Esab

ESAB on NYSE. Esab sells welding and cutting equipment, consumables, and gas control products to industrial customers. Market value $4.4bn.

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Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

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Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
4.4%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $4.40 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
18.3×full

You pay 18.3 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
11.5%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 12 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 87 of 100. Price score: 67 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$71.83 a share, 11% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $64.83 to $137.42.

Dividend: 0.5% a year

Paid every year for 4 years

Payouts have jumped around in recent years, so this may not repeat.

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.2
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$2.6bn$2.8bn$2.7bn$2.8bn
Operating margin
12.7%14.6%16.3%14.5%
Debt to equity
0.900.630.610.57
Shares outstanding
0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive4 of 4 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)5 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt0.57× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 3.1% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $808 million last quarter, up 13% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $32 million, down 52% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 12 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 16 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $197 million, down from $258 million.
  • 1% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
  • Debt is $2.2 billion more than cash, up from $822 million a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$673m
December 2024$671m
March 2025$678m
June 2025$716m
September 2025$728m
December 2025$721m
March 2026$746m
June 2026$808m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$68m
December 2024$54m
March 2025$67m
June 2025$67m
September 2025$55m
December 2025$38m
March 2026$48m
June 2026$32m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
20 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
5 November 2026

Who owns it

9 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 8 last quarter. 347 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

4 investors own more than 5%.

  • 13.3%+2.4 pts
    Since 30 June 2026
  • Since 31 March 2025
  • Mitchell P. Rales
    Insider or founder
    7.1%+1.2 pts
    Since 1 June 2026
    What they said

    Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement As disclosed in the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on June 2, 2026, on June 1, 2026, in connection with the closing of the Acquisition of Eddyfi Holding Inc., the Company completed the private placement of 175,000 shares of its…

    Read the filing
  • 5.0%
    Since 30 June 2026
  • The Vanguard Group
    Passive investor
    Sold down below 5%
    Since 13 March 2026

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 5 sold $9m, $8m of it under preset trading plans.

  • Jordan Rhonda L
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    7 August 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $95.00
    Value
    $95,000
  • Campion Michele
    Chief Human Resources Officer
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    27 February 2026
    Shares
    5,096
    Price
    $122.63
    Value
    $624,922
  • Kambeyanda Shyam
    President and CEO, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    23 February 2026
    Shares
    59,404
    Price
    $123.79
    Value
    $7m
  • Johnson Kevin J
    Chief Financial Officer
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    6 February 2026
    Shares
    3,494
    Price
    $134.62
    Value
    $470,362
  • Vinnakota Rajiv
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    11 November 2025
    Shares
    2,783
    Price
    $114.50
    Value
    $318,654

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 20 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 8 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • Failure to successfully integrate new technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, could limit our ability to grow and maintain our competitive position and adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flow.

    Could happen
    The continued creation, development, and advancement of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, amongst others, as well as other technologies in the future that are not foreseen today, continue to transform the Company’s processes, products, and services. In order to remain competitive, the Company will need to stay abreast of such technologies, require its employees to continue to learn and adapt to new technologies and be able to integrate them into its current and future business models, products, services and processes and also guard against disruptions to its business by existing and new competitors using such technologies. The Company’s strategy, operating model, and new product innovation pipeline all have important technological elements and many of the Company’s products and services are based on technological advances. In addition, the Company will need to compete for talent that is familiar with such technologies, including upskilling its workforce. There can be no assurance that the Company will continue to compete effectively with its industry peers as new technology evolves, which could result in a material adverse effect on the Company's business and results of operations.
    Read more
  • The majority of our sales are derived from international operations. We are subject to specific risks associated with international operations.

    Additionally, changes in United States policy regarding international trade, including import and export regulation and international trade agreements, could also negatively impact our business. For example, in 2025, the United States expanded and increased existing tariffs on steel and aluminum, imposing 50% tariffs on steel, aluminum and products containing steel and aluminum from a range of United States trading partners. The United States has also announced other significant tariffs on imports from a wide range of countries, including China, which was followed by retaliatory tariffs by China and a number of countries and a cycle of further retaliatory tariff announcements and trade actions. While certain of the tariffs have been and may be delayed, others have taken or may take effect. Further, tariffs announced or imposed by the United States could be altered or delayed through presidential actions, bilateral negotiations, judicial orders or congressional action, and tariffs announced or imposed by other countries can be affected by similar developments. These and future changes in tariffs and trade policies by the United States on imports from China or other countries, or retaliatory trade measures in response, have resulted and may continue to result in additional costs and pricing pressures, supply chain disruptions, volatile or unpredictable customer spending patterns and increased economic or geopolitical risk that we may not be able to offset or otherwise, any or all of which could adversely impact our business and relative competitive position, financial condition and results of operations, perhaps materially or in ways that we cannot predict.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.