One-glance verdict
Not enough data
Fair value unavailable
Not enough cash-flow history to value this one with our method.
Fundamentals snapshot
MSC Industrial Direct Company,
MSM · NYQ · Industrials · Industrial Distribution
Current price
$121.46
52-week range
$78.80 - $128.79
Market cap
—
Balance sheet
Watch
12.99x Strong cushion
Net debt $481.33M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 3.7% last year.
- Reward Returns 16.3% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 60.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 12.8% to 10.2% over 3 years.
What this company does
MSC Industrial Direct Company,
MSC Industrial Direct acts like a massive hardware store for other businesses, selling the essential tools, safety gear, and spare parts that factories and machine shops need to keep running. The company makes its money selling these crucial items to a wide range of industrial customers, so its sales can be a good indicator of how busy the American manufacturing industry is.
How the company got here
MSC Industrial Direct started in 1941 as Sid Tool, Inc., a small shop in New York City founded by Sidney Jacobson. It began by selling cutting tools and accessories to local machine shops, focusing on direct mail and catalog sales to provide faster access to needed parts. The company grew steadily over the decades, eventually going public in 1995 to raise money for further expansion. A series of acquisitions of other industrial suppliers helped it become one of the largest distributors in North America.
What it actually does
Think of MSC as a giant hardware and supply store for businesses, especially factories and machine shops. Instead of selling to individuals, it sells a huge variety of industrial products—over 1.5 million items—to other companies to keep their operations running. These products range from cutting tools and safety gear to janitorial supplies and fasteners (the nuts and bolts that hold things together). MSC's main value is getting the right part to a business quickly, because any delay, or downtime (a period when machinery isn't working), can cost a factory a lot of money.
Industrial Distribution
This is the company's single, primary business. MSC doesn't manufacture the products it sells; instead, it acts as a middleman, buying a vast range of items from thousands of suppliers and then reselling them. Its customers are other businesses, from small machine shops to large government agencies and major manufacturing companies. The company makes money on the markup (the difference between its purchase price and the selling price) and by providing services like inventory management, where they help customers keep track of and restock their own supplies. This core business of distributing metalworking and MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) supplies accounts for all of its revenue.
What management is betting on now
Management's strategy focuses on being more than just a supplier; they aim to be a critical partner for their customers. They are concentrating on their most important clients, particularly in manufacturing, where technical expertise in metalworking is highly valued. The company is also investing in digital tools, like its e-commerce website and inventory management solutions, to make it easier for customers to order and to embed MSC into their daily workflows. The goal is to make their service so essential and convenient that customers have little reason to switch to a competitor.
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
$113.95M
FY2025 Q1
$81.70M
FY2025 Q3
$24.68M
FY2025 Q4
$58.52M
FY2026 Q1
$7.41M
FY2026 Q2
$73.08M
FY2026 Q3
$80.92M
Revenue
$1.05B
Net income
$80.36M
Diluted EPS
1.44
Operating cash flow
$101.73M
Free cash flow
$80.92M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$917.77M
Net income
$42.48M
Diluted EPS
0.76
Operating cash flow
$94.40M
Free cash flow
$73.08M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$965.68M
Net income
$51.80M
Diluted EPS
0.93
Operating cash flow
$29.41M
Free cash flow
$7.41M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$978.17M
Net income
$56.55M
Diluted EPS
1.02
Operating cash flow
$80.26M
Free cash flow
$58.52M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$891.72M
Net income
$39.31M
Diluted EPS
0.70
Operating cash flow
$54.47M
Free cash flow
$24.68M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$928.48M
Net income
$46.62M
Diluted EPS
0.83
Operating cash flow
$101.87M
Free cash flow
$81.70M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$979.35M
Net income
$71.70M
Diluted EPS
1.27
Operating cash flow
$143.52M
Free cash flow
$113.95M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value — vs current price $121.46
We couldn't calculate a fair value right now.
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $481.3M. Interest coverage 13.0x.
Net debt
$481.33M
Interest coverage
12.99x
MSC Industrial Direct Company, 's profit covers its interest bill about 13.0 times over.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
MSM
BASELINE
MSC Industrial Direct Company,
Total debt $555.42M Interest coverage 12.99x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.78B Interest coverage 30.80x +137% vs MSM Carries about 2.4x more debt cushion than MSM.
Total debt $441.50M Interest coverage 267.05x +1,956% vs MSM Carries about 20.6x more debt cushion than MSM.
Total debt $365.30M Interest coverage 27.37x +111% vs MSM Carries about 2.1x more debt cushion than MSM.
Total debt $6.51B Interest coverage 3.19x -75% vs MSM Carries about 4.1x less debt cushion than MSM.
Total debt $99.20M Interest coverage 976.00x +7,414% vs MSM Carries about 75.1x more debt cushion than MSM.
What you should know
The case for and against MSM
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 3.7% last year.
-
Returns 16.3% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 60.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 12.8% to 10.2% 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)
29.34x
Forward P/E
22.30x
P/B
4.78x
P/S
—
EV/EBITDA
16.36x
PEG ratio
2.47x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
40.8%
Operating margin
10.2%
Net margin
5.9%
ROE
16.3%
ROA
8.7%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.39x
Current ratio
1.55x
Quick ratio
0.59x
Total debt
$555.42M
Total cash
$74.09M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$3.91B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
3.8%
EPS TTM
4.14
EPS 5Y CAGR
-16.2%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$305.79M
Free CF TTM
$240.88M
FCF margin
6.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.9%
Payout ratio
83.6%
Last ex-div date
2026-07-08