One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$14.11 our estimate vs market $19.24
Wall Street consensus: $29.75 (110.9% higher than our fair-value estimate)
36% above our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Adient plc
ADNT · NYQ · Consumer Cyclical · Auto Parts
Current price
$19.24
52-week range
$17.68 - $27.32
Market cap
$1.51B
Balance sheet
Stretched
2.18x Stretched
Net debt $1.72B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 4.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 5.8% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 1.2% (peer median: 2.0%).
What this company does
Adient plc
Adient is one of the world's largest suppliers of car seats, making everything from the metal frames and foam cushions to the final seat covers for new cars, trucks, and vans. The company earns its revenue by selling these seats in large quantities directly to major automakers like Ford, GM, and Toyota. This means Adient's financial success is closely tied to the overall health of the global auto industry; when more new cars are being built and sold, Adient's business tends to do well.
How the company got here
Adient was formed in 2016 when it was spun off from Johnson Controls, a company that had been in the car seating business since 1985. This separation allowed Adient to focus entirely on making automotive seats and related products. Although it's a relatively new name, its roots in the industry go back several decades. The company is legally based in Dublin, Ireland, but its main operations are run from Plymouth, Michigan.
What it actually does
Adient is the world's largest manufacturer of seats for cars, trucks, and vans. It designs and builds everything from the complete seat system to individual parts like the metal frames, foam cushions, headrests, and the fabric or leather covers. The company works directly with major car manufacturers, known as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), to create seating that is safe, comfortable, and fits the specific design of each vehicle. You won't see the Adient brand in a store, but there's a good chance you've sat on one of their products while driving or riding in a car.
Americas
This segment serves automakers in North and South America, representing a major part of Adient's business. It produces a wide range of seating solutions, from complete seats to individual components like foam and trim, for passenger cars, SUVs, and light trucks. This region is also a focus for growth, with the company winning new business and sometimes moving production back to the region (a process called onshoring). Recently, Adient has been expanding its manufacturing capabilities here, for example by acquiring a foam production plant in Michigan to have more direct control over its parts.
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
The EMEA segment supplies seating systems and components to car manufacturers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This part of the business is important for the company's overall size and engineering capabilities but has faced challenges with profitability. To address this, Adient has been going through a multi-year restructuring (reorganizing the business to improve how it works) to make its factories more efficient and reduce costs. The company has been recognized as a top employer in this region, which helps in attracting and retaining skilled workers.
Asia
Adient's business in Asia, especially in China, is a significant and fast-growing part of the company. The company operates through a mix of its own factories and joint ventures (partnerships with other companies) to serve both global and local car brands in the world's largest car market. A large portion of new business wins in this region now comes from Chinese automakers. This segment focuses on innovation, developing new seating technologies for comfort and safety to meet the high demand in the Asian market.
What management is betting on now
Adient's current strategy focuses on improving its financial health and operational efficiency. Management is concentrating on increasing margins (the profit made on each dollar of sales) through better execution, cost discipline, and automation in its factories. The company is also focused on generating strong free cash flow (the cash left over after paying for operating expenses and capital expenditures) to pay down debt and return money to shareholders through buybacks (when a company buys its own shares to reduce the number available). A key part of their growth plan involves expanding their business with electric vehicle (EV) makers and deepening relationships with Chinese automakers.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$191.00M
FY2025 Q1
$45.00M
FY2025 Q2
$-90.00M
FY2025 Q3
$70.00M
FY2025 Q4
$179.00M
FY2026 Q1
$15.00M
FY2026 Q2
$8.00M
FY2026 Q3
$65.00M
Revenue
$3.93B
Net income
$25.00M
Diluted EPS
0.32
Operating cash flow
$205.00M
Free cash flow
$65.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.87B
Net income
$27.00M
Diluted EPS
0.34
Operating cash flow
$81.00M
Free cash flow
$8.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.64B
Net income
$-22.00M
Diluted EPS
-0.28
Operating cash flow
$80.00M
Free cash flow
$15.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.69B
Net income
$18.00M
Diluted EPS
0.17
Operating cash flow
$213.00M
Free cash flow
$179.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.74B
Net income
$36.00M
Diluted EPS
0.43
Operating cash flow
$172.00M
Free cash flow
$70.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.61B
Net income
$-335.00M
Diluted EPS
-3.99
Operating cash flow
$-45.00M
Free cash flow
$-90.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.50B
Net income
$0.00
Diluted EPS
0.00
Operating cash flow
$109.00M
Free cash flow
$45.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.56B
Net income
$79.00M
Diluted EPS
0.88
Operating cash flow
$263.00M
Free cash flow
$191.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $14.11 vs current price $19.24
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $29.75 (110.9% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $14.11 a share — about 26.7% away from today's price of $19.24, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $1.7B. Interest coverage 2.2x.
Net debt
$1.72B
Interest coverage
2.18x
Adient plc's profit covers its interest bill about 2.2 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
ADNT
BASELINE
Adient plc
Total debt $2.65B Interest coverage 2.18x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $3.52B Interest coverage 7.71x +253% vs ADNT Carries about 3.5x more debt cushion than ADNT.
Total debt $6.47B Interest coverage 7.67x +251% vs ADNT Carries about 3.5x more debt cushion than ADNT.
Total debt $325.08M Interest coverage 7.05x +223% vs ADNT Carries about 3.2x more debt cushion than ADNT.
Total debt $2.19B Interest coverage 10.58x +385% vs ADNT Carries about 4.8x more debt cushion than ADNT.
Total debt $697.76M Interest coverage 4.44x +103% vs ADNT Carries about 2.0x more debt cushion than ADNT.
What you should know
The case for and against ADNT
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 4.1% last year.
-
Returns 5.8% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
Risks
-
Insider ownership is only 1.2% (peer median: 2.0%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
34.98x
Forward P/E
6.35x
P/B
0.86x
P/S
0.10x
EV/EBITDA
4.59x
PEG ratio
0.14x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
6.6%
Operating margin
2.5%
Net margin
0.3%
ROE
5.8%
ROA
3.1%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.27x
Current ratio
1.10x
Quick ratio
0.74x
Total debt
$2.65B
Total cash
$927.00M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$15.13B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
1.5%
EPS TTM
0.55
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$579.00M
Free CF TTM
$204.00M
FCF margin
1.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
2018-10-23