One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$161.82 our estimate vs market $415.07
Wall Street consensus: $478.96 (196.0% higher than our fair-value estimate)
156% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Rockwell Automation, Inc.
ROK · NYQ · Industrials · Specialty Industrial Machinery
Current price
$415.07
52-week range
$332.71 - $497.36
Market cap
$46.19B
Balance sheet
Watch
9.12x Adequate
Net debt $3.13B. 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 7.6% last year.
- Reward Returns 30.6% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 20.8% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.2% (peer median: 0.2%).
What this company does
Rockwell Automation, Inc.
Rockwell Automation provides the hardware and software that helps factories automate their production lines, essentially acting as the "brain" and "nervous system" for modern manufacturing. The company makes money from both the initial sale of equipment and from ongoing service contracts, which is important because companies across many industries, from carmakers to food producers, rely on this technology to make their businesses more efficient.
How the company got here
Rockwell Automation began in 1903 as the Compression Rheostat Company, founded by Lynde Bradley and Dr. Stanton Allen with a $1,000 investment. The company, later renamed Allen-Bradley, grew by making industrial controllers and other electrical equipment. A major turning point came in 1985 when Rockwell International, then an aerospace and defense contractor, acquired Allen-Bradley, which formed the foundation of its new factory automation business. In 2001, Rockwell International split, and the industrial automation division became the Rockwell Automation known today, a company entirely focused on making manufacturing more efficient.
What it actually does
Think of a modern factory, like one that makes cars, bottles soft drinks, or packages medicine; Rockwell Automation provides the 'brains' and 'nervous system' that run the assembly lines. They don't make the final products you buy, but they create the complex systems of hardware and software that allow other companies to manufacture those products efficiently and automatically. This includes everything from the physical motors and sensors on a production line to the software that monitors the entire process and helps managers make decisions. Their technology helps customers reduce waste, improve safety, and get their products made faster.
Intelligent Devices
This is the hardware part of the business, representing the largest slice of the company's sales. It includes the physical products you would find on a factory floor, such as electric motors, sensors, safety components, and controllers that act as the small, rugged computers running individual machines. These devices are the hands-on part of automation, responsible for moving, sensing, and controlling the manufacturing process directly. Customers, from carmakers to food and beverage companies, buy this equipment to build or upgrade their production lines.
Software & Control
This segment provides the intelligence that operates and connects the hardware. It features the flagship 'FactoryTalk' software suite, which allows factory managers to design, monitor, and analyze their production processes from a computer. This division also includes the powerful 'Logix' control platforms, which are the central operating systems for coordinating all the different machines in a factory. This is a very profitable part of the business, as companies pay for software licenses and subscriptions to run their automated systems and make them 'smarter'.
Lifecycle Services
This part of the company doesn't sell a physical product but instead provides expert help and support to customers throughout the entire life of their automation systems. This includes consulting to help design a new factory, providing technical support and repairs, offering cybersecurity (protecting factory networks from hackers), and training employees. Customers pay for these services to minimize downtime (periods when the factory isn't running), improve safety, and get the most out of their investment in Rockwell's technology.
What management is betting on now
Management is focused on a strategy called 'The Connected Enterprise,' which aims to link all the different parts of a factory's operations together using software and data. They are investing heavily in digital transformation, helping customers use technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics (the process of examining data to find trends and insights) to make their factories even more efficient and sustainable. The company is also expanding its service offerings, like cybersecurity and remote monitoring, to create more recurring revenue (income that is predictable and likely to continue in the future) that is less dependent on one-time equipment sales.
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$207.60M
FY2025 Q1
$293.00M
FY2025 Q2
$171.00M
FY2025 Q3
$489.00M
FY2025 Q4
$268.00M
FY2026 Q1
$171.00M
FY2026 Q2
$211.00M
FY2026 Q3
$654.00M
Revenue
$2.31B
Net income
$408.00M
Diluted EPS
3.65
Operating cash flow
$724.00M
Free cash flow
$654.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.24B
Net income
$350.00M
Diluted EPS
3.10
Operating cash flow
$320.00M
Free cash flow
$211.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.10B
Net income
$305.00M
Diluted EPS
2.69
Operating cash flow
$234.00M
Free cash flow
$171.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.32B
Net income
$138.00M
Diluted EPS
1.24
Operating cash flow
$454.00M
Free cash flow
$268.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.14B
Net income
$295.00M
Diluted EPS
2.60
Operating cash flow
$527.00M
Free cash flow
$489.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.00B
Net income
$252.00M
Diluted EPS
2.22
Operating cash flow
$199.00M
Free cash flow
$171.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.88B
Net income
$184.00M
Diluted EPS
1.61
Operating cash flow
$364.00M
Free cash flow
$293.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.04B
Net income
$239.10M
Diluted EPS
2.09
Operating cash flow
$432.30M
Free cash flow
$207.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $161.82 vs current price $415.07
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $478.96 (196.0% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $161.82 a share — about 61.0% below today's price of $415.07, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $3.1B. Interest coverage 9.1x.
Net debt
$3.13B
Interest coverage
9.12x
Rockwell Automation, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 9.1 times over.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
ROK
BASELINE
Rockwell Automation, Inc.
Total debt $3.61B Interest coverage 9.12x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $13.80B Interest coverage 9.13x +0% vs ROK Has roughly the same debt cushion as ROK.
Total debt $34.96B Interest coverage 4.89x -46% vs ROK Carries about 1.9x less debt cushion than ROK.
Total debt $21.33B Interest coverage 21.61x +137% vs ROK Carries about 2.4x more debt cushion than ROK.
Total debt $8.73B Interest coverage 11.56x +27% vs ROK Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than ROK.
Total debt $2.31B Interest coverage 23.51x +158% vs ROK Carries about 2.6x more debt cushion than ROK.
What you should know
The case for and against ROK
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 7.6% last year.
-
Returns 30.6% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 20.8% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.2% (peer median: 0.2%).
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)
38.94x
Forward P/E
27.94x
P/B
13.19x
P/S
5.15x
EV/EBITDA
23.27x
PEG ratio
1.83x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
49.1%
Operating margin
21.0%
Net margin
13.4%
ROE
30.6%
ROA
10.0%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.03x
Current ratio
1.07x
Quick ratio
0.66x
Total debt
$3.61B
Total cash
$479.00M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$8.97B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
4.5%
EPS TTM
10.66
EPS 5Y CAGR
-1.3%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.73B
Free CF TTM
$1.36B
FCF margin
15.1%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.4%
Payout ratio
51.0%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-17