One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$48.03 our estimate vs market $39.25
Wall Street consensus: $40.00 (-16.7% lower than our fair-value estimate)
18% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Global Industrial Company
GIC · NYQ · Industrials · Industrial Distribution
Current price
$39.25
52-week range
$26.40 - $40.71
Market cap
$1.50B
Balance sheet
Healthy
976.00x Strong cushion
Net debt $12.20M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 4.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 26.5% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 11.0% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Forward P/E (17.8x) is higher than trailing (17.8x) - earnings are expected to drop.
What this company does
Global Industrial Company
Global Industrial Company is like a giant online and catalog store for other businesses, schools, and government offices, selling all the physical equipment and supplies they need to run their daily operations. The company makes its money by being a convenient one-stop-shop for these essential items, and its success often depends on its profit margins (the small amount of profit made on each individual item sold). Because they sell so many different products to a wide range of customers, they can be less affected by a slowdown in any single part of the economy.
How the company got here
Global Industrial started in 1949 as a small supplier of material handling equipment, like carts and shelving, in Queens, New York. [2, 5, 9] Over the years, it expanded by acquiring other companies and even ventured into selling computer products for a time. [2] The company eventually returned its focus to its core business and changed its name from Systemax to Global Industrial Company in 2021 to better reflect what it does. [2] It has grown from a small local supplier into a major North American distributor that sells over a million different products. [2, 5]
What it actually does
Think of Global Industrial as a giant online hardware and supply store, but for businesses, schools, and government offices instead of individual homeowners. It acts as a distributor (a middleman that buys products in bulk from manufacturers and sells them to end-users), offering everything from storage racks and cleaning supplies to office furniture and air conditioners. [1, 6, 11] Companies buy these items to keep their own facilities running, not to resell to other customers. [6] Global Industrial makes money by purchasing these goods and then selling them for a profit through its websites, catalogs, and sales teams. [1, 16]
Industrial and MRO Distribution
The company operates as one main business focused on selling industrial and MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) products. [1] This single segment covers all the essential but often overlooked items that organizations need for their day-to-day activities. [6] For example, a school might buy desks and cleaning supplies, a warehouse would purchase shelving and safety equipment, and a government office might order office chairs and shipping boxes. [1] This business model serves a very broad customer base, with no single customer making up a large portion of its sales. [3]
What management is betting on now
Management's strategy is to become more integrated into its customers' daily operations, shifting from just selling products to becoming a preferred supply partner. [7] A key part of this is expanding e-procurement (a system that lets customers' purchasing software order directly from Global Industrial), making buying supplies more automatic and seamless. [7, 16] The company is also focusing on growing its own exclusive brands, which gives it more control over products and pricing. [1, 12] Finally, they are organizing their sales teams to specialize in specific industries, like healthcare and government, to better understand and serve the unique needs of those customers. [8]
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 Q3
$8.70M
FY2024 Q4
$15.20M
FY2025 Q1
$3.20M
FY2025 Q2
$30.30M
FY2025 Q3
$22.00M
FY2025 Q4
$19.20M
FY2026 Q1
$5.60M
FY2026 Q2
$40.50M
Revenue
$386.60M
Net income
$37.10M
Diluted EPS
0.96
Operating cash flow
$41.40M
Free cash flow
$40.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$350.40M
Net income
$16.60M
Diluted EPS
0.42
Operating cash flow
$6.40M
Free cash flow
$5.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$345.60M
Net income
$14.60M
Diluted EPS
0.37
Operating cash flow
$20.00M
Free cash flow
$19.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$353.60M
Net income
$18.80M
Diluted EPS
0.48
Operating cash flow
$22.70M
Free cash flow
$22.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$358.90M
Net income
$25.10M
Diluted EPS
0.65
Operating cash flow
$31.70M
Free cash flow
$30.30M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$321.00M
Net income
$13.60M
Diluted EPS
0.35
Operating cash flow
$3.40M
Free cash flow
$3.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$302.30M
Net income
$10.70M
Diluted EPS
0.28
Operating cash flow
$15.90M
Free cash flow
$15.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$342.40M
Net income
$16.80M
Diluted EPS
0.44
Operating cash flow
$9.60M
Free cash flow
$8.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $48.03 vs current price $39.25
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $40.00 (-16.7% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $48.03 a share — about 22.4% above today's price of $39.25, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $12.2M. Interest coverage 976.0x.
Net debt
$12.20M
Interest coverage
976.00x
Global Industrial Company's profit covers its interest bill about 976.0 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
GIC
BASELINE
Global Industrial Company
Total debt $98.90M Interest coverage 976.00x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.80B Interest coverage 30.80x -97% vs GIC Carries about 31.7x less debt cushion than GIC.
Total debt $555.42M Interest coverage 12.99x -99% vs GIC Carries about 75.1x less debt cushion than GIC.
Total debt $441.50M Interest coverage 267.05x -73% vs GIC Carries about 3.7x less debt cushion than GIC.
Total debt $483.44M Interest coverage 31.60x -97% vs GIC Carries about 30.9x less debt cushion than GIC.
Total debt $6.71B Interest coverage 3.19x -100% vs GIC Carries about 306.1x less debt cushion than GIC.
What you should know
The case for and against GIC
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 4.1% last year.
-
Returns 26.5% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 8/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 11.0% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Forward P/E (17.8x) is higher than trailing (17.8x) - earnings are expected to drop.
-
Operating margin compressed from 9.0% to 7.3% over 3 years.
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)
17.76x
Forward P/E
17.80x
P/B
4.36x
P/S
1.04x
EV/EBITDA
14.71x
PEG ratio
1.04x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
34.9%
Operating margin
7.3%
Net margin
6.1%
ROE
26.5%
ROA
9.7%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.29x
Current ratio
2.24x
Quick ratio
1.36x
Total debt
$98.90M
Total cash
$86.70M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.44B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
6.7%
EPS TTM
2.21
EPS 5Y CAGR
-3.5%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$90.50M
Free CF TTM
$74.70M
FCF margin
5.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.8%
Payout ratio
48.9%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-17