Fuller H B

FUL on NYSE. H.B. Fuller sells adhesives and sealants to makers of consumer and industrial goods. Market value $2.7bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

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

The company doesn't report operating profit, so we work it out from pre-tax profit and interest.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to August 2026
3.7%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $3.68 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to August 2026
11.7×fair

You pay 11.7 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to November 2025
7.5%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 7 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 80 of 100. Price score: 87 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$50.44 a share, 8% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $46.70 to $68.63.

Dividend: 1.9% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.1
0.1
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.1
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Aug '26
Revenue
$3.3bn$3.7bn$3.5bn$3.6bn$3.5bn
Operating margin
7.7%8.6%10.1%9.8%10.0%
Debt to equity
1.001.081.061.101.01
Shares outstanding
0.05bn0.05bn0.05bn0.05bn0.05bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt1.01× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 4.5% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat

The quarter to August 2026

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

  • Sales: $938 million last quarter, up 5% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $79 million, up 18% on a year ago.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $100 million, down from $121 million.
  • About the same number of shares as a year ago.
  • Debt is $2 billion more than cash, about the same as a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 2 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
November 2024$923m
February 2025$789m
May 2025$898m
August 2025$892m
November 2025$895m
February 2026$771m
May 2026$950m
August 2026$938m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
November 2024-$7m
February 2025$13m
May 2025$42m
August 2025$67m
November 2025$30m
February 2026$21m
May 2026$68m
August 2026$79m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
22 January 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
24 December 2026

Who owns it

7 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 7 last quarter. 350 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

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

Big holders and activists

4 investors own more than 5%.

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

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 8 insiders bought $982,249 of shares on the open market. 2 sold $2m.

Cluster buy7 insiders bought within 30 days (28 September 2026 to 30 September 2026).
  • Martin Celine Christine
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    30 September 2026
    Shares
    465
    Price
    $49.50
    Value
    $22,998
  • Happe Michael J
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    29 September 2026
    Shares
    2,000
    Price
    $49.63
    Value
    $99,250
  • Lauber Charles T
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    29 September 2026
    Shares
    2,005
    Price
    $49.87
    Value
    $99,985
  • Zaheer Srilata
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    29 September 2026
    Shares
    40
    Price
    $49.97
    Value
    $1,999
  • FLORNESS DANIEL L
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    28 September 2026
    Shares
    2,030
    Price
    $49.34
    Value
    $100,160
  • HANDLEY THOMAS W
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    28 September 2026
    Shares
    2,000
    Price
    $49.41
    Value
    $98,820
  • Rasmussen Trangsrud Teresa J
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    28 September 2026
    Shares
    2,042
    Price
    $48.96
    Value
    $99,984
  • Zaheer Srilata
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    28 September 2026
    Shares
    2,000
    Price
    $49.06
    Value
    $98,120
  • Weaver Nathan D.
    Exec VP, Business Transform.
    Sold
    Date
    11 August 2026
    Shares
    9,561
    Price
    $62.06
    Value
    $593,332
  • Rasmussen Trangsrud Teresa J
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    17 April 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $65.83
    Value
    $65,830

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 22 Jan 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 24 Sep 2026 and 7 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.

  • The Company ’ s effective tax rate could be volatile and materially change as a result of the adoption of new tax legislation and other factors.

    Could happen
    In addition, the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in the United States introduced significant changes to U.S. international tax provisions. These changes may interact with Pillar Two in complex ways. While recent G7 statements suggest a potential “side-by-side” framework that could exempt certain U.S.-parented groups from these rules, the final outcome remains uncertain. The evolving nature of these reforms may impact our tax planning strategies, increase compliance costs, and create additional risks of double taxation or inconsistent treatment across jurisdictions.
    Read more
  • The Company ’ s effective tax rate could be volatile and materially change as a result of the adoption of new tax legislation and other factors.

    Could happen
    While the Company expects to qualify for transitional safe harbor relief in many jurisdictions, there remains uncertainty regarding the interpretation and application of the rules, especially in jurisdictions where safe harbor relief is not available or where local implementation deviates from OECD guidance. The Company may be subject to additional tax liabilities, including top-up taxes under the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) rules and Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Taxes (QDMTTs).
    Read more
  • Failure to comply with regulatory reporting requirements may negatively impact our financial results and reputation.

    We are subject to various financial and other regulatory reporting requirements imposed by governments and organizations in the U.S., EU, and across the globe, including the EU’s CSRD, California’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and Climate Related Financial Risk Act, and other new and proposed regulatory frameworks. We are experiencing increased compliance burdens and costs to meet the regulatory obligations, and these obligations may adversely affect raw material sourcing, manufacturing operations, and the distribution of our products. Failure to comply with expanding regulatory requirements may result in fines, penalties, and increased compliance costs, impacting our financial results. Deficiencies in our regulatory reporting may also reduce customer confidence or otherwise negatively impact our reputation.
    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
Create a free account to run it

Your first deep dive is free.

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.