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Makes advanced composite materials—carbon fiber, prepreg and honeycomb—used in aircraft and defense structures.
Makes advanced composite materials—carbon fiber, prepreg and honeycomb—used in aircraft and defense structures.
Sells carbon fibre and resin-impregnated sheets under long-term supply contracts, so revenue follows how many aircraft Airbus and Boeing build, and Airbus is the biggest customer. Widebody jets such as the A350 and 787 use the most composite per aircraft, so they matter most.
Moat: narrow (customer qualification, process know-how, IP / patents). Materials must be certified per aircraft program; qualification is slow and sticky once won.
Headquarters: Stamford, Connecticut, US · Founded: 1948 · Employees: 5,563
Size Hexcel (HXL) is a United States Industrials company (Aerospace & Defense) with a market value of $6.09B, the 1053rd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $80.40 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 15.7%, against -18.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 10th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 7.5% over the last twelve months (peer median +25.7%); the operating margin is 11.1% (peer median 6.7%).
Valuation It trades at 29.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 44.2× (7th cheapest of 18).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 23% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +18 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 1.9 points below its cost of capital (10.0% WACC).
Credit Hexcel has 2 bonds outstanding ($700M), rated BB+ by the agencies and trading like BBB+ at a weighted spread of 97 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 6.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 27 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.00B | $1.88B | $1.90B | $1.81B | $1.58B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | +5% | +14% | — |
| Gross profit | $475M | $410M | $468M | $441M | $362M |
| EBITDA | $344M | $295M | $361M | $350M | $291M |
| Net income | $172M | $109M | $132M | $106M | $126M |
| Free cash flow | $212M | $157M | $203M | $149M | $96.8M |
| Capital expenditure | $84.1M | $73.3M | $87.0M | $108M | $76.3M |
| Total debt | $935M | $1.02B | $726M | $729M | $773M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hexcel HXL | $6.09B | -16% | +8% | 11% | 29.6× | 23.0% |
| Toray Industries 3402.T | $11.1B | +6% | +6% | 6% | 16.6× | 5.5% |
| Teijin 3401.T | $2.07B | +7% | -14% | -7% | 6.9× | -11.5% |
| SGL Carbon SGL.DE | $668M | +2% | -16% | 8% | 18.9× | 2.3% |
| Mitsubishi Chemical 4188.T | $8.65B | +10% | -8% | 8% | 8.9× | -0.5% |
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 | HXL | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -5.6% | -3.5% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -15.7% | -18.1% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -28.0% | -43.5% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +7.5% | +25.7% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 11.1% | 6.7% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 29.6× | 44.2× | 7th cheapest of 18 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 23.0% | 17.7% | 4th most demanding of 9 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.5% | +19.1% | 3rd lowest of 9 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +18.5 pp | -1.3 pp | 3rd most demanding of 9 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -1.9 pp | -2.1 pp | 10th highest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 20.2× | 24.1× | 6th cheapest of 12 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.5× | 2.3× | 6th most indebted of 13 |
| Bond spread | 97 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hexcel HXL | United States | $6.09B | -16% | +8% | 11% | 29.6× | 23.0% | +4.5% |
| Karman KRMN | United States | $6.04B | -25% | +50% | 19% | 57.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Joby Aviation JOBY | United States | $5.89B | -45% | +118,568% | -754% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| BETA Technologies BETA | United States | $6.37B | +45% | +136% | -1,033% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| China Aerospace Times Electronics 600879.SS | China | $6.43B | -46% | -13% | 1% | 130.0× | n/a | n/a |
| AeroVironment AVAV | United States | $5.73B | -33% | +84% | 1% | 33.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Kratos Defense & Security Solutions KTOS | United States | $6.59B | -39% | +26% | 2% | 36.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Glarun Technology 600562.SS | China | $5.43B | +6% | -8% | 21% | 51.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Hanwha Systems 272210.KS | South Korea | $6.93B | -57% | +30% | 6% | 82.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Loar LOAR | United States | $7.05B | +26% | +30% | 25% | 52.2× | 29.1% | +27.5% |
| LIG Defense&Aerospace 079550.KS | South Korea | $5.24B | -65% | +26% | 8% | 20.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Amentum AMTM | United States | $5.20B | -13% | +11% | 4% | 8.4× | 1.7% | +23.3% |
| Korea Aerospace 047810.KS | South Korea | $7.37B | -39% | +44% | 6% | 45.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Nanchang Sanrui Intelligence Technology 301696.SZ | China | $4.87B | -14% | +29% | 45% | n/a | 36.1% | +43.7% |
| Melrose Industries MRO.L | United Kingdom | $7.80B | -4% | +9% | 11% | 13.4× | 15.3% | -12.8% |
| Mercury Systems MRCY | United States | $4.48B | -19% | +8% | 2% | 44.2× | 59.6% | +1.3% |
| AVIC Airborne Systems 600372.SS | China | $8.36B | -11% | -2% | 5% | 48.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Aar AIR | United States | $4.39B | -7% | +22% | 9% | 18.4× | 13.2% | +14.9% |
| Raytron Technology 688002.SS | China | $8.64B | -15% | +84% | 29% | 26.4× | 20.1% | +32.1% |
| Bharat Dynamics BDL.NS | India | $4.12B | -28% | -19% | 10% | 47.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Leonardo DRS DRS | United States | $9.08B | -18% | +9% | 11% | 23.1× | 4.6% | +5.6% |
Hexcel has 2 bonds outstanding with $700M face value. The agencies rate it BB+; its bonds trade like BBB+. Weighted yield 5.64%, a spread of 97 bp over government bonds.