Fundamentals snapshot
PTC · NMS · Technology · Software - Application
Current price
$136.07
52-week range
$130.89 - $219.69
Market cap
$15.72B
One-glance verdict
Fair-value range $187.12 – $355.85 (cautious → optimistic — tap the ? for the math)
Wall Street consensus: $182.74 (-31.6% lower than our fair-value estimate)
Buy below $213.76 for a 20% safety cushion
Balance sheet
Net debt $941.94M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
Quick scan of the biggest positives and negatives from the detailed checklist below.
What this company does
PTC provides the essential software that manufacturing companies use to digitally design products, manage production, and handle repairs, acting like a combined digital blueprint and toolkit. The company makes most of its money from recurring revenue (predictable income from ongoing subscriptions, similar to a streaming service), which matters because customers build their entire workflow around PTC's tools, making it very difficult for them to switch to a competitor.
PTC started in 1985 with a groundbreaking idea for engineers. It created one of the first software programs, called Pro/ENGINEER (now known as Creo), that allowed designers to create 3D digital models of products in a way that was easy to change. A major turning point came in 1998 when it launched Windchill, a system for managing all the information about a product throughout its entire life, from the first idea to the final version. Over the years, PTC has grown by acquiring other technology companies, adding tools for the 'Internet of Things' (connecting devices to the internet) and 'augmented reality' (overlaying digital information onto the real world).
PTC makes software that manufacturing companies use to design, manage, and service their products. Think of a car or an airplane; PTC's software is used to create the 3D digital designs for every part. It also helps manage the entire manufacturing process, keeping track of all the different versions of parts and plans in one central place. Once a product is sold, PTC offers software that helps companies service it, sometimes using augmented reality to show a technician how to do a repair.
This is PTC's core business, centered around its Creo and Windchill software. Creo is a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tool, which is like a sophisticated digital drafting table for engineers to create 3D models of products. Windchill is a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system, which acts as a digital library and project manager for all the data related to a product, from design files to manufacturing instructions. Companies pay subscription fees to use this software, which helps their teams collaborate and avoid mistakes, forming the largest part of PTC's business.
This part of the company helps manufacturers connect their factory machines and products to the internet, a concept called the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The main product, ThingWorx, is a platform that collects data from sensors on this equipment, allowing companies to monitor performance in real-time. For example, a factory manager can use it to predict when a machine might break down before it actually happens. Customers pay to use this platform to make their operations more efficient and reduce downtime.
PTC's Vuforia division creates augmented reality (AR) software, which blends the real world with digital information. Imagine a mechanic pointing their tablet at an engine and seeing digital instructions and diagrams overlaid on the real parts; that's what Vuforia enables. Companies buy this technology to train employees or to help service technicians make complex repairs more quickly and accurately. This is a newer but growing part of PTC's business.
Management is focused on creating a 'digital thread,' which means seamlessly connecting every digital step of a product's life, from design to manufacturing to service. A major priority is shifting more customers to a subscription model and delivering their software over the cloud, which is known as Software as a Service (SaaS). They are also heavily investing in new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make their software smarter and continuing to acquire other companies to broaden their capabilities.
Price history
Earnings history
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Is it cheap or expensive?
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $182.74 (-31.6% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Buy below $213.76 for a 20% safety cushion. That means buying at least 20% below our fair value, as a buffer in case our estimate turns out too rosy.
Our most-likely fair value is $267.20 a share — about 96.4% above today's price of $136.07, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Net debt $941.9M. Interest coverage 13.0x.
PTC Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 13.0 times over. which is weaker than most peers shown here.
Total debt $1.38B Interest coverage 12.96x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.72B Interest coverage 25.27x +95% vs PTC Carries about 1.9x more debt cushion than PTC.
Total debt $2.86B Interest coverage 33.13x +156% vs PTC Carries about 2.6x more debt cushion than PTC.
Total debt $1.17B Interest coverage 23.67x +83% vs PTC Carries about 1.8x more debt cushion than PTC.
What you should know
The numbers
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
Profitability
Health
Growth
Cash flow
Dividend
Metric explainer
Debt comparison
What you should know