One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$130.08 our estimate vs market $141.08
Wall Street consensus: $162.33 (24.8% higher than our fair-value estimate)
8% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Jacobs Solutions Inc.
J · NYQ · Industrials · Engineering & Construction
Current price
$141.08
52-week range
$105.68 - $168.44
Market cap
$16.51B
Balance sheet
Watch
5.92x Adequate
Net debt $2.88B. 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 49.5% last year.
- Reward Returns 8.0% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
- Risk Stock trades 52.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Jacobs Solutions Inc.
Jacobs Solutions is a company that provides expert advice and engineering for huge, complex projects, from building new airports to modernizing a city's water supply. They make money by charging for these high-skill services, and because many of their clients are governments working on essential long-term projects, their business can be more stable than companies that sell directly to consumers.
How the company got here
Jacobs Solutions started in 1947 as a one-man engineering consulting firm founded by Joseph J. Jacobs. For decades, it grew by helping companies with engineering and construction for industrial projects. A major turning point was the 2017 acquisition of CH2M HILL, a large engineering firm, which significantly expanded Jacobs' work in infrastructure and environmental services. More recently, the company has shifted its focus from traditional construction to higher-value consulting and technology services, acquiring a majority stake in PA Consulting in 2021 and later buying the rest. To further this focus, Jacobs sold off its energy and chemicals business and spun off its government services division.
What it actually does
Think of Jacobs as a team of expert problem-solvers for very large and complex projects. They don't manufacture products you'd buy in a store, but instead provide the brainpower and management for huge undertakings like building new transportation systems, developing advanced manufacturing facilities for things like pharmaceuticals, and ensuring clean water for communities. Their services range from initial planning and design to managing the entire construction process and even long-term operations. Essentially, governments and large companies hire Jacobs to plan, design, and oversee major projects that are critical to our daily lives and the economy.
People & Places Solutions
This is the company's largest business area, making up the vast majority of its revenue. It focuses on projects that impact the world around us, such as designing and managing the construction of roads, bridges, airports, and public transit systems. This segment also handles critical environmental and water-related projects, like creating resilient water supplies and cleaning up contaminated sites. Their clients are typically government agencies and large corporations who pay for Jacobs' expertise in planning, engineering, and managing these complex infrastructure projects from start to finish.
PA Consulting
This is a smaller but important part of Jacobs' business that operates as a high-level advisory firm. Instead of focusing on the engineering of a project, PA Consulting helps businesses and governments with strategy and innovation. For example, they might advise a company on how to use technology to improve its operations or help a government agency with a major digital transformation. Clients in sectors like healthcare, transportation, and defense pay for this strategic advice to solve complex problems and adapt to new trends. This segment represents Jacobs' move into higher-margin (meaning, more profitable per dollar of sales) consulting work.
What management is betting on now
Management is focused on transforming Jacobs from a traditional engineering firm into a high-value technology and consulting company. They are concentrating on growing in areas with major global demand, such as water scarcity solutions, advanced manufacturing for industries like life sciences and semiconductors, and critical infrastructure like data centers and energy transition projects. The strategy is to get involved with clients earlier in the planning stages to provide advice and then use their technical expertise to help deliver the entire project. By doing this, they aim to secure more profitable, long-term work and increase shareholder returns through dividends (a portion of profits paid out to shareholders) and share buybacks (when a company buys its own stock to reduce the number of shares available, which can increase the value of remaining shares).
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
$158.19M
FY2025 Q1
$97.12M
FY2025 Q2
$-113.70M
FY2025 Q3
$270.54M
FY2025 Q4
$353.51M
FY2026 Q1
$364.94M
FY2026 Q2
$-504.90M
FY2026 Q3
$430.99M
Revenue
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Net income
$136.55M
Diluted EPS
1.15
Operating cash flow
$456.12M
Free cash flow
$430.99M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$-45.88M
Diluted EPS
-0.34
Operating cash flow
$-484.12M
Free cash flow
$-504.90M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$125.51M
Diluted EPS
1.12
Operating cash flow
$380.76M
Free cash flow
$364.94M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$122.25M
Diluted EPS
0.88
Operating cash flow
$383.08M
Free cash flow
$353.51M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$179.60M
Diluted EPS
1.55
Operating cash flow
$292.59M
Free cash flow
$270.54M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$5.61M
Diluted EPS
0.06
Operating cash flow
$-96.43M
Free cash flow
$-113.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$-18.13M
Diluted EPS
-0.11
Operating cash flow
$107.46M
Free cash flow
$97.12M
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Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$325.44M
Diluted EPS
2.51
Operating cash flow
$196.53M
Free cash flow
$158.19M
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $130.08 vs current price $141.08
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $162.33 (24.8% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $130.08 a share — about 7.8% below today's price of $141.08, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $2.9B. Interest coverage 5.9x.
Net debt
$2.88B
Interest coverage
5.92x
Jacobs Solutions Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 5.9 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
J
BASELINE
Jacobs Solutions Inc.
Total debt $4.05B Interest coverage 5.92x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $3.33B Interest coverage 5.75x -3% vs J Has roughly the same debt cushion as J.
Total debt $2.80B Interest coverage 3.59x -39% vs J Carries about 1.6x less debt cushion than J.
Total debt $1.02B Interest coverage 14.85x +151% vs J Carries about 2.5x more debt cushion than J.
Total debt $1.07B Interest coverage -6.40x -100% vs J This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with J.
Total debt $1.95B Interest coverage 6.25x +6% vs J Has roughly the same debt cushion as J.
What you should know
The case for and against J
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 49.5% last year.
-
Returns 8.0% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 52.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
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)
46.87x
Forward P/E
17.13x
P/B
5.06x
P/S
1.16x
EV/EBITDA
18.34x
PEG ratio
0.43x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
22.1%
Operating margin
7.4%
Net margin
2.4%
ROE
8.0%
ROA
4.6%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.25x
Current ratio
1.29x
Quick ratio
1.25x
Total debt
$4.05B
Total cash
$1.18B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$14.98B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
47.3%
EPS TTM
3.01
EPS 5Y CAGR
-21.8%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$735.84M
Free CF TTM
$607.47M
FCF margin
4.1%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.0%
Payout ratio
45.2%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-21