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Makes welding and cutting equipment and consumables for industrial, energy and infrastructure customers, spun off from Colfax.
Makes welding and cutting equipment and consumables for industrial, energy and infrastructure customers, spun off from Colfax.
Sells welding machines but earns more steadily on consumables such as wire and electrodes, which customers use up and reorder, so output at fabrication plants matters. Many sales run through distributors. Colfax spun it off in 2022 as a standalone company, and it has grown partly by buying small competitors and technology firms.
Moat: narrow (brand, scale, distribution). Long-established global welding brand with a broad consumables and distributor network.
Headquarters: North Bethesda, Maryland, United States · Founded: 1904 · Employees: 10,300
Size ESAB (ESAB) is a United States Industrials company (Industrial Machinery) with a market value of $5.15B, the 1164th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $82.83 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 17.9%, against -11.7% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 8th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 11.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +12.2%); the operating margin is 13.5% (peer median 15.7%).
Valuation It trades at 14.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 19.9× (4th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 13% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +8%, so the hurdle is +5 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 2.4 points below its cost of capital (8.9% WACC).
Credit ESAB has 1 bond outstanding ($1.00B), rated BB+ by the agencies.
Short interest Short interest is 7.5% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 18 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.10B | $2.84B | $2.74B | $2.77B | $2.59B |
| Revenue growth | — | +4% | -1% | +7% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.04B | $1.01B | $1.00B | $976M | $850M |
| EBITDA | $598M | $576M | $524M | $498M | $433M |
| Net income | $155M | $226M | $263M | $204M | $224M |
| Free cash flow | $181M | $213M | $304M | $282M | $174M |
| Capital expenditure | $69.3M | $47.3M | $51.8M | $48.2M | $40.2M |
| Total debt | $2.47B | $1.35B | $1.16B | $1.12B | $1.31B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESAB ESAB | $5.15B | -18% | +11% | 13% | 14.0× | 12.7% |
| Lincoln Electric LECO | $14.9B | +2% | +11% | 18% | 22.0× | 13.3% |
| Illinois Tool Works ITW | $79.8B | +11% | +5% | 27% | 23.4× | 9.7% |
| Kobe Steel 5406.T | $4.83B | 0% | -3% | 5% | 7.7× | -1.1% |
| Daihen 6622.T | $1.43B | +5% | +5% | 8% | 11.4× | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | ESAB | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +27.7% | -9.5% | highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -17.9% | -11.7% | 8th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -39.7% | -29.7% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +11.0% | +12.2% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 13.5% | 15.7% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 14.0× | 19.9× | 4th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 12.7% | 11.2% | 7th most demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +7.8% | +9.9% | 7th lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +4.9 pp | -1.0 pp | 7th most demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -2.4 pp | +2.4 pp | 7th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 12.8× | 15.6× | 6th cheapest of 13 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.8× | 0.7× | 3rd most indebted of 14 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESAB ESAB | United States | $5.15B | -18% | +11% | 13% | 14.0× | 12.7% | +7.8% |
| Kion KGX.DE | Germany | $5.05B | -25% | +3% | 6% | 10.4× | n/a | n/a |
| HOSHIZAKI 6465.T | Japan | $4.93B | +5% | +12% | 10% | 17.8× | -4.5% | +15.3% |
| LandMark Optoelectronics 3081.TWO | Taiwan | $5.38B | -32% | +105% | 38% | 54.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Rotork ROR.L | United Kingdom | $5.40B | +65% | +2% | 24% | 27.9× | 27.6% | +5.2% |
| Zhejiang Shuanghuan Driveline 002472.SZ | China | $5.46B | +9% | +15% | 15% | 26.9× | 11.0% | +20.0% |
| Enpro NPO | United States | $5.47B | -16% | +16% | 16% | 23.2× | 26.1% | +1.3% |
| Horiba 6856.T | Japan | $4.79B | -17% | +12% | 17% | 14.4× | 11.2% | +12.2% |
| Mycronic MYCR.ST | Sweden | $5.57B | -4% | +17% | 29% | 24.9× | 10.1% | +15.6% |
| UBTECH ROBOTICS 9880.HK | Hong Kong | $4.73B | -41% | +90% | -21% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| AAON AAON | United States | $4.72B | -59% | +54% | 11% | 20.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Hangcha 603298.SS | China | $4.71B | -12% | +7% | 12% | 13.3× | 2.9% | +9.1% |
| Georg Fischer GF.SW | Switzerland | $5.65B | +32% | -20% | 3% | 19.9× | 29.2% | -1.2% |
| Wuhan DR Laser Technology 300776.SZ | China | $4.69B | -24% | -23% | 19% | 37.9× | 51.8% | +13.6% |
| Circuit Fabology Microelectronics Equipment 9630.HK | Hong Kong | $4.68B | n/a | +103% | 27% | 36.1× | 8.5% | +34.4% |
| Neway Valve (Suzhou) 603699.SS | China | $4.66B | -36% | +11% | 26% | 17.9× | 10.0% | +16.5% |
| Renishaw RSW.L | United Kingdom | $4.61B | -7% | +14% | 16% | 18.5× | 24.8% | +7.5% |
| Rainbow Robotics 277810.KS | South Korea | $4.59B | -52% | +92% | -16% | 653.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Interpump IP.MI | Italy | $4.57B | +3% | +1% | 14% | 16.8× | 12.6% | +9.9% |
| Alliance Laundry ALH | United States | $4.49B | -11% | +10% | 19% | 16.4× | 15.2% | +7.5% |
| Valmet VALMT.HE | Finland | $5.97B | +30% | +3% | 10% | 13.8× | 2.1% | +6.8% |
ESAB has 1 bond outstanding with $1.00B face value. The agencies rate it BB+.