Halma bought Dreampath Diagnostics, which makes pathology sample-tracking products, for up to €279m. On 2 July it bought itemedical in the Netherlands for €23m and Näslund Medical in Sweden, maker of Gold Anchor fiducial markers, for $45m. Surgistar was bought for $90m in April 2026.

Water and environment. On 2 September 2026 Halma agreed to buy Pyxis, a Houston maker of water-quality sensors, for $170m plus up to $30m of earn-out. Pyxis expects revenue of about $39m in the year to March 2027 and joins the Environmental & Analysis sector as a standalone company.

Portfolio pruning. Halma sold NovaBone for $56m on 4 August 2026, after selling Labsphere and Cardios earlier in the year, and reorganised its Healthcare sector into three subsectors: Discovery, Prevention & Diagnostics; Therapeutic Solutions; and Healthcare Enablement.

Photonics. Optical products for data centres drove Environmental & Analysis growth of 35.7% organic in FY2026, and Halma expects photonics to add about 5 percentage points to group organic growth in FY2027.

8. Competitive Landscape

Halma competes with diversified industrial technology groups and with many small specialist companies in each of its niches.

Peer	Key latest fiscal-year metric
AMETEK (AME)	2025 sales $7.4bn, up 7%; adjusted operating margin 26.2% (AMETEK full-year 2025 results)
Roper Technologies (ROP)	2025 revenue $7.90bn, up 12% (organic +5%) (Roper Q4 2025 earnings release)
Smiths Group (SMIN)	FY2026 (to July) revenue about £1.94bn, organic growth +1.2%, adjusted operating margin 20.6% (results of 22 September 2026, as reported by interactive investor)
Diploma (DPLM)	FY2025 (to September) revenue £1,524.5m, up 12% (organic +11%) (Diploma preliminary results)
Judges Scientific (JDG)	2025 revenue £145.8m, up 9.1% (organic +6%) (Judges Scientific preliminary results)

Halma's FY2026 organic growth of 16.6% was higher than each of these peers reported for its latest year. Spectris, another former peer, is no longer listed.

9. Leadership and Insider Activity

Marc Ronchetti has been Group Chief Executive (CEO) since April 2023 and Carole Cran Chief Financial Officer since April 2025. Dame Louise Makin is Chair. Constance Baroudel, Sector Chief Executive of Environmental & Analysis, left at the end of August 2026 to become chief executive of Spectris; Steve Brown took over that sector on 1 September 2026 and Bill Stoval became Healthcare Sector Chief Executive. Jo Harlow stepped down from the board at the 23 July 2026 AGM.

The director and PDMR dealings below were disclosed through RNS notifications in 2026.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Plan Type
Ronchetti, Cran, Ward, Adegoke, Brown	01 Oct 2026	Free share award	102 each	Share Incentive Plan
Marc Ronchetti (CEO)	07 Aug 2026	Sale	47,000	Market sale
Jennifer Ward (PDMR)	22–23 Jul 2026	Sale	21,393	Market sale
Marc Ronchetti (CEO)	26 Jun 2026	Award	97,559 (81,218 performance, 16,341 deferred bonus)	Executive Share Plan
Carole Cran (CFO)	26 Jun 2026	Award	52,079 (42,773 performance, 9,306 deferred bonus)	Executive Share Plan
Marc Ronchetti (CEO)	24–26 Jun 2026	Vesting; 59,795 sold for tax	127,220 vested	Executive Share Plan
Constance Baroudel (Sector CEO)	22 Jun 2026	Sale	17,530	Market sale
Sharmila Nebhrajani (non-executive director)	15 Jun 2026	Purchase	248	Market purchase
Hudson La Force (non-executive director)	12 Jan 2026	Purchase	2,000	US over-the-counter purchase
Catherine Michel (Chief Technology Officer)	09 Jan 2026	Sale	14,586	Market sale

10. Key Risks

• Customer concentration (Commercial): one data-centre photonics customer was about 20% of group revenue in FY2026, so a change in its orders would have a large effect on growth and profit.
• Acquisitions and portfolio (Strategic): Halma relies on buying companies to grow, spending up to £515m in FY2027 to 24 September; paying too much or integrating badly is one of its principal risks.
• Economic and geopolitical uncertainty (Macro): Halma names US tariffs and trade policy, Middle East developments, supply chains and inflation as risks, and has seen project delays in US fire safety and infrastructure safety.
• Currency (Financial): about 52% of revenue is in US dollars and 14% in euros, so a stronger pound lowers reported results.
• Talent and innovation (Operational): Halma rates talent and diversity, and innovation, as its two highest residual principal risks, and several senior executives changed roles in 2026.
• Cyber and IT interruption (Operational): Halma's many separately run companies widen the area exposed to cyber attacks and IT failures, a medium residual principal risk.

11. Recent Developments

• 28 May 2026 — Sector chief executive changes. Halma said Constance Baroudel would leave to run Spectris, with Steve Brown moving to Environmental & Analysis and Bill Stoval promoted to lead Healthcare.
• 11 Jun 2026 — FY2026 results. Revenue rose 14.9% to £2,582.3m (organic +16.6%), adjusted EBIT rose 22.2% to £594.5m and adjusted EPS rose 21.0% to 114.05p; the total dividend rose 7% to 24.74p.
• 02 Jul 2026 — Two healthcare bolt-ons. Halma bought itemedical for €23m and Näslund Medical for $45m.
• 07 Jul 2026 — Dreampath Diagnostics acquired. Halma agreed to buy the pathology sample-tracking business for up to €279m.
• 23 Jul 2026 — AGM. All 21 resolutions passed; Jo Harlow stepped down as a director and Sharmila Nebhrajani became Senior Independent Director.
• 04 Aug 2026 — NovaBone sold. Halma sold NovaBone for $56m net of costs, with no material gain or loss expected.
• 02 Sep 2026 — Pyxis acquired. Halma agreed to buy the Houston water-quality sensor maker for $170m plus up to $30m of earn-out.
• 24 Sep 2026 — Trading update and margin guidance raised. Halma kept its low double-digit organic growth outlook, raised FY2027 margin guidance to 23.5%–24% and said order intake was ahead of revenue and the prior year.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 19 Nov 2026 — H1 FY2027 results for the six months to 30 September 2026, including the interim dividend
• Expected Jan 2027 — payment of the FY2027 interim dividend (last year: paid 30 January 2026); dates to be confirmed with the results
• 11 Mar 2027 — trading update (provisional date on Halma's financial calendar)
• 31 Mar 2027 — FY2027 year end
• 10 Jun 2027 — FY2027 full-year results (provisional)
• Expected Jul 2027 — 2027 Annual General Meeting (2026 AGM: 23 July 2026); date not yet confirmed

UK and US interest rate decisions and inflation data that move sterling and the US dollar are on the ChartsView Economic Calendar. Discuss Halma with other investors in the ChartsView Forum.

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Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Velo3D, Inc. (NASDAQ: VELO) is a US production-focused metal additive-manufacturing company that develops and manufactures its Sapphire family of laser-powder-bed-fusion metal 3D printers and provides production and engineering services that enable customers to manufacture high-value metal parts at scale, alongside proprietary print-preparation software (Flow), quality-assurance software (Assure) and its Intelligent Fusion manufacturing process (Per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1, filed 2026-03-31). For the year ended December 31, 2025 the Company reported revenue of $46.0 million (+12% year over year vs FY2024 $41.0 million), a gross loss of -$7.4 million (gross margin about -16%), an operating loss of -$54.9 million (per EDGAR XBRL OperatingIncomeLoss, 10-K period ending 2025-12-31) and a net loss of -$71.4 million, with diluted loss per share of -$4.33 (per yfinance annual financials, FY2025). Per yfinance quarterly financials (Q1 2026, period ending 2026-03-31): revenue was $13.8 million versus $9.3 million in Q1 2025, with the operating loss narrowing to -$6.9 million from -$11.5 million in Q1 2025. The stock last traded at $23.06 against a 52-week range of $2.81 to $23.84 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26). The Company's auditor and management both state there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern (Per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1A and Item 8, filed 2026-03-31). Velo3D employed 134 people as of the most recent disclosure (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26).

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Name	Velo3D, Inc. (Per the FY2025 10-K, cover page, filed 2026-03-31)
Ticker / Exchange	VELO / Nasdaq Capital Market (per yfinance, exchange code NCM, pulled 2026-05-26)
Sector / Industry	Technology / Computer Hardware (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Market cap	$687.2M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Enterprise value	$597.2M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
FY2025 revenue	$46.0M (per yfinance annual financials, FY2025)
FY2025 operating income (EDGAR XBRL)	-$54.9M (per EDGAR XBRL OperatingIncomeLoss, 10-K period ending 2025-12-31)
FY2025 free cash flow	-$18.0M (per yfinance freeCashflow, pulled 2026-05-26)
Gross margin (FY2025)	about -16% (gross loss -$7.4M on revenue $46.0M, per yfinance annual financials, FY2025)
Net margin (FY2025)	about -155% (net loss -$71.4M on revenue $46.0M, per yfinance annual financials, FY2025)
Employees	134 (per yfinance fullTimeEmployees, pulled 2026-05-26)
CEO	Arun Jeldi, Chief Executive Officer (Per the FY2025 10-K, Item 7, filed 2026-03-31)
Headquarters	Fremont, California (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Website	velo3d.com (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Fiscal year-end	December 31 (Per the FY2025 10-K, filed 2026-03-31)
Next earnings	not disclosed in this report's source data
Dividend yield	None — Company has never paid a dividend (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
52-week high	$23.84 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
52-week low	$2.81 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Short interest	25.6% of float (per yfinance shortPercentOfFloat, pulled 2026-05-26)

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case

• Q1 2026 revenue rose and operating loss narrowed. Per yfinance quarterly financials (Q1 2026, period ending 2026-03-31): revenue was $13.8 million versus $9.3 million in Q1 2025, and the operating loss improved to -$6.9 million from -$11.5 million in Q1 2025. Q1 2026 also showed a positive gross profit of $2.4 million, the first positive quarterly gross profit in the trailing five quarters.
• FY2025 revenue grew and the operating loss narrowed off the FY2024 level. Per yfinance annual financials (FY2025): revenue rose to $46.0M from $41.0M (+12%), and the operating loss narrowed from -$78.8M (FY2024) to -$54.9M (FY2025, per EDGAR XBRL OperatingIncomeLoss).
• Production-focused platform aimed at defense and aerospace end-markets. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-03-31): the Company's technology "supports production of mission-critical components such as propulsion hardware, hypersonic engine parts, thermal management systems, airframe components, and advanced munitions," targeting customers in "space, aviation, defense, automotive, energy and industrial markets."
• Cash position rebuilt and total debt reduced during the period. Per yfinance annual balance sheet: cash and equivalents rose from $1.2M (FY2024) to $39.0M (FY2025); per yfinance quarterly balance sheet, total debt fell to $17.8M at Q1 2026 (2026-03-31) from $40.2M at FY2025 year-end, reflecting debt-for-equity and warrant-exchange transactions described in the 10-K.
• Small float plus elevated short interest. Per yfinance (pulled 2026-05-26): float is 10.3 million shares with short interest of 25.6% of float and insider ownership of 43.0% - a market structure under which idiosyncratic news can drive outsized price moves.

Bear Case

• Substantial doubt about going concern. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "we believe there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the twelve-month period following the filing date of this Annual Report." The independent auditor expressed the same conclusion (Per the FY2025 10-K, Item 8, filed 2026-03-31).
• Persistent operating and gross losses. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "We experienced loss from operations of $54.9 million and $78.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively." FY2025 gross profit was -$7.4M (per yfinance annual financials), and gross profit was negative in FY2023, FY2024 and FY2025.
• Heavy dilution and a collapsing per-share base. Per yfinance annual financials and balance sheet: diluted shares used for EPS rose from about 376k (FY2023) to about 16.5M (FY2025), shares outstanding rose from 0.5M (FY2023) to 24.6M (FY2025) and 29.8M now, and FY2023 diluted EPS was about -$357.00 - figures consistent with prior reverse-split denomination and large share issuance (the specific split ratio is not disclosed in this report's source data).
• Liquidity strain has hurt the supplier relationship and order pipeline. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "due to our inability to satisfy our accounts payable obligations, we are unable to secure credit terms and volume discounts with our suppliers, causing us to have to pay a premium and/or in advance, for components of our products and/or source components from alternate suppliers at unfavorable terms."
• High customer concentration. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "For the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, sales to the top three customers accounted for 33.2% and 47.0% of our revenue, respectively."

3. What Does Velo3D Actually Do?

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-03-31): Velo3D "is a production-focused metal additive manufacturing technology company that develops and manufactures advanced metal additive manufacturing systems and provides production and engineering services that enable customers to manufacture high-value metal parts at scale." The business combines two complementary operating models - equipment sales (the Sapphire family of systems plus software) and production and engineering services (delivered through Rapid Production Solutions and the Expert Services organization).

A segment-level revenue breakdown by product line is not disclosed in this report's source data, so no donut chart is shown.

Element	Description (Per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1, filed 2026-03-31)
Sapphire family of systems	Metal additive manufacturing systems (the "3D Printers"), including the Sapphire XC large-format printer, that let customers "design and produce metal parts with complex internal features and geometries that had previously been considered impossible for AM."
Flow print-preparation software	Tool-path generation software comprising "custom low angle and within part feature based process customization."
Assure quality-assurance software	Quality-assurance software within the integrated platform.
Intelligent Fusion	The Company's "proprietary Intelligent Fusion manufacturing process" that binds the integrated solution.
Rapid Production Solutions (RPS)	A production-services model where Velo3D "operate[s] as a production services provider, manufacturing parts for customers using Velo3D-operated systems and engineering resources."
Expert Services	An engineering organization "supporting application identification, design optimization, qualification and production deployment."

In plain English, Velo3D sells metal 3D printers and the software and services to run them, and can also produce parts on customers' behalf via RPS. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-03-31): the technology is based on "proprietary laser powder bed fusion ('L-PBF') technology, which greatly reduces and often eliminates the need for support structures," enabling "highly complex, mission-critical parts that existing AM solutions cannot produce without the need for redesign or additional assembly."

4. The Business Model

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-03-31): "We generate revenue through a combination of printer sales and production services." Printer sales are made "through two types of transaction models: a 3D Printer sale transaction and a recurring payment transaction. Support services are included with both transaction types." Recurring payment transactions are leased-printer arrangements where "the customer typically pays an amount for a lease which entitles the customer to a base number of hours of usage" and pays an hourly fee for usage above that base; "most of our leases have a 12-month term."

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-03-31): the Company describes a "land and expand" strategy, "oriented around a demonstration of our value proposition followed by increasing penetration with key customers," noting that "most customers purchase a single machine to validate our technology and purchase additional systems over time." The RPS offering is positioned to let customers "access additive manufacturing without immediate capital investment," serving as "an entry point for additive manufacturing adoption," "a pathway toward printer ownership," "supplemental production capacity" or "an ongoing manufacturing solution."

The Company employed 134 people as of the most recent disclosure (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26). Further detail on the cost structure beyond the line items in Section 5 is not disclosed in this report's source data.

5. Financial Health

5-year income trend (per yfinance annual financials; FY2025 operating income per EDGAR XBRL; FY2021 not in source data):

FY	Revenue	Gross profit	Operating income	Net income	Diluted EPS
FY2025	$46.0M	-$7.4M	-$54.9M (EDGAR XBRL)	-$71.4M	-$4.33
FY2024	$41.0M	-$2.1M	-$78.8M	-$69.7M	-$86.55
FY2023	$77.4M	-$26.3M	-$133.3M	-$135.1M	-$357.00
FY2022	$78.7M	+$0.8M	-$106.3M	+$8.0M	+$26.25
FY2021	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data

The diluted EPS figures for FY2022 and FY2023 (+$26.25 and -$357.00) are struck against a far smaller share count than later years (about 387k and 376k diluted shares respectively, per yfinance annual financials), consistent with prior reverse-split share denomination; the specific reverse-split ratio is not disclosed in this report's source data. FY2024 was the revenue trough at $41.0M; FY2025 revenue recovered +12% and the operating loss narrowed.

Balance sheet (per yfinance annual balance sheet; share counts are "Ordinary Shares Number"):

FY	Cash & equivalents	Total debt	Stockholders' equity	Shares outstanding	Buybacks
FY2025	$39.0M	$40.2M	$38.2M	24.6M	$0
FY2024	$1.2M	$15.9M	$39.7M	13.0M	$0
FY2023	$24.5M	$45.6M	$68.3M	0.5M	$0
FY2022	$32.0M	$22.8M	$138.8M	0.4M	$0

Per yfinance quarterly balance sheet (2026-03-31): total debt was $17.8M, cash and equivalents $16.6M, and shares outstanding 26.2M, reflecting continued debt-for-equity activity. Shares outstanding per the latest yfinance pull (2026-05-26) are 29.8M.

Quarterly trend (last 5 quarters, per yfinance quarterly financials):

Quarter	Revenue	Gross profit	Operating income	Net income	Diluted EPS
Q1 2026 (2026-03-31)	$13.8M	+$2.4M	-$6.9M	-$7.0M	-$0.28
Q4 2025 (2025-12-31)	$9.4M	-$6.9M	-$20.3M	-$20.4M	-$1.03
Q3 2025 (2025-09-30)	$13.6M	+$0.4M	-$10.6M	-$11.8M	-$0.69
Q2 2025 (2025-06-30)	$13.6M	-$1.6M	-$12.1M	-$13.8M	-$0.98
Q1 2025 (2025-03-31)	$9.3M	+$0.7M	-$11.5M	-$25.0M	-$1.87

Q1 2026 was the strongest of the trailing five quarters on both revenue and operating loss, and posted the largest positive quarterly gross profit in that window. Quarterly free cash flow is not disclosed per-quarter in this report's source data.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Raw market data only — no commentary on cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	$23.06 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Previous close	$20.33 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Day range	$19.81 – $23.25 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
52-week high / low	$23.84 / $2.81 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Market cap	$687.2M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Enterprise value	$597.2M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Shares outstanding	29.8M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Float	10.3M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Avg daily volume (10d)	4.46M (per yfinance averageVolume10days, pulled 2026-05-26)
Volume (2026-05-26)	4.84M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Beta	not disclosed in this report's source data - yfinance reports None (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	not disclosed in this report's source data - net loss (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Forward P/E	not disclosed in this report's source data (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
P/S (TTM)	13.62 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
P/B	14.87 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
EV/Revenue	11.83 (per yfinance enterpriseToRevenue, pulled 2026-05-26)
EV/EBITDA	-12.65 (per yfinance enterpriseToEbitda, pulled 2026-05-26)
P/FCF	not disclosed in this report's source data - yfinance reports None (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Gross margin (TTM)	-11.33% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Operating margin (TTM GAAP)	-50.28% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Net margin (TTM)	-105.7% (per yfinance profitMargins, pulled 2026-05-26)
ROE	-126.4% (per yfinance returnOnEquity, pulled 2026-05-26)
ROA	-34.2% (per yfinance returnOnAssets, pulled 2026-05-26)
Debt-to-equity	17.80 (per yfinance debtToEquity, pulled 2026-05-26)
Current ratio	2.45 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Dividend yield	None — Company has never paid a dividend (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Short interest	25.6% of float (per yfinance shortPercentOfFloat, pulled 2026-05-26)
Put / call ratio	not disclosed in this report's source data

Note: yfinance totalRevenue of $50.5M and grossMargins of -11.33% are trailing-twelve-month figures and differ from the FY2025 ($46.0M revenue, about -16% gross margin) figures used elsewhere in this report.

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-03-31):

• Production-enablement model (TRL/MRL progression). The Company positions its platform "as a production enablement solution designed to support customers as they advance through technology readiness level ('TRL') and manufacturing readiness level ('MRL') progression," from "Design exploration and feasibility" through "Full-rate production deployment."
• Rapid Production Solutions scale-up. RPS "utilizes our deep engineering expertise, cutting-edge technology and a fleet of Sapphire XC large-format metal 3D printers to accelerate path to production for our customers," and is designed for "secure domestic manufacturing free of foreign technology dependencies."
• Validated build files ("Golden Print Files"). The Company aims to "capture process parameters, calibration conditions and build instructions required to manufacture a qualified part," enabling customers "to reproduce parts across different Sapphire systems."

Specific new-product launch dates, contract awards or guidance within the last 30 days are not disclosed in this report's source data.

8. Competitive Landscape

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-03-31): the Company states "we believe our technology is ahead of competitors" and that its "part producibility is ahead of our competitors as a result of our tool path generation software namely 'Flow.'" The 10-K extract in this report's source data does not name specific competitors, and peer market data was not pulled. Named-peer comparison data is therefore not disclosed in this report's source data.

Company	Ticker	Market cap	Revenue (TTM)	Gross margin	P/S
Velo3D, Inc.	VELO	$687.2M	$50.5M (TTM, per yfinance)	-11.33%	13.62
Peer 1	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data
Peer 2	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data

Velo3D's stated competitive differentiator is its L-PBF technology's ability to produce complex internal geometries with reduced or eliminated support structures (Per the FY2025 10-K, Item 7, filed 2026-03-31). Specific competitor identities and their financials are not disclosed in this report's source data.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-03-31): Arun Jeldi is "the Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company." Per yfinance insider transactions (pulled 2026-05-26): Hou Jun Xu (Hull) is identified as Chief Financial Officer, and Stefan Georg Ulrich Krause, Adrian Keppler, Jason Michael Lloyd and Kenneth Dale Thieneman are identified as Directors. Detailed executive tenure and biographical information is not disclosed in this report's source data.

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-03-31): on December 24, 2024 the Company and Arrayed Notes Acquisition Corp. (a Delaware corporation controlled by CEO Arun Jeldi) completed a debt-for-equity exchange in which the Company "issued 12,343,423 shares of the Company's common stock, in exchange for the cancellation of $22.4 million in principal amount of the Company's Secured Notes plus $0.4 million of accrued interest," after which Arrayed "became the owner of approximately 95% of the Company's issued and outstanding common stock as of such date."

Top institutional shareholders as of 2026-03-31 (per yfinance institutional_holders, pulled 2026-05-26):

Holder	% held	Shares	Value (USD)
AWM Investment Company, Inc.	14.04%	1,978,282	$45.6M
Vanguard Capital Management LLC	6.45%	908,734	$21.0M
Millennium Management LLC	4.74%	668,061	$15.4M
BlackRock Inc.	1.85%	260,190	$6.0M
UBS Group AG	1.49%	210,098	$4.8M
Morgan Stanley	1.32%	186,195	$4.3M
Jane Street Group, LLC	1.20%	169,460	$3.9M
Oppenheimer & Co Inc	1.13%	159,387	$3.7M
Geode Capital Management, LLC	1.05%	147,640	$3.4M
Sender Co & Partners, Inc.	1.02%	143,440	$3.3M

Per yfinance (pulled 2026-05-26): institutional ownership is 29.93% and insider ownership is 42.99%. Recent insider activity (per yfinance insider_transactions, pulled 2026-05-26):

• 2026-05-15: CEO Arun Jeldi, conversion/exercise of a derivative security, 3,145 shares at $19.84 (about $62k).
• 2026-03-27: Directors Adrian Keppler, Jason Lloyd and Kenneth Thieneman each exercised 3,188 shares at $10.00; Director Stefan Krause was reported for 3,188 shares (value not stated).

10. Risks and Challenges

• Substantial doubt about going concern (Financial): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "we believe there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the twelve-month period following the filing date of this Annual Report."
• History of operating losses (Financial): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "We experienced loss from operations of $54.9 million and $78.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. We anticipate incurring operating losses and negative cash flow in the near-term."
• Insufficient near-term liquidity (Financial): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-03-31): "We do not have sufficient liquidity to meet our operating needs and satisfy our obligations for at least 12 months from the issuance date of the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K."
• Supplier and accounts-payable strain (Operational): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "due to our inability to satisfy our accounts payable obligations, we are unable to secure credit terms and volume discounts with our suppliers, causing us to have to pay a premium and/or in advance, for components of our products and/or source components from alternate suppliers at unfavorable terms."
• Going-concern conclusion deters customer orders (Market & Demand): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "This conclusion has caused customers to delay 3D printer orders until our financial condition improves, resulting in delays in 3D printer sales and difficulty building our bookings and backlog pipeline."
• Customer concentration (Concentration): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "For the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, sales to the top three customers accounted for 33.2% and 47.0% of our revenue, respectively."
• Servicing indebtedness consumes cash (Financial): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "Servicing our indebtedness requires a significant amount of cash and, as a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses. These obligations and expenditures may make it harder for us to achieve and maintain future profitability."
• Slower-than-expected revenue growth from delayed shipments (Market & Demand): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-03-31): "during the year ended December 31, 2025, we experienced less annual revenue growth than expected due to the impact of delayed shipments and customer order delays."
• Concentrated insider ownership and small float (Concentration): Per yfinance (pulled 2026-05-26): insider ownership is 42.99% and float is 10.3M shares against average daily volume of 4.46M; short interest is 25.6% of float - a structure under which news flow and short-covering can drive disproportionate price moves.

11. Recent Developments

Most recent first.

• 2026-05-15 - CEO insider derivative exercise: Per yfinance insider_transactions (pulled 2026-05-26): CEO Arun Jeldi recorded a conversion/exercise of a derivative security for 3,145 shares at $19.84 (about $62k). Source: yfinance insider_transactions (pulled 2026-05-26).
• Q1 2026 results (period ending 2026-03-31): Per yfinance quarterly financials: revenue was $13.8M (vs $9.3M in Q1 2025), gross profit was +$2.4M, and the operating loss was -$6.9M (vs -$11.5M in Q1 2025), with net loss -$7.0M and diluted EPS -$0.28. Source: yfinance quarterly financials (pulled 2026-05-26).

No company-issued news headlines for the trailing 30 days are present in this report's source data (the recent_news feed returned empty entries), and no qualifying X/Twitter posts are included in this report's source data.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• Next earnings date: not disclosed in this report's source data.
• 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders: not disclosed in this report's source data.

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Risk Warning: This research is for information only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. CFD Risk Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74–89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commission from some links on this page at no extra cost to you. Data Disclaimer: All figures are sourced from company filings, earnings releases, and public market data as at the date above. Forward-looking statements are attributed to the company and may not be achieved. Always do your own research. Generated by ChartsView research tooling. Thesis strength measures how well the evidence in this report supports the company's stated thesis — it is NOT a buy/sell rating or price target. ChartsView is not authorised by the FCA to provide regulated investment advice.

Linde plc (NASDAQ: LIN) is a UK-headquartered, Ireland-incorporated industrial gas company — the world's largest by sales — producing atmospheric gases (oxygen, nitrogen, argon, rare gases) and process gases (hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, electronic and specialty gases), and designing and constructing turnkey process plants (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1, filed 2026-02-25). For the year ended December 31, 2025 the Company reported revenue of $34.0 billion (+3% year over year), operating income of $9.25 billion (per EDGAR XBRL OperatingIncomeLoss reads $8,923,000,000 from the 10-K; the 10-K Item 7 GAAP figure is $9.254 billion), net income of $6.90 billion and diluted EPS of $14.61 (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 7, filed 2026-02-25); free cash flow was $5.09 billion (per yfinance annual cashflow, FY2025). The Company has approximately $7 billion of sale-of-gas backlog under construction (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1). The stock last traded at $517.58 against a 52-week range of $387.78 to $521.28 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26); Q1 2026 reported on 2026-05-01 (sales $8.8 billion, +8% YoY; adjusted EPS $4.33, +10%). Linde employed 65,177 people worldwide as of 2025-12-31 (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1).

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Name	Linde plc (per the FY2025 10-K, cover page, filed 2026-02-25)
Ticker / Exchange	LIN / Nasdaq Global Select Market (per the FY2025 10-K, cover page)
Sector / Industry	Basic Materials / Specialty Chemicals — Industrial Gases (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26; the FY2025 10-K, Item 1)
Market cap	$239.3bn (per yfinance, 2026-05-26)
Enterprise value	$263.3bn (per yfinance, 2026-05-26)
FY2025 revenue	$34.0bn (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 7, filed 2026-02-25)
FY2025 operating income (EDGAR XBRL)	$8.92bn (per EDGAR XBRL OperatingIncomeLoss, 10-K period ending 2025-12-31) — the FY2025 10-K Item 7 GAAP figure is $9.25bn (differing on items classification)
FY2025 free cash flow	$5.09bn (per yfinance annual cashflow, FY2025)
Gross margin (FY2025)	48.8% (gross profit $16.6bn on revenue $34.0bn, per the FY2025 10-K, Item 7)
Net margin (FY2025)	20.3% (net income $6.90bn on revenue $34.0bn, per the FY2025 10-K, Item 7)
Employees	65,177 worldwide as of 2025-12-31 (approximately 28% women, 72% men, per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1)
CEO	Sanjiv Lamba (per the FY2025 10-K)
Headquarters	Woking, United Kingdom (principal executive offices); owned office space in Danbury, Connecticut; incorporated in Ireland (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 2 and Item 1)
Website	linde.com (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Fiscal year-end	December 31 (per the FY2025 10-K, filed 2026-02-25)
Next earnings	Q2 2026 (Q1 2026 reported 2026-05-01 per Linde IR; the next report date is not disclosed in this report's source data)
Dividend yield	1.24% — annual dividend rate $6.40, raised 7% in early 2026 (33 consecutive years of dividend increases, per Linde Q1 2026 release 2026-05-01)
52-week high	$521.28 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
52-week low	$387.78 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Short interest	1.33% of float (per yfinance shortPercentOfFloat, pulled 2026-05-26)

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case

• Consistent earnings growth in a defensive end market. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-25): FY2025 diluted EPS was $14.61, up from $13.62 (FY2024), $12.59 (FY2023) and $8.23 (FY2022) — a 21% CAGR over three years. Per the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01): adjusted EPS rose 10% to $4.33 (5% ex-currency), with operating margin reaching 30%.
• Dividend Aristocrat with 33 consecutive years of increases. Per the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01): Linde raised its annual dividend by 7% in early 2026, marking 33 consecutive years of increases with an average 13% growth rate. The annual rate is now $6.40 per share (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26).
• Backlog and hydrogen / clean-energy exposure. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): Linde's sale-of-gas backlog of large projects under construction was approximately $7 billion as of FY2025 year-end. The Company highlights hydrogen production and carbon capture as growth platforms within the Chemicals and Energy end market.
• High and improving margins. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-25): FY2025 gross margin was 48.8% and net margin 20.3%, with operating margin (yfinance TTM) of 28.5%. Per the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01): Q1 2026 operating margin reached 30%, up 50 basis points sequentially.
• Active capital return — buybacks plus dividends. Per the FY2025 10-K (cash flow, filed 2026-02-25): FY2025 repurchases were $4.60 billion, bringing FY2022–FY2025 cumulative buybacks to approximately $18.2 billion and reducing shares outstanding from 492.5 million (FY2022) to 463.7 million (FY2025).

Bear Case

• Cyclical exposure to manufacturing, metals and electronics end-markets. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): customers span healthcare, chemicals and energy, manufacturing, metals and mining, food and beverage, and electronics — many of which are cyclical and exposed to global industrial activity, foreign exchange and commodity price volatility.
• Mid-30s trailing P/E versus mid-single-digit revenue growth. Per yfinance (pulled 2026-05-26): trailing P/E is 34.4, forward P/E is 26.3 and EV/EBITDA is 19.4 against FY2025 revenue growth of +3% — the equity already prices in a continuation of the earnings compounding rather than a meaningful re-acceleration.
• Total debt at $26.3 billion and rising. Per the FY2025 10-K (balance sheet, filed 2026-02-25) and yfinance: total debt rose from $18.8 billion (FY2022) to $28.1 billion (FY2025) as the Company funded its buyback / capex programme partly with debt; current ratio is 0.83 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26).
• Underlying organic growth was just 3% in Q1 2026. Per the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01): underlying sales were up 3% (2% pricing + 1% volume); reported sales growth was boosted by a 5% currency tailwind and 1% from acquisitions — meaning the durability of mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth depends on FX trends.
• Foreign exchange and geopolitical exposure. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-25): Linde operates in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, China, Australia, South Korea and India, with revenue translation and customer demand exposed to currency moves and country-specific risk.

3. What Does Linde Actually Do?

Linde reports as an integrated industrial gas business with engineering-services capability (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1, filed 2026-02-25). Segment-level revenue breakdown is not separately extracted in this report's source data; the qualitative product / customer breakdown is:

Service line / product	Description
Atmospheric gases	Oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases — produced via air separation units, sold to manufacturing, healthcare, food & beverage, electronics (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1)
Process gases	Hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, electronic gases, specialty gases and acetylene — sold to chemicals and energy, electronics and metals end-markets (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1)
Engineering — sale of plant	Design and construction of turnkey process plants for third-party customers and for Linde's own gas businesses (air separation, hydrogen, synthesis, olefin, natural gas plants) (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1)

In plain English, Linde makes the industrial gases that almost every modern factory, hospital, refinery, semiconductor fab and food-processor needs, and also builds the plants that produce those gases. Its contracts with large industrial customers are typically long-term take-or-pay agreements, which is the structural source of its earnings stability. The Company also has a meaningful exposure to hydrogen production and carbon capture (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1 and Q1 2026 release, 2026-05-01), giving it leverage to the energy-transition theme.

4. The Business Model

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): Linde's core business model has two characteristics that distinguish it from a typical specialty chemicals company. First, the bulk of its sales come from take-or-pay supply contracts with large industrial customers, often 10–20 years in length, where Linde finances and operates an on-site air separation or hydrogen unit dedicated to that customer; the customer commits to minimum take volumes regardless of actual utilisation. Second, the Engineering business sells turnkey plants both to third parties and to Linde's own gas businesses — providing in-house capability to win large industrial projects and a structural cost advantage on internal capex.

Per the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01) and the FY2025 10-K (Item 7): the pricing mechanism is largely pass-through (electricity, natural gas, freight) plus inflation-linked escalators, which is why Q1 2026 underlying growth of 3% comprised 2% pricing and only 1% volume — pricing is consistently positive across cycles. The Company also has an active capital-recycling programme, returning $4.60 billion via buybacks and a 7% dividend increase in FY2025 (per the FY2025 10-K, cash flow and the Q1 2026 release).

5. Financial Health

5-year income trend (per the FY2025 10-K Item 7 and yfinance annual financials; FY2021 not in source data):

FY	Revenue	Operating income	Net income	Diluted EPS	Free cash flow
FY2025	$34.0bn	$9.25bn (10-K Item 7; EDGAR XBRL $8.92bn)	$6.90bn	$14.61	$5.09bn
FY2024	$33.0bn	$8.60bn	$6.57bn	$13.62	$4.93bn
FY2023	$32.9bn	$8.11bn	$6.20bn	$12.59	$5.52bn
FY2022	$33.4bn	$6.46bn	$4.15bn	$8.23	$5.69bn
FY2021	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-25): FY2025 revenue grew 3% on 2% pricing and modest volume; operating income expanded faster (+8% YoY) driven by pricing leverage and operating-efficiency programmes. EPS growth has compounded faster than revenue because of share-count reduction via the buyback programme.

Balance sheet (per the FY2025 10-K, balance sheet, filed 2026-02-25):

FY	Cash & equivalents	Total debt	Stockholders' equity	Shares outstanding	Buybacks
FY2025	$5.06bn	$28.07bn	$38.25bn	463.7M	$4.60bn
FY2024	$4.85bn	$22.61bn	$38.09bn	473.2M	$4.48bn
FY2023	$4.66bn	$20.32bn	$39.72bn	482.4M	$3.96bn
FY2022	$5.44bn	$18.79bn	$40.03bn	492.5M	$5.17bn

Quarterly trend, last 5 quarters (per yfinance quarterly financials; figures are GAAP):

Quarter	Revenue	Gross profit	Operating income (GAAP)	Net income	Diluted EPS (GAAP)
Q1 2026 (2026-03-31)	$8.78bn	$4.26bn	$2.38bn (adjusted $2.6bn, op margin 30%, per Q1 2026 release 2026-05-01)	$1.86bn	$3.98 (adjusted $4.33)
Q4 2025 (2025-12-31)	$8.76bn	$4.22bn	$2.35bn	$1.53bn	$3.26
Q3 2025 (2025-09-30)	$8.62bn	$4.24bn	$2.34bn	$1.93bn	$4.09
Q2 2025 (2025-06-30)	$8.50bn	$4.19bn	$2.34bn	$1.77bn	$3.73
Q1 2025 (2025-03-31)	$8.11bn	$3.96bn	$2.22bn	$1.67bn	$3.51

6. Valuation & Market Data

Raw market data only — no commentary on cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	$517.58 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Previous close	$514.51 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Day range	$514.98 – $521.23 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
52-week high / low	$521.28 / $387.78 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Market cap	$239.3bn (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Enterprise value	$263.3bn (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Shares outstanding	462.3M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26; 463.7M reported at 2025-12-31 in the FY2025 10-K)
Float	461.0M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Avg daily volume (10d)	1.88M (per yfinance averageVolume10days, pulled 2026-05-26)
Volume (latest)	1.45M (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Beta	0.74 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	34.37 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Forward P/E	26.26 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
P/S (TTM)	6.91 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
P/B	6.21 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
EV / Revenue (TTM)	7.60 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
EV / EBITDA	19.38 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
P / FCF	not disclosed in this report's source data (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Gross margin (TTM)	48.77% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Operating margin (TTM GAAP)	28.47% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Net margin (TTM)	20.44% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
ROE	18.23% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
ROA	7.24% (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Debt-to-equity	65.64 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Current ratio	0.83 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Dividend yield	1.24% (annual rate $6.40, per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26)
Short interest	1.33% of float (per yfinance shortPercentOfFloat, pulled 2026-05-26)
Put / call ratio	not disclosed in this report's source data

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25), the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01) and named public announcements:

• $7 billion sale-of-gas project backlog. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): Linde reported approximately $7 billion of sale-of-gas backlog under construction at FY2025 year-end, representing future revenue contracted but not yet delivered.
• Hydrogen and carbon capture growth platforms. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25) and the Q1 2026 release (2026-05-01): Linde's gases and process technologies enable clean hydrogen production and carbon capture, with Americas growth in Q1 2026 partly driven by higher activity in hydrogen and nitrogen in U.S. Gulf Coast refining.
• Electronics gases expansion. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): electronics is a structurally growing end-market for specialty gases, driven by semiconductor fab capacity additions in the US, China, South Korea and Taiwan.
• Capex programme of ~$5.3 billion in FY2025. Per the FY2025 10-K (cash flow, filed 2026-02-25): capital expenditure was $5.26 billion in FY2025, predominantly on long-life on-site air-separation and hydrogen capacity tied to take-or-pay contracts.

8. Competitive Landscape

Linde competes globally in industrial gases against Air Liquide (Euronext: AI), Air Products & Chemicals (NYSE: APD) and a number of regional players (per the FY2025 10-K, Item 1, filed 2026-02-25). Peer comparison (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26; all figures in USD except Air Liquide which is in EUR).

Company	Ticker	Market cap	Revenue (TTM)	Gross margin	P/S
Linde plc	LIN	$239.3bn	$34.65bn	48.77%	6.91
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.	APD	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data
Air Liquide S.A.	AI.PA	not disclosed in this report's source data — Euronext-listed	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data	not disclosed in this report's source data

The peer market-data row entries for APD and Air Liquide are not in this report's source data — at publish time the pipeline did not pull yfinance data for those tickers; the named competitive set is drawn from the FY2025 10-K (Item 1). Linde's competitive positioning rests on global scale (#1 by sales), long-term take-or-pay supply contracts, and integrated engineering capability.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): Sanjiv Lamba is Chief Executive Officer of Linde plc. Detailed executive tenure and proxy-level biographical information beyond the senior-leadership roles is not disclosed in this report's source data (the Item 10 proxy section was not in the extracted 10-K text).

Top institutional shareholders as of 2026-03-31 (per yfinance institutional_holders, pulled 2026-05-26):

Holder	% held	Shares	Value (USD)
BlackRock Inc.	7.60%	36,872,272	$19.08bn
Vanguard Capital Management LLC	6.24%	30,233,070	$15.65bn
State Street Corporation	4.05%	19,625,129	$10.16bn
Capital Research Global Investors	3.31%	16,051,934	$8.31bn
Vanguard Portfolio Management LLC	2.53%	12,289,282	$6.36bn
Geode Capital Management, LLC	2.44%	11,832,240	$6.12bn
T. Rowe Price Associates Inc	2.03%	9,846,511	$5.10bn
FMR, LLC (Fidelity)	1.86%	8,997,328	$4.66bn
Morgan Stanley	1.52%	7,358,093	$3.81bn
JPMorgan Chase & Co	1.29%	6,255,468	$3.24bn

Per yfinance (pulled 2026-05-26): institutional ownership totals 89.36% and insider ownership totals 0.25% — typical for a mega-cap S&P 500 industrial.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Cyclical industrial end-market exposure (Market & Demand): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-25): Linde's customers span manufacturing, metals and mining, chemicals and electronics, each exposed to global industrial activity cycles, commodity prices and end-market demand swings.
• Foreign exchange and geopolitical exposure (Market & Demand): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-25): the Company operates in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, China, Australia, South Korea and India — with revenue translation, customer demand and asset values exposed to currency moves and country-specific political and regulatory risk.
• Energy and feedstock cost pass-through risk (Operational): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-25): the production and distribution of industrial gases is energy-intensive; rising or volatile electricity and natural-gas prices can compress margins in the gap before pass-through pricing fully adjusts.
• Engineering / sale-of-plant project risk (Operational): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): "the construction and sale of plants by Linde may give rise to risks associated with the production, filling, storage, handling and transportation" of gases — cost-overruns, schedule delays and operational incidents on large projects are recurring exposures.
• Indebtedness and rising leverage (Financial): Per the FY2025 10-K (balance sheet, filed 2026-02-25): total debt rose from $18.8 billion (FY2022) to $28.1 billion (FY2025) to fund the buyback / capex programme; current ratio is 0.83 (per yfinance, pulled 2026-05-26), and any sharp tightening in credit conditions could constrain capital-return flexibility.
• Regulatory and environmental compliance (Regulatory): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-25): Linde is subject to environmental, safety and product-stewardship regulation in every jurisdiction in which it operates, with ongoing compliance and remediation cost exposure.
• Cybersecurity incidents (Cyber & Physical): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1C and Item 1A, filed 2026-02-25): cyber incidents at Linde or at its key on-site customers could disrupt gas supply, customer billing or proprietary engineering data, with material adverse effect potential.
• Competition from large incumbents and consolidating regionals (Competitive): Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): Linde competes globally with Air Liquide and Air Products & Chemicals, plus regional players in specific geographies and end-markets — pricing discipline and contract renewal terms are recurring competitive flashpoints.

11. Recent Developments

Most recent first.

• 2026-05-01 — Q1 2026 results: adjusted EPS $4.33 (+10%), 7% dividend increase (33 consecutive years): Sales were $8.8 billion (+8% YoY; underlying +3%); operating profit $2.6 billion at a 30% adjusted operating margin (+50 bps sequentially); operating cash flow $2.2 billion; free cash flow $0.9 billion after $1.3 billion capex. Source: Linde Q1 2026 release, 2026-05-01.
• 2026-04-07 — Linde announces Q1 2026 earnings and conference-call schedule: Confirmed the May 1, 2026 release date and webcast schedule. Source: Linde / Business Wire, 2026-04-07.

Linde's official X (Twitter) handle is @Linde. No additional independently link-verifiable X items within the 30-day window are included in this report's source data.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• Q2 2026 earnings — date not disclosed in this report's source data: Q1 2026 was reported on 2026-05-01; Linde typically reports Q2 in early August.
• 2026 Annual General Meeting: Per the FY2025 10-K (filed 2026-02-25): the 2026 AGM proxy materials are to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after fiscal year-end (i.e. by approximately late April 2026); the specific meeting date is not disclosed in this report's source data.
• Next dividend payment date — not disclosed in this report's source data: The annual dividend rate is $6.40 per share following the 7% increase announced in early 2026 (per Linde Q1 2026 release, 2026-05-01).
• Sale-of-gas backlog conversion: Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-25): approximately $7 billion of sale-of-gas backlog is under construction at FY2025 year-end and will convert to revenue across the multi-year build / start-up schedule; specific timing is not disclosed in this report's source data.

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See also: Technical analysis on Uber · Uber company tracker

Last Updated: 03 Oct 2026

Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) runs a global on-demand platform that connects consumers with drivers, couriers and merchants. It reports three segments:

• Mobility: ride-hailing, including a growing number of autonomous-vehicle (AV) rides supplied by partners;
• Delivery: Uber Eats restaurant, grocery and retail delivery;
• Freight: Uber Freight's shipper-carrier marketplace and logistics software.

In FY2025 the platform handled $193.5bn of gross bookings, and by Q2 2026 it had 208m monthly active platform consumers (MAPCs).

FY2025 revenue rose 18.3% to $52,017m and GAAP diluted EPS was $4.73, flattered by a $4.9bn tax valuation allowance release. Non-GAAP EPS, which Uber began publishing in Feb 2026, was $2.45. In Jul 2026 Uber agreed a €41.50-a-share cash takeover offer for Delivery Hero, and in Sep 2026 CEO Dara Khosrowshahi bought about $10.0m of stock in the open market. The shares closed at $68.11 on 02 Oct 2026, a market value of about $139.1bn.

This refresh draws on Uber's earnings releases (SEC 8-K exhibits), the FY2025 Form 10-K, the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q, SEC XBRL company facts and Form 4 filings, all retrieved on 03 Oct 2026. Follow the price on ChartsView Live Charts.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Full name	Uber Technologies, Inc. (Delaware corporation)
Ticker	UBER (NYSE)
Sector	Industrials / transport platforms (mobility, delivery and freight marketplaces)
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
CEO / Leadership	Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO and director); Balaji Krishnamurthy (CFO); Andrew Macdonald (President and COO); Ronald Sugar (independent Chair)
Market cap	~$139.1bn (2,042.6m shares at 31 Jul 2026 × $68.11 at the 02 Oct 2026 close)
Revenue (FY2025)	$52,017m (+18.3% YoY)
Net income (FY2025)	$10,053m GAAP, including a $4.9bn tax valuation allowance release in Q3 2025; GAAP diluted EPS $4.73; non-GAAP EPS $2.45
Employees	About 34,000 at 31 Dec 2025 (FY2025 10-K); about 3,300 job cuts announced 02 Sep 2026
Scale	FY2025 gross bookings $193,454m; Q2 2026 trips 3,867m (+18%) and MAPCs 208m (+16%)
Dividend	None

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Distilled from the full report below. Factual only, no ratings.

Bull Case

• Bookings growth still above 20%: Q2 2026 gross bookings rose 24% to $58,022m (+22% in constant currency), trips grew 18% and MAPCs reached 208m. Q3 2026 guidance is $58.25bn–$60.25bn, +18% to +22% in constant currency.
• Cash generation funds buybacks: Trailing-twelve-month free cash flow passed $10bn for the first time ($10.1bn at Q2 2026). Uber bought back $3.5bn of stock in H1 2026 and had roughly $16bn of authorisation left.
• Insiders buying, not selling: CEO Dara Khosrowshahi bought 141,000 shares (about $10.0m) on 10 Sep 2026, COO Andrew Macdonald 70,000 shares (about $5.3m) on 04 Sep 2026 and CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy about $1.6m in Feb 2026.
• Multi-partner AV network: AVs were live on Uber in 7 cities at Q2 2026, with up to 15 targeted by year-end. Partners have committed about 120,000 vehicles, and launches followed in Europe, the UK, Dubai and Spain in Aug–Sep 2026.
• Delivery scaling up: Delivery revenue grew 28% in Q2 2026. The Delivery Hero offer, backed by Prosus's roughly 17% stake, takes Uber's economic interest to about 53%, and Costco delivery on Uber Eats now covers 47 states.

Bear Case

• Waymo exclusivity ending: In Jul 2026 Waymo said it will launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in Jan 2028, ending Uber's exclusivity there. The shares fell more than 4% on the news.
• Leverage rising for Delivery Hero: The offer values Delivery Hero's equity at $14.8bn and is backed by a bridge facility of about €14bn. Uber also issued €4.5bn of notes in Sep 2026, on top of $12.7bn of debt at 30 Jun 2026.
• Mobility revenue flat: Mobility revenue grew just 1% in Q2 2026 to $7,363m. Business model changes cut about 8 points from total revenue growth, which slowed to 12%.
• Noisy GAAP earnings: Equity-investment revaluations swung from a $1.5bn pre-tax headwind in Q1 2026 to a $1.6bn benefit in Q2 2026, and FY2025 GAAP profit included a $4.9bn tax release.
• Restructuring and legal costs: Uber announced about 3,300 job cuts on 02 Sep 2026, and on 17 Sep 2026 an arbitrator ordered it to pay $40m in a passenger-safety case.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Uber matches riders with drivers, eaters and shoppers with couriers and merchants, and shippers with freight carriers. It earns a share of each transaction rather than the full fare or basket value, so revenue is much smaller than gross bookings. Uber reports three segments.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Mobility	57.0% ($29,670m)	Ride-hailing in cars, taxis, two-wheelers and AVs supplied by partners such as Waymo, Baidu, WeRide, Pony.ai and Wayve, plus related advertising
Delivery	33.2% ($17,248m)	Uber Eats food, grocery and retail delivery, including partnerships with Costco and Wakefern
Freight	9.8% ($5,099m)	Uber Freight's marketplace matching shippers and carriers, plus transportation-management software

FY2025 segment revenue is the sum of the four quarterly segment tables in Uber's earnings releases (Q1 2025 to Q4 2025), which totals the reported $52,017m.

4. The Business Model

How it makes money. Uber keeps a portion of each fare or delivery basket after paying drivers and couriers, plus fees from merchants, advertising and the Uber One membership. In FY2025 revenue of $52,017m was about 26.9% of gross bookings of $193,454m. Advertising has passed a $2.5bn annual run-rate, growing about 50% a year.

Where the moat sits. Uber's advantages are:

• 208m monthly active consumers across rides and delivery;
• Uber One, with more than 50m members, who account for about half of Mobility and Delivery gross bookings and more than 70% of Delivery gross bookings;
• dense driver and courier supply, which keeps wait times short;
• demand that AV developers need to fill their fleets, which is why so many have partnered with Uber.

What changed in 2025–2026. From Feb 2026 Uber started reporting non-GAAP EPS and, from Q1 2026, stopped treating adjusted EBITDA as a key measure. Balaji Krishnamurthy took over as CFO. Uber expects to commit more than $10bn of capital to AVs over the coming years, and in Jul 2026 it agreed to buy control of Delivery Hero.

5. Financial Health

Sources: Uber quarterly and annual earnings releases (SEC 8-K exhibits), the FY2025 Form 10-K, the Q2 2026 Form 10-Q, and SEC XBRL company facts (data.sec.gov) for revenue, debt, cash flow, D&A and operating income. The fiscal year ends 31 December.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	$17,455m	+56.7%	-$0.29	-$0.29†	$0.00	$9,276m
FY2022	$31,877m	+82.6%	-$4.65	-$4.65†	$0.00	$9,265m
FY2023	$37,281m	+17.0%	$0.87	$0.87†	$0.00	$9,459m
FY2024	$43,978m	+18.0%	$4.56	$1.82	$0.00	$8,347m
FY2025	$52,017m	+18.3%	$4.73	$2.45	$0.00	$10,521m

Notes on the annual table:

• Adjusted EPS is Uber's non-GAAP EPS, first published in the Q4 2025 release on 04 Feb 2026 with FY2024 restated at $1.82.
• † Uber did not report non-GAAP EPS for FY2021–FY2023, so the GAAP figure is repeated.
• FY2020 revenue was $11,139m, the base for the FY2021 YoY figure.
• Long-term debt is the noncurrent portion at year-end (SEC XBRL tag LongTermDebtNoncurrent). The current portion was $1,150m at FY2024 year-end and nil at FY2025 year-end.

Quarterly results (most recent first)

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026 (to 30 Jun 2026)	$14,191m	$0.81	$1.17
Q1 2026 (to 31 Mar 2026)	$13,203m	$0.72	$0.13
Q4 2025 (to 31 Dec 2025)	$14,366m	$0.71	$0.14
Q3 2025 (to 30 Sep 2025)	$13,467m	~$0.65‡	$3.11
FY2025 total	$52,017m	$2.45	$4.73

Notes on the quarterly table:

• Release dates: Q2 2026 on 05 Aug 2026; Q1 2026 on 06 May 2026; Q4 2025 on 04 Feb 2026; Q3 2025 on 04 Nov 2025.
• ‡ The original Q3 2025 release did not report non-GAAP EPS. The figure is implied by Uber's Q3 2026 guidance of $0.84–$0.88, which the company describes as growth of 28% to 35%.
• Q3 2025 GAAP EPS includes the $4.9bn tax valuation allowance release. Q2 2026 GAAP EPS includes a $1.6bn pre-tax benefit from revaluing equity investments; Q1 2026 includes a $1.5bn pre-tax headwind.
• Q2 2026 in more detail: gross bookings $58,022m (+24%), GAAP operating income $1,890m (+30%), non-GAAP operating income $2,143m (+40%) and adjusted EBITDA $2,819m (+33%).

Cash flow and balance sheet.

• Cash flow (FY2025).
  • Operating cash flow was $10,099m and capex (purchases of property and equipment) $336m, giving free cash flow of $9,763m.
  • D&A was $719m and GAAP operating income $5,565m.
• Cash flow (H1 2026).
  • Operating cash flow was $5,213m, capex $135m and D&A $372m. GAAP operating income was $3,813m.
  • Trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow was $10,424m and capex $308m, giving free cash flow of $10,116m.
• Balance sheet at 30 Jun 2026.
  • Cash and cash equivalents were $4,870m and short-term investments $521m.
  • Total debt was $12,723m: $10,726m long-term plus $1,997m short-term.
  • After the quarter, on 15 Sep 2026, Uber completed a €4.5bn senior unsecured notes offering in five tranches maturing between 2029 and 2046.
• Q3 2026 guidance (05 Aug 2026):
  • gross bookings of $58.25bn–$60.25bn (+18% to +22% in constant currency);
  • non-GAAP EPS of $0.84–$0.88;
  • adjusted EBITDA of $2.86bn–$2.96bn.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Market cap	~$139.1bn (2,042.6m shares at 31 Jul 2026 × $68.11 at the 02 Oct 2026 close)
Enterprise value	~$146.5bn = market cap ~$139.1bn + total debt ~$12.7bn (long-term $10,726m + short-term $1,997m) − cash and short-term investments ~$5.4bn ($4,870m + $521m), per the 30 Jun 2026 balance sheet. This excludes the €4.5bn of notes issued on 15 Sep 2026.
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~15.0x ($68.11 / TTM GAAP diluted EPS of $4.55, Q3 2025 to Q2 2026). The TTM figure includes the Q3 2025 tax release. On TTM non-GAAP EPS of about $2.89 the multiple is ~23.6x.
P/E (forward)	n/a: Uber gives quarterly guidance only. Annualising the Q3 2026 non-GAAP EPS guidance midpoint ($0.86 × 4 = $3.44) gives ~19.8x.
P/S (TTM)	~2.5x (market cap / TTM revenue of $55,227m, Q3 2025 to Q2 2026)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~19.7x (EV ~$146.5bn / TTM EBITDA ~$7.4bn). EBITDA = TTM GAAP operating income $6,700m (FY2025 $5,565m less H1 2025 $2,678m plus H1 2026 $3,813m) + TTM D&A $745m (cash-flow add-back, XBRL DepreciationDepletionAndAmortization).
P/FCF	~13.8x (market cap ~$139.1bn / TTM FCF ~$10.1bn). FCF = operating cash flow $10,424m − capex $308m (FY2025 less H1 2025 plus H1 2026). On FY2025 FCF of $9,763m the multiple is ~14.2x.
52-week high	$101.30 (TradingView daily bars, 12 months to 02 Oct 2026)
52-week low	$65.41 (TradingView daily bars, 12 months to 02 Oct 2026)
Short interest (% of float)	2.33% (45.7m shares, settlement date 15 Sep 2026, per MarketBeat; Benzinga shows 2.32%)
Days to cover	2.3 (MarketBeat, 15 Sep 2026)
Dividend yield	Nil (no dividend)

Share-price-based metrics use the 02 Oct 2026 close. For live prices see ChartsView Live Charts.

7. What Are They Building

An autonomous-vehicle marketplace.

• Scale: AVs were live on Uber in 7 cities at Q2 2026, with up to 15 targeted by year-end 2026. Partners have committed about 120,000 vehicles.
• Europe and the Middle East: Uber launched autonomous rides in Europe on 19 Aug 2026, Baidu Apollo Go driverless rides went live on Uber in Dubai on 20 Aug 2026 and Wayve and Uber launched the first UK autonomous rides on 03 Sep 2026.
• Fleet deals: Pony.ai expanded its partnership on 13 Aug 2026 to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis in Europe, and WeRide, Uber and AVOMO won Spain's first national Level 4 operating permit on 10 Sep 2026.
• Capital: Uber expects to commit more than $10bn of AV capital over the coming years.

Delivery consolidation.

• The Delivery Hero offer (€41.50 a share in cash, $14.8bn equity value) is expected to add to non-GAAP EPS at closing and to reach high-single-digit accretion by year 3. SSW Partners will buy Delivery Hero businesses in 14 markets for about $1.6bn.
• The Getir food-delivery acquisition in Türkiye closed in Jul 2026, and Careem Technologies was reconsolidated.
• Grocery and retail: Wakefern (375+ stores) joined Uber Eats on 09 Sep 2026, and Costco delivery expanded to 47 states and about 600 warehouses on 16 Sep 2026. A drone-delivery partnership with Zipline was announced on 17 Aug 2026.

Membership and advertising. Uber One passed 50m members in Q1 2026 and hit another record in Q2 2026. Advertising runs at more than $2.5bn a year.

8. Competitive Landscape

Peer	Market cap (Oct 2026)	Key 2025 metric
Alphabet (GOOG), owner of Waymo	~$4.16 trillion	Waymo serves more than 500,000 paid robotaxi rides a week (Sherwood News)
DoorDash (DASH)	~$82.0bn	FY2025 revenue $13.7bn, up from $10.7bn; GAAP net income $935m (Q4 2025 release, 18 Feb 2026)
Grab (GRAB)	~$12.6bn	FY2025 revenue $3.37bn, +20%; first full-year net profit, $200m (Grab Q4 2025 results)
Instacart / Maplebear (CART)	~$10.2bn	FY2025 GTV $37.2bn; revenue $3.74bn, +11% (Instacart Q4 2025 results)
Lyft (LYFT)	~$5.9bn	FY2025 gross bookings $18.5bn, +15% (Lyft Q4 2025 results, 10 Feb 2026)

Market caps are at the 02 Oct 2026 close from StockAnalysis overview pages; Alphabet's is from companiesmarketcap.com. Tesla is also developing a robotaxi service.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Dara Khosrowshahi is CEO and a director. Balaji Krishnamurthy is CFO, Andrew Macdonald is President and COO, and Ronald Sugar has been independent Chair since Jul 2018. Insider activity in 2026 has leaned towards buying: Khosrowshahi, Macdonald and Krishnamurthy all made discretionary open-market purchases, worth about $16.9m between them.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Jill Hazelbaker (President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer)	11 Sep 2026	Sale	28,170	$71.31 (avg)	~$2.01m	No 10b5-1 footnote in filing
Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO and director)	10 Sep 2026	Purchase	141,000	$70.96 (avg)	~$10.0m	Open market, discretionary
Andrew Macdonald (President and COO)	04 Sep 2026	Purchase	70,000	$75.65–$76.44	~$5.31m	Open market, discretionary
Balaji Krishnamurthy (CFO)	24 Feb 2026	Purchase	22,453	$71.25	~$1.60m	Open market, discretionary
Tony West (Chief Legal Officer)	20 Jan 2026	Sale	3,125	$83.50	~$261,000	10b5-1 (adopted 27 May 2025)

Sources: SEC Form 4 filings on EDGAR, cross-checked against OpenInsider. After his purchase Khosrowshahi held 1,367,100 shares directly. Routine RSU tax withholdings are not shown.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Autonomous-vehicle disintermediation (Strategic): Waymo will run its own app in Austin and Atlanta from Jan 2028. If AV developers sell rides directly, Uber's role as the demand aggregator weakens.
• Acquisition and leverage (Financial): The Delivery Hero deal is funded with cash and a bridge facility of about €14bn. Uber has said gross leverage will stay below 2x, but integration and regulatory approvals add execution risk, with closing expected in H2 2027.
• Equity-investment volatility (Financial): Mark-to-market swings on stakes in other companies moved GAAP results by $1.5bn–$1.6bn a quarter in 2026, making GAAP EPS hard to compare.
• Mobility growth slowdown (Competitive): Mobility revenue grew just 1% in Q2 2026. Robotaxi rivals and Lyft compete for the same riders.
• Restructuring execution (Operational): About 3,300 roles, roughly 10% of staff, are being cut while Uber integrates acquisitions and expands AV operations.
• Safety and legal claims (Legal): An arbitrator ordered Uber to pay $40m in a passenger-safety case on 17 Sep 2026, and similar claims remain a recurring cost.
• Currency exposure (Macro): The Delivery Hero price and the new notes are in euros, and Q3 2026 guidance already assumes about a 1-point FX headwind.

11. Recent Developments

• 17 Sep 2026 — $40m arbitration award. An arbitrator ordered Uber to pay $40m to the parents of a passenger, according to a press release from the plaintiffs' law firm.
• 16 Sep 2026 — Costco expansion. Costco delivery on Uber Eats expanded to 47 states and about 600 warehouses.
• 15 Sep 2026 — €4.5bn bond deal closed. Uber completed five tranches of senior unsecured notes, with coupons of 3.750%–5.250% and maturities from 2029 to 2046, for general corporate purposes.
• 10 Sep 2026 — CEO buys $10m of stock. Dara Khosrowshahi bought 141,000 shares at an average of $70.96. The same day WeRide, Uber and AVOMO received Spain's first national Level 4 operating permit.
• 03 Sep 2026 — First UK autonomous rides. Wayve and Uber launched autonomous rides in the UK.
• 02 Sep 2026 — Delivery Hero boards back the offer; job cuts. Delivery Hero's management and supervisory boards recommended shareholders accept Uber's offer. Uber announced about 3,300 job cuts the same day.
• 20 Aug 2026 — Driverless rides in Dubai. Baidu Apollo Go fully driverless rides launched on Uber in Dubai, a day after Uber launched autonomous rides in Europe.
• 13 Aug 2026 — Pony.ai expansion. Pony.ai and Uber agreed to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis in Europe.
• 05 Aug 2026 — Q2 2026 results. Revenue was $14,191m (+12%), gross bookings $58,022m (+24%) and non-GAAP EPS $0.81 (+35%). Trailing FCF passed $10bn.
• 24 Jul 2026 — Waymo to launch its own app. Waymo said it will offer rides through its own app in Austin and Atlanta from Jan 2028, ending exclusivity there. Uber shares fell more than 4%.
• 16 Jul 2026 — Delivery Hero agreement. Uber signed a business combination agreement for a €41.50-a-share cash offer for Delivery Hero, with Prosus committing its roughly 17% stake.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• Expected 03 Nov 2026 — Q3 2026 results. This is a market-calendar estimate (another tracker gives 02 Nov); Uber had not announced the date at the time of writing. The Q3 2025 release came on 04 Nov 2025.
• 05 Nov 2026 — End of the acceptance period for the Delivery Hero takeover offer, which opened on 27 Aug 2026.
• Expected Dec 2026 — Year-end target of up to 15 cities with AVs live on Uber.
• Expected Jan 2028 — Waymo's own app launches in Austin and Atlanta.
• TBC — Settlement of the Delivery Hero offer, expected in H2 2027 after regulatory approvals.

Macro events are on the ChartsView Economic Calendar, and you can discuss Uber on the ChartsView Forum.

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Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Last Updated: 13 May 2026

Eaton Corporation plc (NYSE: ETN) is a global intelligent power management company incorporated in Ireland and headquartered in Dublin, with principal executive offices in Beachwood, Ohio. The company serves customers in more than 180 countries, providing electrical, aerospace, and mobility solutions that manage power safely, efficiently, and sustainably. With revenues of $27.4 billion in FY2025, Eaton has become one of the primary beneficiaries of accelerating demand for data centre power infrastructure, grid modernisation, and industrial electrification.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Detail
Full name	Eaton Corporation plc
Ticker	ETN (NYSE)
Sector	Industrials
Industry	Electrical Equipment / Power Management
Founded	1911 (Joseph O. Eaton, Bloomfield, NJ)
Incorporated	Ireland (redomiciled 2012)
Headquarters	Eaton House, 30 Pembroke Road, Dublin 4, Ireland (principal executive offices: Beachwood, Ohio, USA)
CEO	Paulo Ruiz (since 1 Jun 2025; succeeded Craig Arnold who retired at mandatory retirement age 65)
CFO	David B. Foster (since 2 Mar 2026)
Employees	Approximately 100,000
FY2025 Revenue	$27.4bn (source: Eaton Q4 2025 earnings release, 3 Feb 2026)
FY2025 GAAP Net Income	$4.09bn (source: SEC XBRL, CIK 0001551182)
Market cap (approx. May 2026)	~$156bn
Exchange	New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
Website	eaton.com

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Distilled from the full report below — factual only, no ratings.

Bull Case

• Data centre supercycle: Q1 2026 data centre orders surged approximately 240% year-over-year and revenue from the end-market rose approximately 50%; Electrical Americas backlog reached $14.5bn, up 44%.
• Consistent record earnings growth: FY2025 adjusted EPS of $12.07 was a record, up 12% over FY2024; the company has delivered unbroken annual adjusted EPS growth for at least five consecutive years.
• Portfolio simplification: Eaton announced the spin-off of its lower-margin Mobility business (Vehicle and eMobility, ~$3bn revenue, ~13% segment margins) by Q1 2027, leaving a higher-margin Electrical and Aerospace core (~26% segment margins).
• AI and NVIDIA partnership: Eaton launched the Eaton Beam Rubin DSX platform in collaboration with NVIDIA, a grid-to-chip power and cooling blueprint for AI data centres, deepening its position in mission-critical AI infrastructure.
• Dividend growth and FCF: FY2025 operating cash flow of $4.5bn and FCF of $3.6bn were both records; Eaton has raised its dividend for 17 or more consecutive years, with the quarterly dividend at $1.10 per share as of Q2 2026.

Bear Case

• Elevated valuation: Trailing P/E of approximately 39x and EV/EBITDA of approximately 27.7x represent a significant premium to historical averages; the 10-year median P/E is approximately 26x.
• Margin pressure in Q1 2026: Despite record revenue, Q1 2026 results showed segment margin pressure attributed to acquisition integration costs and tariff-related headwinds, prompting investor concern post-earnings on 5 May 2026.
• Tariff and supply chain exposure: As a global manufacturer with significant cross-border supply chains, Eaton faces exposure to US tariff policy changes and geopolitical trade disruptions.
• Debt increase from acquisitions: Total long-term debt rose from $9.15bn at end-2024 to $9.89bn at end-2025, with the Boyd Thermal acquisition (announced 2025, closed Mar 2026) valued at approximately $9.5bn adding further balance sheet strain.
• Asbestos and legacy litigation: Eaton and certain subsidiaries (including Cutler-Hammer) carry ongoing asbestos litigation from historical product use; no trust fund exists and insurance offsets are not guaranteed to fully cover future liabilities.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Eaton is a power management company. Its products control, protect, and optimise the flow of electrical power across data centres, electrical grids, industrial facilities, commercial buildings, aircraft, and vehicles. The company's products include switchgear, circuit breakers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), power distribution units, transformers, hydraulic systems, and aerospace fuel and hydraulic components.

The following segment breakdown is based on FY2025 annual results (total revenue $27.4bn). The Mobility segment (Vehicle + eMobility) is planned for spin-off as an independent public company by end of Q1 2027.

Segment	% of revenue (approx. FY2025)	What it is
Electrical Americas	~47%	Power distribution, switchgear, circuit protection, UPS and power quality products, and services for data centres, utilities, commercial construction, and industrial customers across the Americas. The fastest-growing segment, driven by data centre buildout and grid modernisation.
Electrical Global	~25%	Equivalent electrical products and solutions sold to customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Includes power quality, switchgear, and energy transition products.
Aerospace	~16%	Hydraulic, fuel, and pneumatic systems and components for commercial and military aircraft. Serves Boeing, Airbus, and defence OEMs. Ultra PCS Limited acquisition (closed Jan 2026) expanded defence electronics capabilities.
Vehicle (Mobility)	~8%	Drivetrain and powertrain components for commercial vehicles, including transmissions and clutches. Revenue approximately $2.2bn in FY2025. Planned spin-off.
eMobility (Mobility)	~4%	Electrical components for electrified vehicles, including inverters, converters, and onboard chargers for EV and hybrid platforms. Planned spin-off together with Vehicle segment.

Note on segment percentages: Percentages derived from segment sales data in the Q4 2025 earnings press release (Eaton IR, 3 Feb 2026): Electrical Americas FY2025 ~$12.9bn; Electrical Global ~$6.9bn; Aerospace ~$4.4bn; combined Mobility ~$3.2bn.

4. Business Model

How Eaton makes money. Eaton generates revenue through the design, manufacture, and sale of power management hardware (switchgear, transformers, UPS systems, circuit breakers, aerospace hydraulics) and associated software, services, and aftermarket parts. Customers include hyperscale data centre operators, electric utilities, industrial manufacturers, commercial property developers, aerospace OEMs, and US and allied defence programmes. Sales are made through direct channels, distributors, and authorised service partners.

Unit economics. Eaton's Electrical and Aerospace combined segment margins reached approximately 26% in FY2025. Combined company segment margins improved to 24.5% in FY2025, up 50 basis points from FY2024, and represent a record. Operating cash flow of $4.5bn was 16.4% of total revenue. FCF was $3.6bn (operating cash flow $4.5bn minus capex $0.9bn). The Mobility segments carry lower margins (~13%), which is part of the rationale for the planned spin-off.

Moat. Eaton's competitive advantages include: (1) mission-critical product certifications and safety approvals (UL, CE, IEC, DO-160 aerospace standards) that take years to obtain; (2) deep integration into customer facility designs — switchgear, transformers and UPS systems are engineered-in at design stage; (3) large installed base generating recurring aftermarket and service revenue; (4) scale in electrical manufacturing with global supply chains; (5) long-standing relationships with hyperscale customers including major US and European cloud providers.

Subsidies and regulatory credits. Eaton benefits indirectly from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and similar legislation, which subsidises utility-scale battery storage, EV charging infrastructure, and grid upgrades — all end-markets requiring Eaton's electrical switchgear and protection equipment. The company does not appear to be a direct recipient of IRA production tax credits as of the most recent filings.

5. Financial Health

All figures sourced from SEC XBRL data (CIK 0001551182), Eaton's Q4 2025 earnings press release (3 Feb 2026), and prior earnings releases. Revenue uses GAAP reported figures from 10-K filings. Long-term debt is from XBRL LongTermDebt field. GAAP EPS is diluted EPS from XBRL EarningsPerShareDiluted (10-K annual). Adjusted EPS is sourced from Eaton earnings press releases (non-GAAP).

Fiscal year	Revenue	YoY %	GAAP EPS (diluted)	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	$19.63bn	+10.0%	$5.34	$6.62	$2.96	$8.57bn
FY2022	$20.75bn	+5.7%	$6.14	$7.57	$3.24	$8.33bn
FY2023	$23.20bn	+11.8%	$8.02	$9.12	$3.44	$9.26bn
FY2024	$24.88bn	+7.2%	$9.50	$10.78	$3.76	$9.15bn
FY2025	$27.45bn	+10.3%	$10.45	$12.07	$4.20	$9.89bn

Notes: Revenue FY2025 from XBRL = $27,448m. GAAP EPS FY2025 = $10.45; Adjusted EPS $12.07 per Eaton Q4 2025 press release. Long-term debt FY2025 = $9,894m from XBRL. Dividends per share are annual totals (FY2025: 4 x $1.05 = $4.20). Historical adjusted EPS from respective annual earnings press releases.

Free cash flow (FY2025): FCF = operating cash flow minus capex = $4,472m minus $919m = $3,553m. Source: SEC XBRL.

Recent quarterly performance (most recent first):

Quarter	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q1 2026	$7.45bn (record)	$2.81 (record Q1)	$2.22
Q4 2025	$7.10bn (record Q4)	$3.33	Data not available
Q3 2025	$6.82bn (approx.)	Data not available	Data not available
Q2 2025	$6.56bn (approx.)	Data not available	Data not available
FY2025 total	$27.45bn	$12.07	$10.45

Source for Q1 2026: Eaton press release, 5 May 2026. Source for Q4 2025 and FY2025: Eaton press release, 3 Feb 2026. Q2 and Q3 2025 revenue figures are derived estimates; individual quarterly GAAP EPS not confirmed from primary source for all periods.

6. Valuation and Market Data

Raw metrics, May 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value (approx. 13 May 2026)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~39x (GAAP EPS $10.45; price ~$407)
P/E (forward)	~31.9x (FY2026 GAAP EPS guidance midpoint ~$11.10)
P/S (TTM)	~5.6x
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~27.7x
P/FCF	~44x (market cap ~$156bn / FY2025 FCF ~$3.55bn)
52-week high	$435.43
52-week low	$311.90
Enterprise value	~$174.6bn
Market cap	~$156bn (approx. 13 May 2026)
Short interest (% of float)	~1.92% of float
Days to cover	~2.4 days

Sources: GuruFocus (P/E May 2026), MarketBeat (short interest, Mar 2026), MacroTrends (52-week range, Apr 2026), companiesmarketcap.com (market cap Apr 2026). For live charts and data, see the ChartsView live charts page.

7. What Are They Building

Data centre power infrastructure. Eaton's most significant near-term growth driver is the AI data centre buildout. Electrical Americas data centre revenue grew approximately 50% in Q1 2026 year-over-year, and data centre orders surged approximately 240% in the same period. The Electrical Americas backlog reached $14.5bn at end of Q1 2026, up 44%, with Electrical Global backlog up 73%. Eaton is supplying switchgear, medium-voltage transformers, power distribution units (PDUs), and UPS systems to hyperscale data centres across North America and Europe.

NVIDIA Beam Rubin DSX platform. In 2025, Eaton launched the Eaton Beam Rubin DSX, developed with NVIDIA. This is described as a "grid-to-chip" power and cooling blueprint for AI factories, integrating Eaton's power management hardware with NVIDIA's GPU infrastructure reference architecture.

Boyd Thermal acquisition (liquid cooling). In 2025, Eaton agreed to acquire Boyd Thermal, a specialist in liquid cooling technology for data centres. Boyd Thermal had forecasted sales of approximately $1.7bn for 2026, of which approximately $1.5bn is in liquid cooling. The acquisition is valued at approximately $9.5bn. Completed March 2026.

Ultra PCS Limited (aerospace electronics). Eaton completed the acquisition of Ultra PCS Limited, a UK-based maker of mission computing and safety-critical electronics for aerospace and defence, in January 2026. This expands Eaton's Aerospace segment into higher-value avionics and defence electronics.

Resilient Power Systems and Fibrebond Corporation. Eaton completed both acquisitions in 2025. Fibrebond manufactures modular structures for utility substations and data centres. Resilient Power Systems specialises in microgrids and energy storage integration.

Mobility spin-off preparation. Eaton announced in Q4 2025 that it intends to spin off the Vehicle and eMobility segments as an independent publicly traded company by the end of Q1 2027. The Mobility business had combined FY2025 revenue of approximately $3.2bn.

R&D and electrification investment. Eaton has been increasing capital expenditure — from $575m in FY2021 to $919m in FY2025 — reflecting investment in manufacturing capacity for electrical switchgear, transformers, and data centre power products where demand is outstripping existing capacity.

8. Competitive Landscape

Eaton competes primarily in power management and electrical equipment. Key direct competitors include Schneider Electric, ABB, Emerson Electric, Honeywell, and Parker Hannifin. In the data centre power segment, Eaton also competes with Vertiv Holdings and, to a lesser extent, Legrand.

Peer	Market cap	Key 2025 metric
Schneider Electric SE (EPA: SU)	~$180bn (Mar 2026, companiesmarketcap.com)	Data centre and energy management; revenue approximately EUR 38bn FY2025; similarly exposed to data centre and grid trends
ABB Ltd (SIX: ABBN)	~$191bn (May 2026, stockanalysis.com)	Electrification and automation; revenue approximately $34bn FY2025; significant overlap in industrial switchgear and drives
Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR)	~$81bn (Apr 2026, companiesmarketcap.com)	Process automation and HVAC controls; FY2025 revenue approximately $17bn; narrower direct overlap after tools segment divestiture
Honeywell International Inc. (NASDAQ: HON)	~$132bn (May 2026, public.com)	Industrial automation, building tech, aerospace; FY2025 revenue approximately $36bn; also undergoing portfolio simplification via spin-offs
Parker Hannifin Corporation (NYSE: PH)	~$124bn (May 2026, tradingeconomics.com)	Motion and control technology; FY2025 revenue approximately $20bn; competes in hydraulic and aerospace segments

Eaton's primary differentiator within this peer group is its concentration in data centre power and its broad UPS and medium-voltage switchgear portfolio. Schneider Electric is Eaton's closest direct competitor globally.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Key executives:

• Paulo Ruiz — President and Chief Executive Officer (since 1 Jun 2025). Previously President and COO from Sep 2024. Succeeded Craig Arnold who retired having reached Eaton's mandatory officer retirement age of 65.
• David B. Foster — Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (since 2 Mar 2026).
• Pete Denk — President and COO, Industrial Sector. Named to this role effective January 2025.
• Heath Monesmith — President, Electrical Sector. Oversees Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segments.
• Gregory R. Page — Non-Executive Chairman (since 1 Jun 2025).

Institutional ownership: Institutional investors hold approximately 83-84% of ETN shares. Top holders: The Vanguard Group (~9.7% / 37.5m shares), BlackRock (~4.6% / 18.0m shares), State Street Global Advisors (~4.4%), JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Geode Capital Management. Source: SEC 13F filings via Fintel/MarketBeat, 2026.

Insider transactions (SEC Form 4 filings, last 12 months):

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Johnson, Gerald (Director)	11 May 2026	Purchase (open market)	215	$419.02	~$90,089	None reported
Yelton, Michael (Officer)	01 May 2026	Grant (RSU)	1,285	N/A (grant)	N/A	RSU award
Foster, David B. (CFO)	01 Apr 2026	Grant (RSU + options)	2,415 RSUs + 7,100 options	N/A (grant)	N/A	Equity compensation
Denk, Peter (Officer)	25 Feb 2026	Grant (RSU + options)	1,395 RSUs + 3,402 shares + 4,100 options	N/A (grant)	N/A	Annual equity grant
Leonetti, Olivier (Officer)	26 Feb 2026	RSU vest and withhold	920 vested, shares withheld for tax	N/A	N/A	RSU vesting
Ruiz Sternadt, Paulo (CEO)	Feb 2026	Grant (phantom shares)	120.975 phantom shares	N/A	N/A	Deferred compensation
Unnamed officer	11 Nov 2025	Disposal (tax withholding)	819	N/A	N/A	Tax-related disposal

Source: SEC Form 4 filings via StockTitan and Meyka, May 2026. The open-market purchase by Director Johnson on 11 May 2026 is the only apparent discretionary buy.

10. Risks

• Concentration risk (Revenue): Approximately 47% of revenues come from Electrical Americas, and the data centre end-market has become a disproportionate growth driver. A slowdown in hyperscale capital expenditure could significantly reduce Electrical Americas order intake and revenue.
• Acquisition integration risk (Operational): The Boyd Thermal (~$9.5bn), Ultra PCS, Fibrebond, and Resilient Power Systems acquisitions collectively represent a large and rapid expansion. Q1 2026 segment margins were below expectations in part due to acquisition-related costs.
• Balance sheet leverage risk (Financial): Long-term debt increased to $9.89bn at end-2025 from $8.57bn in 2021. With Boyd Thermal closed in Mar 2026, net debt will increase further.
• Tariff and trade policy risk (Macro): Eaton manufactures in multiple countries and sells globally. US tariff escalations on imported steel, copper, and electronics components could increase manufacturing costs. The company noted tariff-related headwinds in Q1 2026 margin pressure.
• Mobility spin-off execution risk (Strategic): The planned spin-off of Vehicle and eMobility segments by Q1 2027 involves regulatory approvals, capital structure design, and market conditions.
• Asbestos litigation (Legal): Eaton and subsidiaries including Cutler-Hammer face ongoing asbestos-related claims. Insurance coverage exists but is not unlimited. Eaton has never declared bankruptcy and has no dedicated asbestos trust fund.
• Capital allocation risk (Financial): Boyd Thermal was acquired at approximately $9.5bn for a business with ~$1.7bn in projected 2026 revenue. If data centre liquid cooling demand decelerates or margins compress, the return on this acquisition may not meet expectations.
• Succession and leadership transition risk (Operational): Eaton completed a CEO transition (Arnold to Ruiz) in June 2025 and a CFO transition (to Foster) in March 2026. Both transitions are recent.

11. Recent Developments

• 05 May 2026 — Record Q1 2026 results; 2026 organic growth guidance raised to 10%. Eaton reported record Q1 2026 sales of $7.45bn (+17% YoY), adjusted EPS of $2.81 (record), and raised full-year 2026 organic growth guidance to 10% from 8% at the midpoint. Data centre orders jumped approximately 240% and Electrical Americas backlog reached $14.5bn (+44%). Source: Eaton press release, 5 May 2026.
• 08 May 2026 — Ex-dividend date for Q2 2026 dividend. Eaton's ex-dividend date was 8 May 2026, with payment of $1.10 per ordinary share on 29 May 2026. Source: Eaton board dividend declaration, May 2026.
• 13 Mar 2026 — Boyd Thermal acquisition finalised. Eaton completed the acquisition of Boyd Thermal, a liquid cooling specialist for data centres, in a deal valued at approximately $9.5bn. Boyd Thermal had projected 2026 revenue of approximately $1.7bn, of which approximately $1.5bn in liquid cooling. Source: CNBC, 13 Mar 2026.
• 03 Feb 2026 — Record FY2025 results; Mobility spin-off announced. Eaton reported FY2025 revenue of $27.4bn, adjusted EPS of $12.07 (record), and FCF of $3.6bn (record). The company announced the planned spin-off of its Mobility segment as an independent public company by end of Q1 2027. Source: Eaton Q4 2025 earnings press release.
• Jan 2026 — Completion of Ultra PCS Limited acquisition. Eaton completed its acquisition of Ultra PCS Limited, a UK-based supplier of mission computing and safety-critical electronics for aerospace and defence platforms. Source: Eaton news release, Jan 2026.
• 2025 — NVIDIA Beam Rubin DSX collaboration. Eaton and NVIDIA jointly launched the Eaton Beam Rubin DSX, a grid-to-chip power and cooling reference architecture for AI data centres. Source: Eaton news release, 2025.
• 2025 — Fibrebond Corporation and Resilient Power Systems acquisitions completed. Both companies expand Eaton's data centre power and energy storage integration capabilities. Source: Eaton news releases, 2025.
• 01 Jun 2025 — CEO transition. Paulo Ruiz became CEO, succeeding Craig Arnold who retired at Eaton's mandatory officer retirement age of 65. Gregory R. Page became non-executive chairman. Source: Eaton press release, Aug 2024 (announcement); effective Jun 2025.

12. Key Dates

• 29 May 2026 — Quarterly dividend payment date ($1.10 per ordinary share, ex-dividend 8 May 2026).
• 04 Aug 2026 — Q2 2026 earnings announcement (estimated; confirm at eaton.com/us/en-us/company/investor-relations.html; Q2 2026 adjusted EPS guidance $3.00–$3.10).
• 22 Apr 2026 — Annual General Meeting held at Eaton House, Dublin, Ireland (already occurred). All 11 director nominees were on the ballot.
• Q1 2027 (target) — Planned spin-off of Mobility segment (Vehicle and eMobility) as an independent public company.
• 02 Mar 2026 — David B. Foster became Executive Vice President and CFO.
• Jan 2026 — Ultra PCS Limited acquisition completed.
• 03 Feb 2026 — FY2025 and Q4 2025 results released; Mobility spin-off announcement.

For discussion of Eaton and other industrial stocks, visit the ChartsView forum. For more company research, visit the ChartsView blog.

Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Last Updated: 1 September 2026

Fastenal sells fasteners, safety supplies and maintenance products to manufacturers, and it does so through a model almost nobody else runs at scale: roughly 1,600 branches, thousands of in-plant Onsite locations, and nearly 141,000 weighted vending and bin devices bolted to customers' walls. The company is having a conspicuously strong 2026, with second-quarter sales up 14.7% and July daily sales accelerating to 15.5%, but the composition of that growth deserves scrutiny. Roughly 290 basis points of the second quarter's growth came from tariff-driven price increases rather than volume, gross margin fell 75 basis points, and operating cash flow actually declined year on year. Meanwhile the shares trade on about 42 times trailing earnings, a new chief executive took over on 16 July 2026, and short interest sits at 2.7% of float, elevated for a company of this size. This report separates the durable parts of the story from the cyclical and the accounting.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / Exchange	FAST, Nasdaq Stock Market
Headquarters	2001 Theurer Boulevard, Winona, Minnesota, United States
Sector / Industry	Industrials, wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies
CEO / Leadership	Jeffery M. Watts, Chief Executive Officer effective 16 July 2026, previously President and Chief Sales Officer. He succeeded Daniel L. Florness, who had led the company since January 2016. Max H. Tunnicliff, Senior EVP and Chief Financial Officer since November 2025. Sheryl A. Lisowski, EVP, Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer.
Employees	24,489 full- and part-time at the end of 2025, equal to 21,602 full-time equivalents. The latest quarterly figure is 24,795 absolute and 22,230 FTE at 30 June 2026.
Revenue (FY2025)	$8,200.5m, up 8.7% on FY2024
Net income (FY2025)	$1,258.4m
GAAP diluted EPS (FY2025)	$1.09, post-split basis
Market capitalisation	~$56.4bn (1,147.5m shares at the $49.15 close, 1 September 2026)
Operating margin (Q2 2026)	21.0%, flat year on year
Branch network	1,595 branches at 31 December 2025, across 25 countries, supported by 15 North American distribution centres plus two in Asia and two in Europe
Founded	Partnership formed 1967, first branch opened in Winona that year, incorporated in Minnesota in 1968
Index membership	S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 constituent; Dividend Aristocrat

One corporate action dominates any historical comparison: Fastenal executed a two-for-one stock split effective at the close of business on 21 May 2025, with shares trading on a split-adjusted basis from 22 May 2025. Every per-share figure in this report is stated on the post-split basis. You can follow the price action on our Live Charts page.

2. Bull Case and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Share gain in a flat market: Fastenal grew net sales 14.7% in the second quarter of 2026 while MSC Industrial, its closest listed comparator, has posted three consecutive years of revenue decline. Management describes the manufacturing backdrop as merely a modest improvement, so the growth is displacement of regional competitors rather than a cyclical tide.
• Physical switching costs that compound: 140,789 weighted FASTBin and FASTVend devices were installed at 30 June 2026, up 6.5% year on year, with consumption data feeding replenishment through Fastenal's own systems. Displacing the incumbent means removing hardware from the customer's plant and re-plumbing procurement, and FMI now represents 44.6% of sales.
• The large-customer engine is working: customer sites spending $50,000 or more per month reached 3,125 in the second quarter, up 16.5% year on year, generating $1,381.2m of quarterly sales at an average of $147,328 per site per month. Contract customers are now 75.8% of sales and growing at 17.6%.
• Balance sheet strength and capital returns: total debt was just $120.0m at 30 June 2026 against $204.7m of cash, so the company runs a small net cash position. Buybacks resumed in 2026 after none in 2024 or 2025, and the quarterly dividend was raised to $0.26 in July, up 18.2% on the $0.22 paid a year earlier.
• Low marginal capital on incremental growth: the Onsite model bolts onto sunk branch and distribution-centre infrastructure, which is why operating margin held at 21.0% in the second quarter even as gross margin fell 75 basis points; SG&A leverage of 80 basis points fully offset it.

Bear Case

• Growth is substantially price, not volume: product pricing added roughly 350 basis points to first-quarter sales growth and 290 basis points to the second quarter, against immaterial contribution in the first quarter of 2025. Several of the underlying tariffs are being challenged in the courts, and a rollback would remove that contribution with no volume offset.
• Gross margin is already eroding and price/cost is negative: gross margin fell to 44.6% in the second quarter from 45.3%, of which about 40 basis points was unfavourable net price and cost, meaning Fastenal is not fully recovering tariff inflation. Management states the shift toward larger customers will likely continue to reduce gross profit percentage into the foreseeable future.
• The SG&A offset is finite: operating margin held flat only because sales grew about 15%. If daily sales growth normalises toward high single digits, the SG&A leverage disappears and the gross-margin decline falls straight through to operating profit.
• Valuation leaves little room: the shares trade on roughly 42 times trailing earnings and about 13.9 times book with a 1.9% yield, against five-year revenue growth of roughly 8% a year. Grainger carries 2.2 times Fastenal's revenue for a market capitalisation only about 9% larger.
• Cash conversion has deteriorated into a capital-spending step-up: second-quarter operating cash flow fell 4.6% year on year despite net income rising 15.9%, converting only 69.4% of net income against 84.4% a year earlier, as receivables grew 17.6%. Capital expenditure is simultaneously guided up from $230.6m to between $310m and $330m.

3. Business Segments

Fastenal reports a single reportable segment; each geographic region is an operating segment and they are aggregated. The company does, however, disaggregate revenue several ways. The product-line split for FY2025 is set out below, with the year each line was introduced.

Segment / category	% of revenue	What it is
Fasteners	30.5%	The founding 1967 product line: screws, bolts, nuts and related components, both standard and custom. Still the largest line but shrinking as a share, down from 32.4% in 2023.
Safety supplies	22.2%	Introduced 1999 and now the largest non-fastener line: personal protective equipment, gloves, eyewear and related consumables. Home of the Body Guard private-label brand.
Janitorial supplies	9.0%	Added 1996. Cleaning chemicals, paper and facility consumables, a classic high-frequency vending product.
Tools	8.3%	Added 1993. Hand and power tools sold into both manufacturing and construction customers.
Hydraulics and pneumatics	6.9%	Added 1996. Fluid-power components, hoses and fittings for production equipment maintenance.
Material handling	5.7%	Added 1996. Storage, lifting and movement equipment for plant and warehouse use.
Cutting tools	5.2%	Added 1996. Consumable machining tooling, a recurring-revenue line tied directly to machine utilisation.
Electrical supplies	4.7%	Added 1997. Wiring, connectors and electrical consumables.
Welding supplies	4.3%	Added 1997. Consumables, gas and equipment for fabrication customers.
Other	3.2%	Remaining lines not separately captioned.

By end market, manufacturing was 75.9% of FY2025 sales, non-residential construction 8.1% and other 16.0%. By geography, the United States contributed $6,818.9m or 83.2%, Canada and Mexico $1,110.2m or 13.5%, and all other foreign markets $271.4m or 3.3%. Notably, Canada and Mexico is now the faster-growing region, with July 2026 daily sales up 18.2% against 14.8% in the United States.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Fastenal buys industrial consumables in bulk, holds them close to the customer, and charges a distribution margin for availability and service rather than for the lowest unit price. Its stated purpose is to reduce customers' total cost of procurement, not to undercut on any individual item, which is why gross margin runs near 45% against roughly 31% at a broad-line distributor such as Ferguson. Revenue is recognised across roughly 93,000 customer sites with no single customer representing 5% or more of consolidated net sales in 2023, 2024 or 2025.

The service ladder is the moat. The model escalates: a local branch wins the account, an Onsite location puts Fastenal staff and inventory inside the customer's own plant, FMI devices automate replenishment, and digital ordering closes the loop. Management describes the Onsite as providing a competitive advantage through stronger customer relationships with a relatively low incremental investment given the existing branch and distribution structure. That clause is the economics in one sentence: each incremental Onsite rides on infrastructure already paid for, so incremental returns are high.

Why the hardware matters more than the software. The genuinely defensible asset is physical. Fastenal's property base includes $1,524.6m of shelving, industrial vending and equipment at cost, the single largest asset class on its balance sheet. Once nearly 141,000 weighted devices are installed in customer plants and reorder logic runs through Fastenal's systems, switching supplier means a physical removal project. This is precisely where a web-native competitor cannot easily follow.

A deliberately shrinking tail. Fastenal is concentrating on large accounts and letting small ones go. Total sites served fell from 101,440 to 93,283 year on year while sales grew 14.7%. A site spending $50,000 or more per month generates about $147,328 monthly; the sub-$5,000 tail generates about $984. The trade-off is margin: management is explicit that these larger relationships typically carry lower gross margins and that Onsite locations carry a lower private-label mix.

5. Financial Health

Figures below come from Fastenal's Form 10-K filings, quarterly earnings press releases and SEC XBRL company facts. All per-share figures are stated on a post-split basis following the two-for-one split of 21 May 2025.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	$6,010.9m	+6.4%	$0.80†	$0.80‡	$0.56†	$330.0m
FY2022	$6,980.6m	+16.1%	$0.94†	$0.94‡	$0.62†	$353.2m
FY2023	$7,346.7m	+5.2%	$1.01	$1.01‡	$0.89	$200.0m
FY2024	$7,546.0m	+2.7%	$1.00	$1.00‡	$0.78	$125.0m
FY2025	$8,200.5m	+8.7%	$1.09	$1.09‡	$0.875	$100.0m

† FY2021 and FY2022 per-share figures were filed on a pre-split basis and were never restated in an annual report; they are shown here halved so the series is internally consistent. As filed, FY2021 diluted EPS was $1.60 and FY2022 was $1.89. FY2023 onward are as restated in the FY2025 Form 10-K. ‡ Fastenal reports no adjusted or non-GAAP earnings measure of any kind; the GAAP figure is repeated here for completeness. Dividend per share is cash dividends paid per share; the FY2023 figure includes a special dividend of $0.19 paid in the fourth quarter, so regular dividends that year were $0.70. Long-term debt is the non-current balance-sheet figure; total debt including the current portion was $390.0m, $555.0m, $260.0m, $200.0m and $125.0m for FY2021 to FY2025 respectively.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026	$2,386.9m	$0.33‡	$0.33
Q1 2026	$2,201.7m	$0.30‡	$0.30
Q4 2025	$2,027.4m	$0.26‡	$0.26
Q3 2025	$2,133.3m	$0.29‡	$0.29
Q2 2025	$2,080.3m	$0.29‡	$0.29
FY2025 total	$8,200.5m	$1.09‡	$1.09

Two features stand out. First, the post-split earnings line went backwards in FY2024, $1.00 against $1.01 in FY2023, before recovering to $1.09 in FY2025, which is a reminder that this is a cyclical distributor and not a secular compounder. Second, debt has been steadily retired: long-term debt fell from $330.0m at the end of FY2021 to $100.0m at the end of FY2025 and $50.0m at 30 June 2026, leaving total debt of $120.0m against $204.7m of cash.

On the cash flow statement, FY2025 operating cash flow was $1,295.9m, equal to 103.0% of net income, against purchases of property and equipment of $245.3m and depreciation and amortisation of $179.2m. On a trailing twelve-month basis to 30 June 2026, net sales were $8,749.4m, operating income $1,775.1m, net income $1,352.1m, diluted EPS $1.17, operating cash flow $1,399.2m, capital expenditure $243.3m and depreciation and amortisation $179.6m. Cash conversion is the item to watch: the second quarter converted just 69.4% of net income into operating cash as receivables outgrew sales.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, September 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Market cap	~$56.4bn (1,147,497,573 shares at the $49.15 close, 1 September 2026)
Enterprise value	~$56.3bn (market cap $56.4bn plus total debt $120.0m less cash $204.7m, per the 30 June 2026 balance sheet). Fastenal carries net cash of $84.7m, so enterprise value sits slightly below market capitalisation. Operating lease liabilities of $321.5m are excluded from debt here.
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~42x on trailing twelve-month diluted EPS of $1.17. Fastenal publishes no adjusted earnings measure, so there is no alternative earnings basis to quote.
P/E (forward)	~35x on market-consensus forward earnings of about $1.40 per share. Fastenal issues no revenue or earnings guidance of any kind, so this is a consensus input rather than a company figure.
P/S (TTM)	~6.4x (market cap $56.4bn / trailing twelve-month net sales $8,749.4m)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~28.8x (enterprise value $56.3bn / EBITDA $1,954.7m; EBITDA = trailing operating income $1,775.1m plus depreciation and amortisation $179.6m, the latter being depreciation of $168.5m plus intangible amortisation of $10.7m on an annual basis). No one-off items distort this figure.
P/FCF	~48.8x (market cap $56.4bn / free cash flow $1,155.9m; free cash flow = trailing operating cash flow $1,399.2m less capital expenditure $243.3m). Guided 2026 capital expenditure of $310m to $330m will compress this further in the second half.
Price/book	~13.9x (share price $49.15 against book value of $3.55 per share; total shareholders' equity was $4,068.8m at 30 June 2026)
52-week high	$52.92
52-week low	$38.97
Short interest (% of float)	~2.7% (31,204,882 shares short at the 14 August 2026 settlement against a float of 1,144.8m shares). Insider ownership is only about 0.11%, so float and shares outstanding are effectively identical here and there is no float-basis discrepancy.
Days to cover	~4.0 days at the 14 August 2026 settlement, against average daily volume of 7,876,118 shares. The 31 July 2026 reading peaked at 35.9m shares short before covering into the August highs.
Dividend	$0.26 per share per quarter as declared on 10 July 2026, $1.04 annualised, a yield of about 2.1%. Dividends declared in 2026 to date total $0.74.

7. What Are They Building

A step-change in distribution capacity. Fastenal broke ground on 24 March 2026 on a new Southeast regional operations and logistics centre in Carrollton, Georgia, an estimated $90m investment replacing the existing 252,000 square foot Atlanta regional distribution centre. It is slated to open in spring 2027 and the site can expand to a 900,000 square foot footprint, with what the company describes as next-generation processing software and material handling equipment. This is the largest single driver of the 2026 capital step-up to between $310m and $330m, alongside higher trucking spend and IT projects deferred out of 2025.

Digital and FMI targets, with visible slippage. The 2026 goal is to run 66% of sales volume through the Digital Footprint, which combines FMI with the non-FMI portion of eBusiness. The second-quarter reading was 61.6%, leaving a 4.4 point gap to close in two quarters. Fastenal missed the equivalent 2025 goal, reaching 62.4% in December against a 66% to 68% target, blaming lower volume through FMI devices amid a rapidly changing tariff environment. It then cut its 2026 FMI signings goal mid-year from 28,000 to 30,000 weighted device units down to 27,000 to 29,000. First-half signings were 13,943, up 8.3%.

A changed disclosure framework. Fastenal stopped publishing an Onsite location count in 2025, replacing branch-opening and Onsite-signing metrics with customer-site spend bands. The new proxy is the count of sites spending $50,000 or more per month, 3,125 in the second quarter of 2026 against 2,683 a year earlier. Investors comparing against pre-2025 commentary should note the metric change rather than assume the disclosure is missing.

Governance and capital structure. Vishal Talwar, EVP and Chief Digital and Information Officer of FedEx, joined the board on 12 June 2026, expanding it from eleven to twelve directors, a deliberate digital and supply-chain-technology appointment. Separately, shareholders approved a restricted stock unit plan for employees and directors on 23 April 2026, moving Fastenal away from its historic all-options compensation model. In June the company refinanced into an $835m unsecured revolver maturing 18 June 2031, removing the consolidated EBITDA covenant in favour of interest-coverage and leverage tests, and adding step-up language contemplating a qualified acquisition of at least $750m, notable for a company that has made no acquisitions at all.

8. Competitive Position

Fastenal publishes no market-size or market-share estimate of its own. Third-party estimates of the North American maintenance, repair and operations distribution market cluster around $162bn to $165bn, against which Fastenal's FY2025 North American sales of $7,929.1m imply roughly 4.8% share on our own arithmetic; that is an estimate, not a disclosed figure. The structural point is that the market is highly fragmented and the two largest players together hold barely 12%.

Peer	Market cap (September 2026)	Key 2025 metric
W.W. Grainger (GWW)	~$61.7bn	FY2025 net sales $17,942m, up 4.5% from $17,168m. Carries 2.2 times Fastenal's revenue for a market capitalisation only about 9% larger.
Fastenal (FAST)	~$56.4bn	FY2025 net sales $8,200.5m, up 8.7%, with a 20.2% operating margin
Ferguson Enterprises (FERG)	~$43.4bn	FY2025 net sales $30.8bn for the year ended 31 July 2025, up 3.8%, at an 8.5% operating margin, versus Fastenal's 20.2%. Different product mix and service intensity.
Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT)	~$11.9bn	FY2026 net sales $4,966.7m for the year ended 30 June 2026, up 8.8% from $4,563.4m
MSC Industrial Direct (MSM)	~$6.6bn	FY2025 net sales $3,769.5m for the year ended 30 August 2025, down from $3,821.0m and $4,009.3m in the two prior years, a third consecutive annual decline

The competitor that does not fit the table is Amazon Business, which Amazon does not report as a separate segment. It announced on 21 July 2026 that it had passed $60bn in annualised gross sales serving more than 11 million organisations, having added 1.8 million organisations in the first half of 2026 alone. That figure is gross merchandise value including third-party marketplace volume, so it is not directly comparable to Fastenal's net sales, but the direction is unambiguous. Tellingly, Fastenal's own eBusiness sales fell as a share of its mix in the second quarter, to 29.4% from 30.0%, meaning its digital growth is coming from FMI hardware rather than web commerce, which is exactly where Amazon competes. For sector context and scheduled releases, see our Economic Calendar.

9. Insider Activity

Chief Executive Jeffery M. Watts, who took the role on 16 July 2026, has not appeared as a buyer or seller in the 2026 Form 4 record. Across every Form 4 filed for Fastenal in 2026, every acquisition of stock is either a code-A option grant or a code-M option exercise, and every disposition is a code-S sale, almost all of them same-day exercise-and-sell, plus one gift. There were no genuine open-market purchases by any insider during 2026. On 2 January 2026 the compensation committee granted options over 1,508,081 shares at a $41.00 exercise price, which generated roughly twenty filings that some aggregators misreport as buying.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Rita J. Heise	5 Aug 2026	Option exercise and sale	34,964	$50.0544	~$1,750,102	Open market, not 10b5-1
Reyne K. Wisecup	5 Mar 2026	Option exercise and sale	36,920	$47.3435	~$1,747,922	Open market, not 10b5-1
Scott Satterlee	23 Jan 2026	Option exercise and sale	15,964	$44.1903	~$705,454	Open market, not 10b5-1
Donnalee K. Papenfuss	13 Aug 2026	Option exercise and sale	9,258	~$51.40	~$475,758	Open market, not 10b5-1
Michael J. Ancius	10 Aug 2026	Option exercise and sale	3,000	$52.00	~$156,000	Open market, not 10b5-1
Michael J. Ancius	28 Jul 2026	Option exercise and sale	3,000	$49.00	~$147,000	Open market, not 10b5-1
Michael J. Ancius	13 Aug 2026	Gift, no proceeds	400	Nil	Nil	Code G gift
Daniel L. Florness	2 Jan 2026	Option grant, not a purchase	85,365	$41.00 exercise price	No cash paid	Code A award

Aggregate insider sale proceeds across all 2026 filings were approximately $4.98m, concentrated in July and August as the stock approached its 52-week high of $52.92. The Q2 2026 Form 10-Q states that no director or officer adopted, modified or terminated a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan during the quarter, so these should be read as discretionary sales following option exercises rather than pre-scheduled plan disposals. Insider ownership stands at roughly 0.11% of shares outstanding. One caution for readers using screeners: two code-P open-market purchases totalling just $3,101 appear in the 2026 filing record, but they are dated April 2025 and were reported late, and an amendment corrected their prices to a pre-split basis.

10. Key Risks

• Tariff dependency cuts both ways: Fastenal imports a significant quantity of product from Asia and states that its tariff exposure may become more impactful in subsequent quarters as lower-tariff inventory is depleted and replaced with inventory subject to new and expanded tariffs. Pricing actions now contribute roughly 290 basis points of sales growth. Because several of these duties are under legal challenge, a rollback would strip out that growth contribution without any volume offset.
• Gross margin compression is structural, not transient: margin fell 75 basis points year on year in the second quarter, with about 40 basis points from unfavourable net price and cost. Management states plainly that the mix shift toward larger customers will likely continue to reduce gross profit percentage into the foreseeable future, and Onsite locations carry a lower private-label mix, which compounds the effect.
• Concentration in one cyclical end market: manufacturing is 75.9% of sales, with heavy manufacturing alone at about 44% of second-quarter revenue. Fastenal describes the 2025 backdrop as sluggish and 2026 as only a modest improvement, and non-residential construction, 8.1% of sales, has grown in only five of the last fifteen quarters. MSC Industrial's three straight years of revenue decline is the corroborating evidence that the pie is not growing.
• Cash conversion and the capital step-up: second-quarter operating cash flow of $265.7m was down 4.6% despite net income rising 15.9%, converting 69.4% of net income against a five-year second-quarter average near 79.6%, because larger customers carry longer payment terms. Cash fell from $276.8m to $204.7m across the first half while capital expenditure is guided up roughly 40%.
• Competition from Amazon Business and web-native distributors: Fastenal's own filings flag the emergence of non-traditional web-based competitors. Amazon Business reached $60bn of annualised gross sales by July 2026, and Fastenal's eBusiness share of its own mix declined year on year in the second quarter, indicating it is not winning the pure e-commerce contest.
• Leadership turnover at both top financial and executive roles: the chief executive changed on 16 July 2026 and the chief financial officer has been in post only since November 2025. Fastenal placed the succession inside its Item 1A risk factors, warning of consequences if it is unable to manage the transition. The whole of the second half of 2026 is being executed by a new pairing.
• Strategic goal slippage: the company missed its 2025 Digital Footprint target, cut its 2026 FMI signings goal mid-year, and must add 4.4 points of Digital Footprint penetration in two quarters to hit its 2026 objective. These are the operating metrics the equity story is built on.
• Valuation and wage inflation: at roughly 42 times trailing earnings and 13.9 times book, the shares price in continued execution. Meanwhile employee-related expenses are 70% to 75% of SG&A and rose 10.5% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2025, a cost base that will not flex down quickly if sales growth normalises.

11. Recent Developments

• 13 March 2026 — New Southeast distribution facility announced. A regional operations and logistics centre in Carrollton, Georgia, an estimated $90m investment replacing the 252,000 square foot Atlanta distribution centre, with groundbreaking held on 24 March 2026 and opening slated for spring 2027.
• 30 March 2026 — Fastenal marks 25 years in Mexico. Canada and Mexico together represent 13.5% of FY2025 revenue and have become the company's fastest-growing geography.
• 10 April 2026 — Dividend declared alongside resumed buybacks. For the first time since 2023 the release paired the dividend with repurchase activity. Fastenal bought no stock at all in 2024 or 2025; in the second quarter of 2026 it repurchased 650,000 shares at an average $45.72, or $29.7m.
• 13 April 2026 — First-quarter results. Net sales $2,201.7m, up 12.4%, gross margin 44.6% and down 50 basis points, operating margin 20.3%, net income $339.8m and diluted EPS $0.30. Operating cash flow was 111% of net income and product pricing contributed roughly 350 basis points of growth.
• 23 April 2026 — Annual meeting approves a new compensation architecture. Shareholders approved an employee restricted stock unit plan and a non-employee director stock and RSU plan, moving Fastenal away from its historic all-options model.
• 4 June 2026 — May sales show underlying acceleration. Net sales of $751.5m, up 9.3% on one fewer business day, meaning daily sales rose 14.8%, with Canada and Mexico up 20.3% and the rest of world up 29.9%.
• 12 June 2026 — Vishal Talwar elected to the board. The EVP and Chief Digital and Information Officer of FedEx and President of FedEx DataWorks joined the nominating and corporate governance committee, expanding the board from eleven to twelve.
• 18 June 2026 — Credit agreement refinanced. An $835m unsecured revolver with Wells Fargo, maturity extended to 18 June 2031, the consolidated EBITDA covenant removed in favour of a minimum 3.00 times interest coverage and maximum 3.00 times leverage, and the master note agreement capacity cut from $900m to $600m.
• 10 July 2026 — Quarterly dividend raised to $0.26. Up from $0.24 in each of the first two quarters of 2026 and 18.2% above the $0.22 paid in the third quarter of 2025.
• 14 July 2026 — Second-quarter results. Net sales $2,386.9m and daily sales both up 14.7%, gross margin 44.6% and down 75 basis points, operating margin flat at 21.0%, net income $382.8m up 15.9%, diluted EPS $0.33. The 2026 FMI signings goal was cut to 27,000 to 29,000 weighted device units.
• 16 July 2026 — Chief executive transition takes effect. Jeffery M. Watts, previously President and Chief Sales Officer, became Chief Executive Officer and a director, succeeding Daniel L. Florness two days after the second-quarter print.
• 21 July 2026 — Amazon Business passes $60bn in annualised gross sales. Serving more than 11 million organisations worldwide after adding 1.8 million in the first half of 2026, a directly relevant competitive datapoint for Fastenal's eBusiness channel.
• 6 August 2026 — July sales accelerate to 15.5%. Net sales $825.8m on 22 business days in both years, so daily sales also rose 15.5%, ahead of the second-quarter average of 14.7%. Heavy manufacturing rose 18.7% and non-residential construction 16.9%.
• 5 to 17 August 2026 — Cluster of insider selling near the 52-week high. Director Rita Heise sold 34,964 shares at $50.0544, director Michael Ancius sold 3,000 at $52.00 and gifted 400, and EVP Donnalee Papenfuss sold 9,258 at about $51.40. All were exercise-and-sell transactions with no offsetting purchases.

12. Key Dates

• Expected October 2026 — third-quarter 2026 results, indicated for 14 October 2026 before market open with a call at 9:00 a.m. central. As at 1 September 2026 Fastenal had not yet issued its formal conference-call announcement, which it typically publishes two to three weeks ahead, so treat the date as indicated rather than confirmed. Third-quarter 2025 results were released on 13 October 2025.
• Expected September 2026 — August 2026 monthly sales data, due on the fourth business day of the month under the company's stated policy. Fastenal publishes consolidated monthly net sales on its investor relations site rather than by Form 8-K, which is unusual for a company of this size and gives a near real-time read on United States industrial demand.
• Expected October 2026 — declaration of the fourth-quarter 2026 dividend, which on the established cadence would accompany third-quarter earnings with payment in late November. No dates have been announced.
• 25 August 2026 — third-quarter 2026 dividend of $0.26 per share paid, declared 10 July 2026 with a record date of 28 July 2026.
• 14 July 2026 — second-quarter 2026 results released and the FMI signings goal reduced.
• 16 July 2026 — Jeffery M. Watts became Chief Executive Officer.
• 23 April 2026 — 2026 annual meeting held in Winona, Minnesota; the 2027 meeting date has not been announced.
• 2 January 2027 — expected date of the annual stock option grant, which Fastenal has made effective on 2 January in recent years.
• 18 June 2031 — maturity of the $835m revolving credit facility as refinanced in June 2026.

Fastenal issues no revenue or earnings guidance, so the monthly sales releases and the quarterly Digital Footprint and FMI signings figures are the practical checkpoints between reporting dates. Readers can discuss the industrial cycle on our Forum.

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Last Updated: 29 August 2026

Cintas Corporation rents, launders and delivers workwear, mats, mops, restroom supplies, first aid cabinets and fire protection services to more than one million business customers across North America. It is a route-based business: roughly 48,100 employee-partners run a weekly delivery network that turns low-ticket consumables into recurring, contracted revenue. Fiscal 2026, which ended on 31 May 2026, produced record revenue of $11.26bn, an all-time-high gross margin of 50.7% and GAAP diluted earnings of $4.91 per share. The defining corporate event, however, is not in those numbers: on 10 March 2026 Cintas signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire UniFirst for roughly $5.5bn, a deal that has been approved by UniFirst shareholders but is now sitting inside a Federal Trade Commission Second Request. This report sets out what the filings say, with no analyst opinions and no price targets.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	CTAS, NASDAQ Global Select Market
Headquarters	Mason, Ohio, United States
Fiscal year end	31 May (FY2026 ended 31 May 2026)
CEO / Leadership	Todd M. Schneider, Chief Executive Officer. Jim Rozakis became President and Chief Operating Officer on 1 August 2026 when the President and CEO roles were separated. Scott A. Garula is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Scott D. Farmer is Executive Chairman.
Employees	Approximately 48,100 employee-partners at 31 May 2026, of whom approximately 800 are represented by labour unions
Revenue (FY2026)	$11,264.8m, up 8.9% year on year, organic growth 8.3%
Net income (FY2026)	$2,000.0m
GAAP diluted EPS (FY2026)	$4.91
Market capitalisation	Approximately $81.7bn at the 28 August 2026 close of $204.18
Shares outstanding	400.1m at 31 May 2026 per the FY2026 Form 10-K balance sheet
Dividend	$0.52 per share per quarter from the declaration of 28 July 2026, raised 15.6% from $0.45
Index membership	S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100

For live pricing and charting on this and other listed companies see ChartsView Live Charts.

2. Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Margin expansion alongside growth: FY2026 gross margin reached an all-time high of 50.7% from 50.0%, and the fourth quarter hit 51.0%, while organic revenue still grew 8.3%. Both reportable segments expanded, so this was not a mix effect from one division.
• Route density is a genuine structural advantage: Cintas serves more than one million business customers from an existing weekly delivery network, so each incremental stop on an existing route carries very little marginal cost. Operating margin rose to 23.1% in FY2026 from 22.8%.
• Cross-selling into faster-growing adjacencies: First Aid and Safety Services grew 14.3% in FY2026 against 8.9% for the group, selling AEDs, eye-wash stations and safety training into customers already receiving a uniform delivery.
• A 43-year dividend record and falling capital intensity: the dividend has been raised every year since the 1983 flotation, most recently by 15.6% on 28 July 2026, while capital expenditure fell in absolute dollars to 3.5% of revenue from 4.0%.
• UniFirst adds scale at a stated 8.0x EBITDA: management has guided to approximately $375m of cost synergies within four years and to 1.5x net debt to EBITDA at closing, with the combined group serving around 1.5 million customers.

Bear Case

• The UniFirst deal is inside an FTC Second Request: both parties received a Second Request on 11 June 2026, and Cintas has agreed a $350m reverse termination fee payable to UniFirst if the transaction is blocked on antitrust grounds. UniFirst shares trade below the stated deal value, which is the market pricing in that risk.
• The rating leaves no room for a growth stumble: the shares change hands at roughly 42 times FY2026 GAAP earnings and about 27 times enterprise value to EBITDA. Cintas is a route-based laundry business earning a software-adjacent multiple.
• Buybacks have effectively stopped: Cintas repurchased no shares in the open market during March, April or May 2026, and the $1.0bn authorisation approved on 28 October 2025 was entirely untouched at the fiscal year end because cash is being preserved for the UniFirst consideration.
• Employment-linked revenue is cyclical: revenue scales with the number of people the customer base employs. A hiring freeze across manufacturing, hospitality or healthcare reduces garment counts without any customer being lost.
• Guidance excludes the deal entirely: the FY2027 range of $12.10bn to $12.25bn assumes no UniFirst contribution and no further acquisitions, and Cintas declined to give a GAAP EPS range at all because transaction costs cannot be estimated.

3. Segments and Revenue Mix

Cintas has two reportable operating segments. The Fire Protection Services and Uniform Direct Sale operating segments are reported together as "All Other".

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Uniform Rental and Facility Services	76.5% ($8,621.6m in FY2026, up 8.1%)	Rental and cleaning of uniforms, plus mats, mops, shop towels, restroom supplies and other facility products delivered on a weekly route. Segment operating income $2,077.0m; segment gross margin 50.0%.
First Aid and Safety Services	12.4% ($1,391.9m in FY2026, up 14.3%)	First aid cabinet servicing, automated external defibrillators, eye-wash stations, safety supplies and safety training. The fastest-growing segment, with operating income of $353.4m.
All Other (Fire Protection and Uniform Direct Sale)	11.1% ($1,251.3m in FY2026, up 9.2%)	Fire extinguisher, sprinkler and alarm inspection and testing, plus direct sales of branded uniforms to national accounts. Operating income $191.2m.

Three-year segment revenue: Uniform Rental and Facility Services $7,465.2m in FY2024, $7,976.1m in FY2025 and $8,621.6m in FY2026; First Aid and Safety Services $1,067.3m, $1,218.1m and $1,391.9m; All Other $1,064.1m, $1,146.0m and $1,251.3m. Corporate costs of $15.1m in FY2026 relate entirely to UniFirst transaction expenses.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. A customer signs a multi-year rental contract for a set number of garments, mats or cabinets. Cintas delivers clean stock and collects soiled stock on a fixed weekly route, launders it in a regional processing plant, and invoices on a recurring basis. Revenue is therefore not transactional: it is a subscription paid by businesses, priced per item per week, with contractual escalators. Roughly 88.9% of FY2026 revenue came from the two rental and service segments rather than one-off product sales.

Where the moat sits. The economics turn on route density. A driver who already stops at fourteen premises on one street can add a fifteenth at a fraction of the cost a new entrant would face building that route from scratch, because the truck, the driver and the processing plant are already paid for. This is why cross-selling matters so much: selling a first aid cabinet or a fire extinguisher inspection to an existing uniform customer requires no new logistics. It is also why the FY2026 gross margin of 50.7% is achievable in what is nominally a commercial laundry business.

What management is spending on. Capital expenditure was $395.1m in FY2026, or 3.5% of revenue, down from 4.0% the year before, while revenue grew 8.9%. The investment is going into plant automation, the SAP enterprise platform that now runs the business, and the proprietary SmartTruck route-optimisation system rather than into new bricks and mortar. Management attributes part of the record gross margin directly to those investments.

Why the customer stays. Switching a uniform programme means re-sizing and re-badging every employee, changing the delivery cadence and risking a compliance gap in regulated industries such as food processing and healthcare. The contract value is small relative to the customer's payroll, so the incentive to shop around is weak. That combination of low absolute cost and high switching friction is what produces the recurring revenue base.

5. Financial Health

All figures below are taken from Cintas SEC filings and quarterly earnings releases. Cintas completed a four-for-one stock split on 12 September 2024, which fell inside fiscal 2025. The per-share figures for FY2022, FY2023 and FY2024 as originally filed were therefore on a pre-split basis; the table below restates them on a consistent post-split basis, which is how the FY2025 and FY2026 Form 10-K filings present the comparatives.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2022 (ended 31 May 2022)	7,854.5	—	$2.91	$2.91†	$0.95	$2,483.9m
FY2023 (ended 31 May 2023)	8,815.8	+12.2%	$3.25	$3.25†	$1.15	$2,486.4m
FY2024 (ended 31 May 2024)	9,596.6	+8.9%	$3.79	$3.79†	$1.35	$2,025.9m
FY2025 (ended 31 May 2025)	10,340.2	+7.7%	$4.40	$4.40†	$1.56	$2,425.0m
FY2026 (ended 31 May 2026)	11,264.8	+8.9%	$4.91	$4.94	$1.80	$1,429.1m

† Cintas reported no separately adjusted earnings measure in FY2022 through FY2025; GAAP is repeated in that column for those years. The FY2026 adjustment of $0.03 per share relates entirely to $15.1m of UniFirst transaction expenses. Long-term debt is the non-current balance at each fiscal year end taken from the SEC XBRL company facts. At 31 May 2026 there was an additional $999.0m classified as due within one year, so total debt was $2,428.1m against $1,429.1m at 31 May 2025 on the same basis, when the current portion was nil.

Quarter / Half	Revenue ($m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q4 FY2026 (ended 31 May 2026)	2,905.2	$1.29	$1.26
Q3 FY2026 (ended 28 Feb 2026)	2,841.4	$1.24†	$1.24
Q2 FY2026 (ended 30 Nov 2025)	2,800.0	$1.21†	$1.21
Q1 FY2026 (ended 31 Aug 2025)	2,718.1	$1.20†	$1.20
FY2026 total	11,264.8	$4.94	$4.91

† No separately adjusted figure was reported for these quarters; substantially all of the FY2026 UniFirst transaction expense of $15.1m fell in the fourth quarter, where $14.0m was incurred. Fiscal 2026 was a 52-week year with 260 workdays. Cash generated from operations was $2,276.3m and capital expenditure was $395.1m, so free cash flow was $1,881.2m. Cintas returned $1.65bn to shareholders during the year, comprising $701.5m of dividends paid and $952.1m of buybacks, though open-market repurchases stopped entirely in the final quarter. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $289.0m and total shareholders' equity at $5,139.9m at the year end.

Management's fiscal 2027 guidance, issued on 15 July 2026, is for revenue of $12.10bn to $12.25bn and adjusted diluted EPS of $5.36 to $5.50. Fiscal 2027 contains 261 workdays against 260, so the workday-adjusted growth range is 7.0% to 8.3%. The guidance excludes any contribution from UniFirst and assumes no future acquisitions and constant exchange rates. No GAAP EPS range was given because transaction costs cannot be reasonably estimated.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, August 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Market cap	Approximately $81.7bn (400.17m shares at the 28 August 2026 close of $204.18)
Enterprise value	Approximately $83.8bn (market cap $81.71bn plus total debt $2.43bn, being $999.0m current and $1,429.1m non-current, less cash of $289.0m per the 31 May 2026 balance sheet)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	Approximately 41.6x on FY2026 GAAP diluted EPS of $4.91. On the FY2026 adjusted figure of $4.94 the same calculation gives approximately 41.3x.
P/E (forward)	Approximately 37.6x on the $5.43 midpoint of management's own FY2027 adjusted EPS guidance range of $5.36 to $5.50, which excludes UniFirst. The range implies 37.1x to 38.1x.
P/S (TTM)	Approximately 7.3x (market cap $81.71bn divided by FY2026 revenue of $11.26bn, the trailing twelve months to 31 May 2026)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	Approximately 26.9x (EV $83.85bn divided by EBITDA of $3,119.4m, being FY2026 operating income of $2,606.5m plus depreciation, depletion and amortisation of $512.8m taken from the cash flow statement)
P/FCF	Approximately 43.4x (market cap $81.71bn divided by free cash flow of $1,881.2m; free cash flow is FY2026 operating cash flow of $2,276.3m less capital expenditure of $395.1m per the cash flow statement)
Price/book	Approximately 15.9x (market cap $81.71bn divided by shareholders' equity of $5,139.9m at 31 May 2026)
52-week high	$219.17
52-week low	$161.16
Short interest (% of float)	Approximately 3.0% (10,362,405 shares short against a free float of 342.1m at the 14 August 2026 settlement date)
Days to cover	4.19 days at the 14 August 2026 settlement date
Dividend yield	Approximately 1.0% on the annualised $0.52 quarterly rate declared 28 July 2026

7. What Are They Building

The UniFirst combination. This is the largest thing Cintas has ever attempted. The definitive merger agreement signed on 10 March 2026 offers UniFirst holders $155.00 in cash plus 0.772 Cintas shares per share, valued at $310.00 per share on the 9 March 2026 reference price, for an implied enterprise value of roughly $5.5bn or 8.0 times run-rate trailing EBITDA including synergies. Management targets approximately $375m of operating cost synergies within four years and expects the deal to be accretive to earnings by the end of the second full year after closing. The Croatti family, which controls around two-thirds of UniFirst voting power, signed a support agreement and will retain an ownership position in the combined group. Financing comprises cash, a $2.0bn revolving credit facility entered on 27 March 2026 maturing in 2031, and fully committed bridge facilities.

Technology inside the route. Cintas already runs SAP as its enterprise platform; the FY2026 Form 10-K references it only in the context of third-party vendor dependency, not as an implementation in progress. The proprietary SmartTruck system applies analytics to route planning and delivery sequencing, and management's stated approach is deliberately incremental, gaining efficiency route by route rather than through disruptive wholesale reorganisations of a facility. Automated sortation in processing plants sits alongside it.

Artificial intelligence as an operating tool. The FY2026 Form 10-K carries a substantially expanded risk factor confirming that Cintas is increasingly using artificial intelligence, including generative AI and machine learning, across customer service, sales and marketing, logistics and route optimisation, supply chain management, data analytics and software development. The same disclosure names the risk that competitors may adopt AI capabilities faster.

Vertical and product expansion. The stated ambition is to sell the whole "Ready for the Workday" bundle into each customer: uniforms, mats, restroom supplies, workplace water services, first aid cabinets, AEDs, safety training, fire extinguishers and sprinkler testing. Named target verticals include gaming and hospitality, healthcare, automotive, government, education, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, skilled trades and food processing. A concrete example was the nationwide uniform programme for Ford dealer technicians showcased with Carhartt at the automobile dealers' show on 2 February 2026.

8. Competitive Landscape

Cintas names ABM Industries, Aramark, Rollins and UniFirst as its stock performance peer group in the FY2026 Form 10-K. Market capitalisations below were re-checked on 28 August 2026.

Peer	Market cap (August 2026)	Key 2025 metric
UniFirst (NYSE: UNF)	Approximately $5.10bn	Revenue of $2,432.4m in the fiscal year ended 30 August 2025. Shares trade at about $281.88 against stated deal consideration of $310.00, a spread that reflects FTC Second Request risk.
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK)	Approximately $15.34bn	Revenue of $18,506.3m in fiscal 2025. Roughly five times Cintas revenue at under one fifth of the market capitalisation, reflecting far thinner food-service margins.
Vestis (NYSE: VSTS)	Approximately $1.65bn	Revenue of $2,734.8m in fiscal 2025, down from $2,805.8m the prior year. The pure-play uniform rental comparator, and currently a shrinking one.
Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI)	Approximately $84.56bn	Revenue of $23,596.0m in the year to 30 September 2025. Competes in fire protection and building services rather than uniform rental.
ADT (NYSE: ADT)	Approximately $5.51bn	Revenue of $5,128.6m in calendar 2025. Overlaps in monitored safety and life-safety services.
Rollins (NYSE: ROL)	Named peer-group member in the FY2026 Form 10-K	Revenue of $3,761.1m in calendar 2025. Included by Cintas as a route-based recurring-service comparator.
ABM Industries (NYSE: ABM)	Named peer-group member in the FY2026 Form 10-K	Revenue of $8,745.9m in the fiscal year ended 31 October 2025, in facility services.

The comparison that matters most is Vestis, the only listed pure-play uniform rental business of scale. Vestis carries a market capitalisation of roughly $1.65bn on $2.73bn of declining revenue, against Cintas at $81.7bn on $11.26bn of revenue growing 8.9% organically. Route density and scale, not the underlying service, explain the gap.

9. Insider Activity

Chief Executive Officer Todd M. Schneider, who has led Cintas since 2021 and relinquished the President title on 1 August 2026, received the largest single equity award in the 10 August 2026 annual grant cycle. It is important to read these filings correctly: the transactions below coded as awards are grants of restricted stock and options under the compensation plan, not open-market purchases with cash, and each was accompanied by a share withholding for statutory tax. There were no open-market insider purchases at Cintas during 2026.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Todd M. Schneider	10 Aug 2026	Equity award (code A)	57,944	$202.71	$11,745,828	Annual grant under compensation plan
Todd M. Schneider	10 Aug 2026	Tax withholding (code F)	35,599	$202.71	$7,216,273	Statutory withholding on vesting
Scott D. Farmer	10 Aug 2026	Tax withholding (code F)	15,923	$202.71	$3,227,751	Statutory withholding on vesting
Scott A. Garula	10 Aug 2026	Equity award (code A)	10,695	$202.71	$2,167,983	Annual grant under compensation plan
Ronald W. Tysoe	22 Jul 2026	Open-market sale (code S)	4,363	$199.90	$872,164	No Rule 10b5-1 plan footnote disclosed
Melanie W. Barstad	16 Jul 2026	Open-market sale (code S)	9,142	$202.94	$1,855,277	No Rule 10b5-1 plan footnote disclosed
Ronald W. Tysoe	20 Apr 2026	Open-market sale (code S)	4,666	$178.87	$834,607	No Rule 10b5-1 plan footnote disclosed

The two director sales are the only meaningful discretionary disposals. Both followed an option exercise at a legacy strike of $27.10, and both occurred after the UniFirst merger agreement was signed. Melanie W. Barstad notified the company on 26 August 2026 that she will not stand for re-election at the 2026 annual meeting, which is disclosed as unrelated to any disagreement with the company.

10. Key Risks

• Antitrust review of the UniFirst acquisition: both parties received a Federal Trade Commission Second Request on 11 June 2026, which extends the waiting period until thirty days after substantial compliance. Cintas has agreed to pay UniFirst a $350m reverse termination fee in specified circumstances, and the FY2026 Form 10-K carries two new risk factors on failing to complete or integrate the transaction. The outside termination date is 10 January 2027, extendable.
• Integration and leverage after closing: management guides to 1.5 times net debt to EBITDA at completion, against total debt of $2.43bn at 31 May 2026. The FY2026 Form 10-K names indebtedness limiting cash available for the business, and dilution from the Cintas shares to be issued to UniFirst holders, as explicit risks.
• Cyclical exposure to customer employment levels: revenue scales with the headcount of the businesses Cintas serves. A downturn in manufacturing, hospitality or construction reduces garment counts and cabinet servicing volumes without a single contract being cancelled. The Form 10-K lists negative global economic factors as its first risk.
• Input cost and tariff exposure: the FY2026 Form 10-K explicitly names greater costs associated with tariffs in its supplier risk factor. Garments, mats and safety products are largely imported, and energy and fuel costs feed directly into laundering and route economics.
• Technology dependency and AI execution: Cintas depends on third-party vendors for its SAP enterprise system, payroll data, risk management data and lease data, and the Form 10-K carries a detailed new risk factor on whether its use of artificial intelligence succeeds and on competitors adopting such capabilities faster.
• Labour availability and relations: the route model depends on retaining drivers and plant staff. Around 800 of roughly 48,100 employee-partners are unionised, and the Form 10-K flags both the difficulty of attracting competent personnel and the costs and possible effects of union organising activity.
• Litigation is disclosed only in general terms: Item 3 of the FY2026 Form 10-K names no individual case and states that ordinary-course claims will not be material in aggregate, while a separate accounting note acknowledges that Cintas is party to additional litigation not considered in the ordinary course of business, without quantifying it.

11. Recent Developments

• 22 Dec 2025 — Cintas goes public with a $275.00 per share cash proposal for UniFirst. The renewed proposal, delivered on 12 December 2025 and valuing UniFirst at roughly $5.2bn, represented a 64% premium to the 90-day average close and came with an offered $350m reverse termination fee. Cintas disclosed it had been seeking engagement since 2022.
• 11 Mar 2026 — definitive merger agreement announced. Signed the previous day, the agreement offers $155.00 in cash plus 0.772 Cintas shares per UniFirst share, valued at $310.00 on the reference date, implying roughly $5.5bn of enterprise value at 8.0 times run-rate EBITDA including approximately $375m of targeted synergies. Cintas simultaneously pre-released third-quarter revenue of $2.84bn.
• 25 Mar 2026 — third-quarter results and a guidance raise. Revenue of $2.84bn was up 8.9% with organic growth of 8.2%, and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.24 was up 9.7%. Full-year guidance was lifted to revenue of $11.21bn to $11.24bn and adjusted EPS of $4.86 to $4.90, both of which were subsequently beaten.
• 27 Mar 2026 — a $2.0bn revolving credit facility is put in place. Cintas Corporation No. 2 entered a facility maturing 27 March 2031 with a $1.0bn accordion, the balance-sheet preparation for the cash portion of the UniFirst consideration.
• 11 Jun 2026 — Federal Trade Commission Second Requests issued. Both Cintas and UniFirst received Second Requests under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, extending the antitrust waiting period until thirty days after both parties substantially comply.
• 12 Jun 2026 — UniFirst shareholders approve the transaction. The approval removes shareholder consent as a condition, leaving antitrust clearance as the principal outstanding gate.
• 15 Jul 2026 — record fiscal 2026 results and fiscal 2027 guidance. Revenue reached $11.26bn, up 8.9% with organic growth of 8.3%, gross margin hit an all-time high of 50.7%, and GAAP diluted EPS rose 11.6% to $4.91. Guidance for fiscal 2027 was set at $12.10bn to $12.25bn of revenue and $5.36 to $5.50 of adjusted EPS, explicitly excluding UniFirst.
• 28 Jul 2026 — the dividend is raised 15.6%. The board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.52 per share, up from $0.45, payable 15 September 2026 to holders of record on 14 August 2026. Cintas has increased its dividend every year since its 1983 flotation.
• 1 Aug 2026 — the President and Chief Executive roles are separated. Jim Rozakis, previously Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, became President and Chief Operating Officer. Todd Schneider remains Chief Executive Officer but no longer holds the President title.
• 29 Jul 2026 — the fiscal 2026 Form 10-K is filed. It discloses approximately 48,100 employee-partners, two new UniFirst-specific risk factors, and that no shares were repurchased in the open market during the March to May quarter, leaving the $1.0bn authorisation of 28 October 2025 entirely untouched.
• 26 Aug 2026 — a director declines re-election. Melanie W. Barstad notified Cintas she will not stand for re-election at the 2026 annual meeting. The company states this is not the result of any disagreement.
• 28 Aug 2026 — the preliminary proxy statement is filed. It sets the 2026 annual meeting for 27 October 2026 as a virtual-only meeting; the record date is not yet fixed in the preliminary document.

12. Key Dates and Catalysts

• 31 Aug 2026 — end of the first quarter of fiscal 2027, the first period to reflect the raised dividend and the new President and Chief Operating Officer structure
• Expected Sep 2026 — first-quarter fiscal 2027 results. Cintas had not published the date as at 29 August 2026; the equivalent quarter was reported on 24 September 2025 and the company normally issues a webcast notice two to three weeks beforehand.
• 15 Sep 2026 — payment of the raised quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share to holders of record on 14 August 2026
• Expected Oct 2026 — declaration of the next quarterly dividend, based on the pattern of declarations on 28 October 2025 and 29 October 2024
• 27 Oct 2026 — 2026 annual meeting of shareholders, held virtually at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, at which the board will be elected without Melanie W. Barstad standing
• Expected TBC in the second half of calendar 2026 — targeted completion of the UniFirst acquisition, subject to the Federal Trade Commission Second Request process; management reiterated this timing on 15 July 2026
• 10 Jan 2027 — the termination date under the UniFirst merger agreement, automatically extendable for up to two further four-month periods in specified circumstances

The FTC Second Request is the single event that most changes the shape of this company, and its timing is not in Cintas's control. Scheduled macroeconomic releases that bear on employment levels across Cintas's customer base can be tracked on the ChartsView Economic Calendar, and readers can discuss this research in the ChartsView Forum.

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Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Last Updated: 28 August 2026

CSX runs roughly 21,000 route miles of railroad across the eastern United States, and for the last three years it has been a business with falling revenue and a widening operating ratio. That reversed sharply in 2026. Second-quarter revenue of $3.94bn, reported on 22 July 2026, was a quarterly record, operating income rose 17% and the operating ratio improved to about 61.7% from 64.1%. Sitting over all of it is the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger, which CSX formally opposes and which the Surface Transportation Board has now pushed to a final decision in the second quarter of 2027. This report sets out what the filings say, without ratings or price targets. For live pricing see our Live Charts page.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Company	CSX Corporation
Ticker / exchange	CSX (NASDAQ)
Headquarters	Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Sector	Class I freight railroad (industrials / transportation)
CEO / Leadership	Steve Angel (President & Chief Executive Officer since September 2025, previously Chief Executive of Linde plc); Kevin S. Boone (Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer since 29 October 2025)
Employees	Approximately 23,000 as at December 2025, of whom roughly 16,900 are covered by rail labour union agreements
Network	Approximately 21,000 route miles serving 26 states, the District of Columbia, Ontario and Quebec; connections to roughly 250 short-line railroads and more than 70 ports
Revenue (FY2025)	$14,092m, down 3.1% year on year
Net income (FY2025)	$2,889m (GAAP); operating income $4,521m, operating ratio 67.9%
Latest reported period	Q2 2026, quarter ended 30 June 2026, reported 22 July 2026
Revenue (Q2 2026)	$3,935m, a quarterly record, up 10% year on year
Share price	$51.54 (27 August 2026)
Market cap	Approximately $95.48bn
Shares outstanding	1,852,474,917 (10-Q cover page, 30 June 2026)
Dividend	$0.14 per share per quarter, $0.56 annualised, raised 7.6% on 26 February 2026
Fiscal year end	31 December

2. Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• The margin story has turned: Q2 2026 operating income of $1.51bn was up 17% on revenue up 10%, taking the operating ratio to roughly 61.7% from 64.1% a year earlier — a 240 basis point improvement in a single year.
• Volume is growing again after three flat years: total volume rose 6% to 1.676m units in Q2 2026, with intermodal up 9%, merchandise up 4% and coal up 4%, against a FY2025 in which total volume was flat at 6.307m units.
• Guidance was raised, not trimmed: on the Q2 2026 call management moved to mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth, more than 350 basis points of operating margin expansion and more than 80% free cash flow growth for FY2026, with capital expenditure held below $2.4bn.
• Capital return is accelerating: the board raised the quarterly dividend 7.6% to $0.14 in February 2026 and authorised a new $5bn buyback, the largest in company history, on top of roughly $989m remaining under the prior programme.
• Bottleneck capital projects are behind it: the expanded Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore reopened ahead of schedule and unlocks double-stack intermodal on the I-95 corridor, while the $450m Blue Ridge Subdivision rebuild after Hurricane Helene has been completed.

Bear Case

• Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern would create a transcontinental competitor: the roughly $85bn merger is still live, CSX is a formal opponent, and the Surface Transportation Board's revised schedule now runs to a final decision expected in the second quarter of 2027 — nearly a year of unresolved strategic overhang.
• Coal is structurally shrinking: coal revenue fell 15% to $1,900m in FY2025 on a 13% fall in revenue per unit, and remains roughly 13% of group revenue with no structural recovery in prospect despite a Q2 2026 bounce from export mine restarts.
• Revenue has fallen for three consecutive years: from $14,853m in FY2022 to $14,092m in FY2025, with GAAP diluted EPS down from $1.92 to $1.54 over the same span.
• Fuel surcharge is flattering the top line: Q2 2026 fuel surcharge revenue nearly doubled to $410m from $222m, while fuel lag was $54m unfavourable in the quarter — a swing factor that works both ways and is not a pricing win.
• Insiders have been selling into strength: the Chief Financial Officer sold 136,708 shares in June 2026 and the Chief Accounting Officer sold 30,000 shares in July 2026, both into a share price approaching the 52-week high of $53.60.

3. Revenue Segments

CSX reports revenue by commodity market rather than by operating division. The table below uses the FY2025 volume and revenue disclosure on total revenue of $14,092m and total volume of 6.307m units.

Segment / commodity market	% of revenue	What it is
Merchandise	62.3% ($8,773m)	Chemicals $2,776m, agricultural and food products $1,618m, automotive $1,182m, forest products $975m, metals and equipment $869m, minerals $832m and fertilisers $521m. 2.594m carloads at average revenue per unit of $3,382
Intermodal	14.7% ($2,073m)	Containerised domestic and international freight moved for shippers and steamship lines. The largest volume category at 2.995m units, but the lowest revenue per unit at $692
Coal	13.5% ($1,900m)	Domestic utility and export metallurgical coal. 718,000 carloads; revenue fell 15% in FY2025 as revenue per unit dropped 13% to $2,646 on weaker benchmark export pricing
Trucking	5.8% ($816m)	The Quality Carriers bulk trucking business, reported separately from rail volume
Other	3.8% ($530m)	Demurrage, storage, switching, equipment usage and other ancillary rail revenue

In Q2 2026 the mix was broadly unchanged but every line grew: merchandise $2,446m (62.2%), intermodal $620m (15.8%, up 26% year on year), coal $520m (13.2%), trucking $226m (5.7%) and other $123m (3.1%).

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. CSX charges shippers to move freight over track it owns, and the economics are a fixed-cost leverage story. Revenue per unit averaged $2,234 across FY2025; the variable cost of adding a car to an existing train is small, so incremental volume and pricing fall heavily to operating income. That is exactly what the 2026 numbers show — 10% revenue growth converting into 17% operating income growth in Q2 2026.

Where the moat sits. The right of way is effectively irreplaceable. No one is going to assemble a competing 21,000-mile eastern network, and for bulk and heavy freight the alternative is trucking at several times the cost per ton-mile. Roughly two-thirds of the United States population lives in the territory CSX serves, and the network connects to about 250 short lines and more than 70 ports, which makes it the default first and last mile for a large share of eastern industrial freight.

What management controls. The operating ratio is the scoreboard, and CSX runs a precision-scheduled-railroad operating model aimed at train length, asset velocity and dwell. FY2025 came in at 67.9% reported and 66.8% adjusted; Q2 2026 was approximately 61.7%. The improvement has come from network fluidity restored after the Howard Street Tunnel and Blue Ridge rebuilds, cost discipline under a new chief executive, and volume leverage.

Capital intensity. This is a capital-hungry business: capital expenditure was $2,902m in FY2025 against $4,613m of operating cash flow, and guidance for FY2026 is below $2.4bn. Roughly 16,900 unionised employees sit under national labour agreements, which caps how quickly the cost base can be flexed.

5. Financial Health

All figures below are taken from CSX Corporation's quarterly financial reports and earnings releases filed with the SEC and from the company's XBRL financial data.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	12,522	+18.3%	$1.68	$1.68†	$0.37	$16,185m
FY2022	14,853	+18.6%	$1.92	$1.92†	$0.40	$17,896m
FY2023	14,657	−1.3%	$1.82	$1.82†	$0.44	$17,975m
FY2024	14,540	−0.8%	$1.79	$1.79†	$0.48	$17,897m
FY2025	14,092	−3.1%	$1.54	$1.61	$0.52	$18,165m

† CSX published no non-GAAP earnings per share measure for FY2021 through FY2024; the GAAP figure is repeated in those years. The FY2025 adjusted figure of $1.61 excludes a $164m goodwill impairment charge taken in the third quarter and a $50m severance and technology rationalisation charge taken in the fourth quarter. Long-term debt is the non-current balance; adding the current portion gives total debt and finance lease obligations of $18,873m at 31 December 2025 and $18,864m at 30 June 2026.

Quarter / Half	Revenue ($m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026	3,935	$0.54†	$0.54
Q1 2026	3,482	$0.43†	$0.43
Q4 2025	3,508	$0.39†	$0.39
Q3 2025	3,587	$0.37†	$0.37
FY2025 total	14,092	$1.61	$1.54

† CSX reconciles to an adjusted figure on an annual basis only; the GAAP figure is repeated for the individual quarters. Note that the Q3 2025 GAAP figure of $0.37 carries the $164m goodwill impairment and the Q4 2025 figure of $0.39 carries the $50m severance and technology charge.

Cash flow and balance sheet. Operating cash flow was $4,613m in FY2025 and $2,599m in the first half of 2026, against $1,890m in the comparable prior period. Capital expenditure was $2,902m in FY2025 and $1,119m in the first half of 2026. Depreciation and amortisation was $1,680m in FY2025 and $826m in the first half of 2026. At 30 June 2026 the balance sheet carried $1,007m of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash plus $383m of short-term investments, against $17,162m of long-term debt and finance lease obligations and $1,702m of the current portion, on total assets of $44,726m, total liabilities of $30,638m and total equity of $14,088m. The company also has an undrawn $1.2bn five-year unsecured revolving credit facility.

Capital return. CSX repurchased 44m shares for $1,376m in FY2025 at an average $30.95, and 12m shares for $506m in the first half of 2026 at an average $42.31. Diluted share count has fallen from 2,255m in FY2021 to 1,859m in Q2 2026, a reduction of roughly 18% in five years.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, August 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	$51.54 (27 August 2026)
Market cap	~$95.48bn (1,852.5m shares at $51.54)
Enterprise value	~$112.95bn (market cap ~$95.48bn + total debt ~$18.86bn, being $17.16bn non-current plus $1.70bn current, − cash and restricted cash $1.01bn and short-term investments $0.38bn, all per the 30 June 2026 balance sheet)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~29.8x ($51.54 divided by trailing twelve-month GAAP diluted EPS of $1.73, being Q3 2025 $0.37, Q4 2025 $0.39, Q1 2026 $0.43 and Q2 2026 $0.54). Adding back the FY2025 goodwill impairment and severance charges takes the trailing figure to roughly 28.6x
P/E (forward)	~22.7x, based on a forward earnings per share estimate of $2.27. CSX issues no earnings per share guidance of its own; management guides to mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth, more than 350 basis points of operating margin expansion and more than 80% free cash flow growth for FY2026
P/S (TTM)	~6.6x (market cap ~$95.48bn / trailing twelve-month revenue $14,512m, being FY2025 $14,092m − H1 2025 $6,997m + H1 2026 $7,417m)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~17.1x (EV ~$112.95bn / trailing twelve-month EBITDA of $6,610m; EBITDA = trailing operating income $4,956m + trailing depreciation and amortisation $1,654m taken from the cash flow statement)
P/FCF	~34.1x (market cap ~$95.48bn / free cash flow ~$2,796m; FCF = trailing operating cash flow $5,322m − trailing capital expenditure $2,526m per the cash flow statement)
Price/book	~6.8x (market cap ~$95.48bn / total shareholders' equity of $14,088m at 30 June 2026)
52-week high	$53.60
52-week low	$31.80
Short interest (% of float)	1.86% (34.31m shares short against a 1,848.6m share float, settlement date 14 August 2026)
Days to cover	2.58
Dividend yield	~1.09% ($0.56 annualised at $51.54)

7. What Are They Building

Double-stack capacity into Baltimore. The rebuilt and expanded Howard Street Tunnel reopened ahead of schedule and, with the associated overpass clearance work, allows double-stacked containers to move on the I-95 corridor for the first time. CSX has framed the project as adding roughly 160,000 containers a year of capacity at the Port of Baltimore.

The Blue Ridge Subdivision rebuild. The North Carolina and Tennessee line destroyed by Hurricane Helene was reconstructed in a roughly $450m programme and returned to service, restoring a route that had been forcing traffic onto longer detours and hurting service metrics.

Coast-to-coast intermodal with BNSF. Rather than merge, CSX and BNSF built a commercial partnership, announced in August 2025, offering seamless interline intermodal services on lanes including Southern California to Charlotte and Jacksonville, Phoenix to Atlanta, and the Port of New York and New Jersey to Norfolk and Kansas City. Intermodal revenue was up 26% year on year in Q2 2026, the fastest-growing line in the business.

Cost and network productivity under new leadership. Steve Angel arrived from Linde plc, where operating discipline was the signature, and the 240 basis point operating ratio improvement in Q2 2026 is the first visible evidence of that programme. Management's own FY2026 target is more than 350 basis points of operating margin expansion.

8. Competitive Landscape

CSX competes primarily with Norfolk Southern in the eastern United States, with the western carriers for interline traffic, and with trucking for anything that can move by road. Market capitalisations below were checked live on 27–28 August 2026.

Peer	Market cap (August 2026)	Key 2025 metric
Union Pacific (UNP)	~$182.78bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of $25.41bn; pursuing the roughly $85bn acquisition of Norfolk Southern, still awaiting Surface Transportation Board approval
Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP)	~$82.51bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of $15.45bn; the only existing United States–Mexico–Canada single-line network and a formal opponent of the UP–NS merger
Norfolk Southern (NSC)	~$78.15bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of $12.54bn; shares reached an all-time closing high in late August 2026 on merger-premium pricing
Canadian National (CNI)	~$76.51bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of $17.76bn; dropped its opposition to the UP–NS merger on 22 July 2026 in exchange for Kansas City trackage-rights concessions
J.B. Hunt Transport (JBHT)	~$24.74bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of $12.70bn; the largest domestic intermodal marketing company and both a customer and a truckload competitor

BNSF Railway, CSX's largest western interline partner, is a wholly owned Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary and does not trade separately. Kansas City Southern no longer trades independently following the formation of CPKC.

9. Insider Activity

President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Angel does not appear in the 2026 open-market transaction record. The filings that do appear are disposals by other officers and a director, clustered in June and July 2026 as the share price approached its 52-week high. All entries are drawn from Form 4 filings under CIK 277948.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Angela C. Williams (VP & Chief Accounting Officer)	24 Jul 2026	Sell	30,000	$53.29 weighted avg	~$1.60m	Not stated on filing summary
Michael S. Burns (SVP, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary)	24 Jul 2026	Option exercise and sale	13,000	Exercised at $26.50, sold at $52.68	~$0.68m proceeds	Option exercise and same-day sale
Kevin S. Boone (EVP & Chief Financial Officer)	03 Jun 2026	Sell	136,708	$46.70 weighted avg	~$6.38m	Not stated on filing summary
John J. Zillmer (Director)	03 Jun 2026	Sell	10,000	$46.45 weighted avg	~$0.46m	Not stated on filing summary

The June and July clustering is consistent with pre-arranged trading plans, but the plan type is not stated in the filing summaries reviewed, so this should not be assumed.

10. Key Risks

• Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger: the Surface Transportation Board lifted its procedural pause on 19 August 2026 and set a schedule running through participant notices on 4 September 2026, Department of Justice and Department of Transportation comments on 3 December 2026, protests on 16 February 2027 and final briefs on 28 May 2027, with a final decision expected in the second quarter of 2027. Approval would create the first true United States transcontinental railroad and leave CSX the smaller eastern operator.
• Coal secular decline: coal revenue fell 15% to $1,900m in FY2025 with revenue per unit down 13%, and remains roughly 13% of the group. The Q2 2026 recovery was driven by export mine restarts and benchmark pricing rather than any structural change in demand.
• Fuel surcharge and fuel lag volatility: Q2 2026 fuel surcharge revenue of $410m was nearly double the prior year, flattering reported revenue growth, while fuel lag was $54m unfavourable in the quarter and $93m unfavourable in the first half. The mechanism reverses when diesel prices fall.
• Freight cycle and trade policy: intermodal and international volumes depend on container flows through eastern ports and on industrial production. Management described FY2025 as a subdued industrial demand environment; a renewed freight recession or tariff-driven volume shift would hit the highest-growth line first.
• Labour and regulatory exposure: roughly 16,900 employees are covered by national rail labour agreements, and the whole Class I sector is under elevated Surface Transportation Board scrutiny through the merger docket, including a November 2025 letter from nine state attorneys general raising competition and national security concerns.
• Weather, derailment and infrastructure risk: the $450m Blue Ridge Subdivision rebuild after Hurricane Helene demonstrates how quickly a single weather event can impose unplanned capital and service costs on a fixed network.
• Activist pressure to pursue a deal: Ancora Holdings publicly pushed the board to find a merger partner, which contributed to the 2025 chief executive change. Warren Buffett explicitly ruled out a Berkshire or BNSF acquisition of CSX, leaving the company without an obvious counterparty if consolidation proceeds around it.

11. Recent Developments

• 22 Jan 2026 — FY2025 results. Q4 revenue of $3,508m down 1%, GAAP EPS of $0.39, full-year revenue of $14,092m and adjusted EPS of $1.61; chief executive Steve Angel described a subdued industrial demand environment.
• 26 Feb 2026 — dividend raised and new buyback authorised. The board increased the quarterly dividend 7.6% to $0.14 per share and authorised a new $5bn share repurchase programme, the largest in company history.
• 22 Apr 2026 — Q1 2026 results. Revenue of $3,482m, up 1.7%, with GAAP diluted EPS of $0.43 against $0.34 a year earlier; roughly 6m shares repurchased in the quarter.
• 30 Apr 2026 — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern refile. The merger parties filed a revised application after the Surface Transportation Board rejected the original December 2025 filing as incomplete.
• 28 May 2026 — STB holds the merger docket in abeyance. The Board paused proceedings and demanded supplemental data from the applicants by 27 July 2026.
• 03 Jun 2026 — CFO share sale. Kevin Boone sold 136,708 shares at a weighted average $46.70; director John Zillmer sold 10,000 shares the same day.
• 22 Jul 2026 — Q2 2026 results. Record revenue of $3,935m up 10%, operating income of $1.51bn up 17%, GAAP diluted EPS of $0.54 up 23%, volume up 6% to 1.676m units, and raised FY2026 guidance.
• 22 Jul 2026 — Canadian National settles with Union Pacific. CN dropped its opposition to the UP–NS merger in exchange for Kansas City access and trackage-rights concessions, leaving CSX, BNSF and CPKC as the remaining Class I opponents.
• 24 Jul 2026 — further insider sales. Chief Accounting Officer Angela Williams sold 30,000 shares at $53.29 and Chief Legal Officer Michael Burns exercised and sold 13,000 shares at $52.68.
• 19 Aug 2026 — STB sets a new merger schedule. The Board lifted the pause and published a procedural calendar pushing the final decision on Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern into the second quarter of 2027.
• 27 Aug 2026 — chemical safety awards. CSX recognised 55 customers for chemical transportation safety performance, its routine annual programme.

12. Key Dates and Catalysts

• 31 Aug 2026 — record date for the $0.14 per share third-quarter dividend.
• 04 Sep 2026 — deadline for participant notices in the Surface Transportation Board's Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger docket, in which CSX is a formal opponent.
• 15 Sep 2026 — payment date for the $0.14 per share third-quarter dividend.
• Expected 15 Oct 2026 — Q3 2026 results, based on CSX's practice of reporting in mid-October; the company had not formally confirmed the date at the time of writing.
• 03 Dec 2026 — Department of Justice and Department of Transportation preliminary comments due in the merger proceeding.
• 16 Feb 2027 — deadline for responses, protests and comments in the merger proceeding.
• 28 May 2027 — final briefs due in the merger proceeding, with the Surface Transportation Board's decision expected in the second quarter of 2027.

Public comment hearings in the merger docket are not expected before the end of the first quarter of 2027, and no CSX investor day has been announced. For scheduled macroeconomic releases that move industrial and transport equities, see the ChartsView Economic Calendar. Reader discussion of this and other companies is on the ChartsView Forum.

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Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Last Updated: 22 August 2026

Caterpillar has spent a century selling machines that dig, haul and pave. In 2026 the market is valuing it as a power company. The renamed Power & Energy segment is now the largest part of the business, order backlog has almost doubled in twelve months to a record 72 billion dollars, and the share price has roughly doubled over the same period on the back of demand for large reciprocating engines and gas turbines to feed AI data centres. This report sets out what the filings actually say, on a reported-numbers basis only, with no analyst opinions or price targets.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Company	Caterpillar Inc.
Ticker / Exchange	CAT, New York Stock Exchange
Sector	Industrials — construction and mining machinery, engines, turbines
Share price	$827.90 (close, 21 August 2026)
Market cap	~$380.6bn (459,674,889 shares at the 21 August 2026 close)
Revenue (FY2025)	$67,589m total sales and revenues, up 4.3% year on year — the highest in company history
Revenue (trailing twelve months to 30 Jun 2026)	$74,729m
Net profit (FY2025)	$8,884m attributable to shareholders; GAAP diluted EPS $18.81
CEO / Leadership	Joseph E. (Joe) Creed, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — CEO from 2025, Chairman from 2026. Chief Financial Officer Kyle J. Epley, effective 1 May 2026
Employees	Approximately 118,000 full-time as at 31 December 2025 (~51,600 in the US, ~66,400 outside)
Headquarters	Irving, Texas, United States
Backlog	$72bn at 30 June 2026, up roughly 92% year on year
Dividend	$1.63 per share quarterly ($6.52 annualised); 32 consecutive years of higher annual dividends
Latest reported period	Q2 2026, released 4 August 2026

Sources: Q2 2026 results release, FY2025 Form 10-K.

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case

• A genuine structural demand shock in power: Power Generation sales rose 29% in Q2 2026, driven by large reciprocating engines and turbines going into data centre applications, and Caterpillar has publicly named six separate contracts of at least one gigawatt each.
• Backlog gives unusual visibility: $72bn at 30 June 2026 against $30.0bn at the end of 2024, with some Power & Energy customers ordering out to 2030 and lead times on certain products stretching into 2028 and 2029.
• The aftermarket is the quiet compounder: FY2025 services revenues of $24bn were roughly 37.5% of machinery, power and energy sales — recurring parts and service income that is far less cyclical than the machines themselves.
• A distribution moat that cannot be bought: 150 independent dealers, 41 in the United States and 109 elsewhere, serving 190 countries, supported by more than 1.6 million connected reporting assets.
• Capital return at scale: $7.9bn returned in FY2025 and a further $7.9bn in the first half of 2026 alone, alongside a 32-year record of consecutive annual dividend increases.

Bear Case

• The re-rating rests on a single narrative: the shares have roughly doubled in twelve months and trade on about 35 times trailing GAAP earnings. Power & Energy is now around 48% of revenue, so a slowdown in hyperscaler capital spending hits both the earnings and the multiple at once.
• Tariff accounting flatters the latest quarter: Q2 2026 operating profit includes $392m of expected tariff recoveries that are an estimate of a refund process, not cash received, while the company still expects $2.2bn to $2.4bn of tariff cost in 2026.
• Dealer inventory is a swing factor that reverses: Construction Industries grew 35% in Q2 2026 partly on dealer inventory movements, and management has guided that dealer inventory will be a headwind to volume in the second half.
• The finance arm carries real leverage: Financial Products holds roughly $34.5bn of debt against $25.2bn of finance receivables on about $5.2bn of equity, so a customer credit cycle would hurt Caterpillar twice over.
• Insiders have been heavy sellers: roughly 101,000 shares were sold for about $96m in the six months to August 2026 against a single 250-share purchase, with eight of those sales clustered in nine days in early May near the 52-week high.

3. Business Segments

Caterpillar reorganised its reporting during 2025 and again with effect from 1 January 2026. The former Energy & Transportation segment was renamed Power & Energy, and from 1 January 2026 the Rail division moved out of Power & Energy into Resource Industries. The table below is on the FY2025 basis as originally reported, which still has Rail inside Power & Energy.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Power & Energy	47.6% ($32,201m)	Reciprocating engines, gensets, integrated power systems, Solar Turbines industrial gas turbines and turbine services, electrified powertrain and remanufacturing, serving oil and gas, power generation, marine, rail and industrial customers
Construction Industries	37.1% ($25,060m)	Excavators, wheel loaders, backhoes, track-type tractors, pavers, compactors, telehandlers and skid steers for infrastructure, building construction, rental and quarry customers
Resource Industries	18.4% ($12,434m)	Surface and underground mining and heavy construction — large mining trucks, electric rope shovels, draglines, hydraulic shovels and rotary drills, plus fleet management and autonomy technology. Houses the Rail division from 1 January 2026
Financial Products	5.3% ($3,609m external)	Cat Financial retail and wholesale financing and leasing for customers and dealers, plus Caterpillar Insurance Holdings. Segment revenues were $4,220m before eliminations
All Other Segment	0.5% ($348m)	Non-reportable activities including the company-owned Japanese dealer, Nippon Caterpillar Division, which covers roughly 80% of that market

Segment percentages are calculated against consolidated sales and revenues of $67,589m and therefore sum to more than 100%, because corporate items and inter-segment eliminations of $(6,063)m are excluded. The reconciliation is $25,060m plus $12,434m plus $32,201m plus $348m less $6,063m, giving $63,980m of machinery, power and energy sales, plus $3,609m of Financial Products revenues.

By region, FY2025 sales and revenues split into North America $36.6bn, Europe, Africa and the Middle East $12.8bn, Asia Pacific $11.2bn and Latin America $7.0bn. Some 51% of sales were outside the United States.

4. Business Model & Moat

How it makes money. Caterpillar runs two economically different businesses and separates them in its own reporting. Machinery, Power & Energy designs, manufactures and sells machines, engines, turbines and locomotives, plus the aftermarket that follows them — $63,980m of sales in FY2025. Financial Products, principally Cat Financial, lends to the customers and dealers who buy those machines and earns net interest and lease income, contributing $3,609m of external revenues. Treating the two as one business distorts almost every ratio, which is why the debt discussion in Section 6 separates them.

The aftermarket annuity. Machines are sold once; parts, service, rebuilds and connected-asset subscriptions are sold for decades. FY2025 services revenues were $24bn, roughly 37.5% of machinery, power and energy sales. At its investor day on 2 May 2019 the company set a goal of roughly doubling 2016 services revenue of about $14bn to about $28bn by 2026; the FY2025 outturn of $24bn leaves it short of that target entering the target year.

The dealer network. Distribution is the hardest part of the business to replicate. Caterpillar sells through 150 independent dealers — 41 in the United States and 109 outside — covering 190 countries, with Perkins engines going through a further 86 distributors and FG Wilson through 108. Dealers are contractually required to promote Caterpillar products, employ adequate sales and support staff and keep detailed books available to the company. Turbines and locomotives are sold direct.

Installed base and data. More than four million Cat products are at work worldwide and more than 1.6 million are connected reporting assets, feeding a service and parts business that competitors without the same fleet cannot match. Research and development spending was $2,148m in FY2025.

5. Financial Health

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	50,971	+22.1%	$11.83	$10.81	$4.36	$26,033m
FY2022	59,427	+16.6%	$12.64	$13.84	$4.71	$25,714m
FY2023	67,060	+12.8%	$20.12	$21.21	$5.10	$24,472m
FY2024	64,809	−3.4%	$22.05	$21.90	$5.53	$27,351m
FY2025	67,589	+4.3%	$18.81	$19.06	$5.94	$30,696m

Revenue and EPS figures are taken from the fourth-quarter and full-year earnings releases. Dividend per share is dividends declared, and long-term debt is long-term debt due after one year at each year end; both were re-derived directly from Caterpillar's SEC XBRL company facts to avoid transcription error. Long-term debt on this consolidated basis is dominated by Cat Financial — see Section 6.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026 (to 30 Jun 2026)	$20,543m	$8.17	$7.77
Q1 2026 (to 31 Mar 2026)	$17,415m	$5.54	$5.47
Q4 2025 (to 31 Dec 2025)	$19,133m	$5.16	$5.12
Q3 2025 (to 30 Sep 2025)	$17,638m	$4.95	$4.88
Q2 2025 (to 30 Jun 2025)	$16,569m	$4.72	$4.62
FY2025 total	$67,589m	$19.06	$18.81

Q2 2026 was the first quarter in Caterpillar's history to exceed $20bn of sales and revenues, up 24% year on year, with an adjusted operating margin of 21.9%. That figure includes $392m of expected tariff recoveries; excluding them, margin would have been roughly 190 basis points lower.

Cash generation. FY2025 operating cash flow was $11,739m against total capital expenditure of $4,286m ($2,821m of property, plant and equipment plus $1,465m of equipment leased to others), giving free cash flow of about $7,453m. Depreciation and amortisation was $2,262m. In the first half of 2026, operating cash flow rose to $6,241m from $4,411m, capital expenditure was $2,162m and depreciation and amortisation was $1,211m.

Balance sheet at 30 June 2026. Cash and cash equivalents $6,713m, down from $9,980m at the end of 2025 after $6,522m of share repurchases in six months. Inventories $20,627m, total assets $102,609m and total shareholders' equity $19,394m. Equity is falling because of buybacks, not losses: treasury stock rose from $49,539m to $54,533m over the half.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, August 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	$827.90 (close, 21 August 2026)
Market cap	~$380.6bn (459,674,889 shares at $827.90)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~35.6x (price $827.90 / trailing twelve month GAAP diluted EPS $23.24, being Q3 2025 $4.88 + Q4 2025 $5.12 + Q1 2026 $5.47 + Q2 2026 $7.77). On trailing adjusted EPS of $23.82 the same calculation gives ~34.8x
P/E (forward)	~25.6x on a consensus forward EPS estimate of about $32.28. Caterpillar itself does not publish an EPS forecast; its FY2026 guidance is for mid-to-high-teens percentage sales growth, which implies roughly $78bn to $80bn of revenue
P/S (TTM)	~5.1x (market cap ~$380.6bn / trailing twelve month revenue $74,729m)
Enterprise value	~$419.0bn on a consolidated basis (market cap $380.6bn + total debt $45,146m − cash $6,713m at 30 June 2026). On an industrial-only basis, using machinery, power and energy debt of $10,690m instead of consolidated debt, enterprise value is ~$384.5bn. The consolidated figure is inflated by Cat Financial's $34,456m of funding, which is matched against $25,208m of finance receivables and is not industrial leverage
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~27.1x consolidated, or ~24.9x on the industrial-only enterprise value. EBITDA of $15,471m is trailing twelve month operating income of $13,092m plus depreciation and amortisation of $2,379m, both derived from the cash flow statement and income statement. Note that trailing operating income includes the $392m of expected tariff recoveries booked in Q2 2026
P/FCF	~42.3x (market cap ~$380.6bn / free cash flow $8,994m; free cash flow = trailing operating cash flow $13,569m − trailing total capital expenditure $4,575m, the latter including equipment leased to others)
Price/book	~19.6x (shareholders' equity $19,394m at 30 June 2026, about $42 per share). This is heavily distorted by $54.5bn of accumulated treasury stock from decades of buybacks and is of limited use here
52-week high	$1,073.46
52-week low	$410.52
Short interest (% of float)	1.66% (6,854,115 shares against a float of 458,222,316), settlement date 31 July 2026
Days to cover	2.24
Dividend yield	~0.79% ($6.52 annualised against $827.90). The yield is low by Caterpillar's own history because the share price has roughly doubled in twelve months, not because the dividend has slowed

Market data was pulled live on 22 August 2026. Balance sheet and cash flow inputs are from the Q2 2026 results release and the FY2025 Form 10-K, re-derived from SEC XBRL company facts.

You can track CAT against its peers on our Live Charts page, and check the macro releases that move industrial demand on the Economic Calendar.

7. What Are They Building

Data centre power. This is the defining growth story of 2025 and 2026. Q2 2026 Power Generation sales were $3,098m, up 29% year on year, driven by large reciprocating engines and by turbines and turbine-related services going primarily into data centre applications. Caterpillar has raised its 2030 large reciprocating engine capacity plan from roughly twice to nearly three times 2024 levels, and lifted its Power Generation sales growth target to more than three times by 2030. It is also restarting production of a 10-megawatt medium-speed gas reciprocating engine platform, restoring about 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, with shipments beginning in Q4 2026 followed by an eighteen-month ramp.

Named gigawatt-scale agreements disclosed to date include a strategic alliance with American Intelligence & Power and Boyd CAT to deploy 2 gigawatts of dedicated power for hyperscale AI infrastructure, a 2.1 gigawatt five-year framework agreement with ProPetro's PROPWR, 2 gigawatts of gas gensets plus battery storage for the Monarch Compute Campus with deliveries from September 2026 to August 2027, and roughly 2 gigawatts of onsite power at a West Virginia data centre campus tied to Microsoft and NVIDIA. Caterpillar also announced a collaboration with Vertiv in November 2025 on energy optimisation for AI data centres.

Autonomy. The autonomous haul truck fleet expanded to 827 trucks in operation during 2025, and Caterpillar signed its first customer agreement for a mixed-fleet autonomy solution. The technology has moved beyond mining into quarrying, with more than two million tons hauled autonomously at Luck Stone's Bull Run Quarry. At CES 2026 the company showed autonomous excavators, haul trucks and site systems.

Electrification and alternative power. Caterpillar has demonstrated a battery-electric large mining truck and introduced a dynamic energy transfer solution for battery and diesel-electric mining equipment. Resource Industries markets diesel-electric, battery-electric, hybrid and alternative-fuel machines.

Digital. More than 1.6 million connected reporting assets at the end of 2025, with the Cat AI Assistant, VisionLink, a Cat Compact retail format and a refreshed Cat Rentals digital experience introduced across 2025 and 2026.

8. Competitive Landscape

Peer	Market cap (August 2026)	Key 2025 metric
Deere & Company (DE)	~$174.9bn	FY2025 worldwide net sales and revenues $45.68bn, down 12% year on year; net income $5.027bn
Cummins (CMI)	~$81.1bn	FY2025 revenues $33.67bn, down about 1% year on year; net income $2.84bn
Volvo Group (VOLV-B)	~$73.7bn (SEK 697bn)	FY2025 net sales SEK 479.2bn, down from SEK 526.8bn; adjusted operating margin 10.7%
Komatsu (6301)	~$39.5bn (JPY 6,278bn)	Revenue of JPY 4,132.8bn for the year ended 31 March 2026, up 0.7%; net income JPY 376.4bn, down 14.4%
CNH Industrial (CNH)	~$19.1bn	FY2025 consolidated revenues $18.10bn, down 9% year on year; net income $510m
Terex (TEX)	~$7.6bn	FY2025 net sales $5.42bn, up 5.7% on $5.13bn in FY2024; net income $221m

Market capitalisations were pulled live on 21 and 22 August 2026 and converted at spot rates of 0.006292 US dollars per yen, 0.105684 per Swedish krona. Peer revenue and net income figures were taken from each company's own annual income statement. At roughly $381bn, Caterpillar is worth more than twice Deere and more than the other five peers on this list combined — a gap that has opened up almost entirely over the past twelve months.

Caterpillar's own Form 10-K names a far wider competitive set, including Doosan Bobcat, Hitachi Construction Machinery, JCB, Kobelco, Kubota, Sany, XCMG and Liebherr in machines; Rolls-Royce Power Systems, Siemens Energy, GE Vernova, INNIO, Generac and Weichai in engines and power generation; and Wabtec, Alstom and Siemens Mobility in rail.

9. Insider Activity

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joe Creed sold 2,500 shares on 5 March 2026, his only open-market disposal in the period. Insiders overall have been overwhelming net sellers: roughly 101,000 shares were sold for approximately $96.2m in the six months to 22 August 2026, against a single purchase of 250 shares for $219,210 — a ratio of about 440 to one by value. Eight of those sales fell within a nine-day window in early May 2026 at prices between $876 and $926, close to the 52-week high, and shortly after the change of Chief Financial Officer.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Denise C. Johnson, Group President	14 May 2026	Sale after option exercise	12,605	$907.91	$11,444,170	Not disclosed
Bob De Lange, Group President	6 May 2026	Sale after option exercise	24,222	$922.92	$22,354,978	Not disclosed
Anthony D. Fassino, Group President	11 May 2026	Sale after option exercise	16,283	$916.80	$14,928,266	Not disclosed
Andrew R. J. Bonfield, CFO Emeritus	6 May 2026	Sale after option exercise	15,674	$918.71	$14,399,861	Not disclosed
Rodney M. Shurman, Group President	5 May 2026	Sale after option exercise	5,639	$903.18	$5,093,006	Not disclosed
Jason Kaiser, Group President	4 May 2026	Sale after option exercise	5,642	$883.03	$4,982,055	Not disclosed
Joseph E. Creed, Chairman and CEO	5 Mar 2026	Open-market sale	2,500	$718.93	$1,797,317	Not disclosed
David Maclennan, Director	4 May 2026	Open-market purchase	250	$876.84	$219,210	Not disclosed

Transactions are taken from SEC Form 4 filings. Most of the disposals are flagged as sales following option exercise, which is a different act from a discretionary sale of existing holdings. Whether any were made under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan is not stated in the filing index reviewed, so the plan type is shown as not disclosed rather than assumed.

10. Key Risks

• Tariffs and trade policy: Caterpillar expects $2.2bn to $2.4bn of tariff cost in 2026 and incurred $400m in Q2 2026 alone. It has booked $392m of expected recoveries that depend on the US Customs and Border Protection refund process being honoured — an estimate rather than cash in hand. The Form 10-K separately warns that more restrictive trade policies and retaliation could hurt the business.
• Concentration in the data centre power cycle: Power & Energy is now the largest segment at roughly 48% of FY2025 revenue, and the company is committing capital to nearly triple large-engine capacity by 2030 and restart a retired platform. If hyperscaler spending decelerates, Caterpillar carries structurally higher fixed costs against an order book taken at peak demand.
• Construction cycle and dealer inventory: management has guided that Construction Industries dealer inventory will be a headwind to sales volume in the second half of 2026, with a typical fourth-quarter drawdown. The 10-K lists dealer inventory management and sourcing practices as a standalone risk factor.
• Mining capital expenditure cycle: Resource Industries is the weakest of the three primary segments, with a Q2 2026 margin of 14.9% against 24.6% at Power & Energy, and FY2025 sales of $12.4bn that were broadly flat. Mining orders are long-cycle and depend on commodity prices.
• Cat Financial credit exposure: Financial Products carries about $34.5bn of debt and $44.0bn of total assets on roughly $5.2bn of equity. Credit quality is currently sound, with past dues of 1.31% at 30 June 2026 against 1.62% a year earlier, but the provision for credit losses rose year on year in the quarter and a customer downturn would hit both equipment volumes and the loan book.
• Capacity and execution risk on the ramp: lead times on some Power & Energy products already run into 2028 and 2029, and the 1.5 gigawatt restart carries an eighteen-month ramp during which costs are absorbed ahead of shipments. Q2 2026 already showed $149m of unfavourable manufacturing costs at Power & Energy and $158m at Resource Industries.
• Currency and geographic spread: 51% of FY2025 sales were outside the United States. Q2 2026 benefited from $199m of favourable currency plus further gains in other income — a tailwind that can reverse.
• Competition and pricing: FY2025 saw $0.8bn of unfavourable price realisation even as volumes rose, against global competitors including Komatsu, Volvo, Deere, Sany and XCMG in machines and Cummins, GE Vernova and Siemens Energy in power.

11. Recent Developments

• 05 Mar 2026 — Chief Executive sells shares. Chairman and CEO Joe Creed disposed of 2,500 shares at $718.93, a transaction worth about $1.80m and his only open-market sale of the period.
• 08 Apr 2026 — Chief Financial Officer transition announced. Andrew Bonfield will retire effective 1 October 2026 after eight years, with 29-year company veteran Kyle Epley appointed Chief Financial Officer with effect from 1 May 2026.
• 30 Apr 2026 — Q1 2026 results and a capacity upgrade. Revenue rose 22% to $17.4bn with GAAP EPS of $5.47 and adjusted EPS of $5.54, backlog reached a then-record $63bn, and Caterpillar raised its 2030 large-engine capacity plan from roughly two times to nearly three times 2024 levels while disclosing the 2.1 gigawatt ProPetro framework agreement.
• 04 May 2026 to 14 May 2026 — Cluster of executive share sales. Eight Form 4 disposals by group presidents and the outgoing Chief Financial Officer totalled roughly $83m at prices between $876 and $926, alongside a single 250-share purchase by director David Maclennan.
• 10 Jun 2026 — Dividend raised 8%. The board lifted the quarterly dividend by 12 cents to $1.63 per share, payable 19 August 2026 to holders of record on 20 July 2026, marking the 32nd consecutive year of higher annual dividends.
• 04 Aug 2026 — First $20bn quarter and raised guidance. Q2 2026 sales and revenues of $20,543m were up 24%, GAAP EPS was $7.77 and adjusted EPS $8.17 against a consensus near $6.19, backlog hit $72bn, and full-year guidance was lifted to mid-to-high-teens revenue growth with free cash flow now expected in the top half of the $6bn to $15bn target range.
• 04 Aug 2026 — Tariff cost estimate cut and recoveries booked. Caterpillar reduced its expected 2026 tariff cost to $2.2bn to $2.4bn from about $2.6bn and recognised $392m of expected recoveries after a Supreme Court ruling on tariffs authorised under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the opening of a customs refund claim system.
• 04 Aug 2026 — Engine platform restart confirmed. On the results call management confirmed it is restarting the 10-megawatt medium-speed gas reciprocating engine platform, restoring roughly 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, with shipments from Q4 2026 and an eighteen-month ramp.
• 18 Aug 2026 — Shares consolidate below the high. With the stock up around 113% over twelve months but roughly 9% to 10% below its 52-week high and down about 10% over the prior month, market attention turned to whether the data-centre-driven re-rating can be sustained.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• Expected 4 Nov 2026 — Q3 2026 results. Aggregator listings show this date but Caterpillar's own earnings advisory had not been published at the time of writing, and its recent pattern has been a Wednesday in late October.
• Expected Oct 2026 — ex-dividend and record dates for the next quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share, based on the established quarterly rhythm.
• 01 Oct 2026 — Andrew Bonfield's retirement takes effect, completing the Chief Financial Officer transition to Kyle Epley.
• Expected Nov 2026 — payment of the next quarterly dividend at $1.63 per share.
• Expected Dec 2026 — first shipments of the restarted 10-megawatt gas reciprocating engine platform, beginning an eighteen-month capacity ramp.
• Expected Jan 2027 — FY2026 full-year results. The FY2025 results were released on 29 January 2026.
• Expected Jun 2027 — annual meeting of shareholders and the board's customary review of the quarterly dividend rate, which has been raised each June since 2023.
• Expected Aug 2027 — completion of Monarch Compute Campus deliveries of 2 gigawatts of gensets and battery storage, which began in September 2026.

Beyond these scheduled events, the customs refund claim process for tariffs paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act is ongoing, and the timing of any recovery beyond the $392m already booked has not been disclosed. No investor day has been announced for 2026 or 2027.

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