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Safety science and certification company (Underwriters Laboratories) testing and certifying products for electrical, fire and other safety standards.
Safety science and certification company (Underwriters Laboratories) testing and certifying products for electrical, fire and other safety standards.
Manufacturers pay for testing and a certification listing so their product can be sold to retailers and meet safety rules, then pay again for follow-up factory inspections and retesting when products change, which keeps work recurring. The non-profit UL Research Institutes keeps control through the high-vote Class B shares.
Moat: wide (brand, regulatory licence, switching costs). The UL Mark is a widely recognized, often practically required safety certification that is costly to replicate.
Headquarters: Northbrook, Illinois, USA · Founded: 1894 · Employees: 14,851
Size UL Solutions (ULS) is a United States Industrials company (Miscellaneous Commercial Services) with a market value of $15.9B, the 576th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $78.65 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 21.7%, against +10.8% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 4th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 6.1% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.4%); the operating margin is 19.0% (peer median 14.8%).
Valuation It trades at 31.2× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.3× (4th most expensive of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 9% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +3 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 20.5 points above its cost of capital (7.8% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $120M at 30 Sep 2026, down 37% on a year earlier — 0.0 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit UL Solutions has 1 bond outstanding ($300M), rated BBB by the agencies and trading like BBB+ at a weighted spread of 61 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 7.0% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 25 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.19B | $3.05B | $2.87B | $2.68B | $2.52B |
| Revenue growth | — | +6% | +7% | +6% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.60B | $1.50B | $1.38B | $1.26B | $1.21B |
| EBITDA | $799M | $745M | $634M | $559M | $547M |
| Net income | $512M | $325M | $326M | $260M | $293M |
| Free cash flow | $481M | $403M | $287M | $252M | $208M |
| Capital expenditure | $257M | $197M | $237M | $215M | $164M |
| Total debt | $934M | $683M | $935M | $1.06B | $660M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UL Solutions ULS | $15.9B | -22% | +6% | 19% | 31.2× | 9.1% |
| Sgs SGSN.SW | $24.8B | +21% | +5% | 15% | 24.5× | 3.1% |
| Bureau Veritas BVI.PA | $14.9B | +13% | +2% | 15% | 20.2× | 7.9% |
| Intertek ITRK.L | $12.3B | +12% | +4% | 18% | 22.3× | 14.8% |
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 | ULS | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +11.3% | +10.2% | 10th highest of 20 |
| 6-month return | -21.7% | +10.8% | 4th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -26.9% | -10.7% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +6.1% | +4.4% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 19.0% | 14.8% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 31.2× | 22.3× | 4th most expensive of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 9.1% | 7.9% | 8th most demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.8% | +7.5% | 6th lowest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +3.3 pp | -3.9 pp | 5th most demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +20.5 pp | +7.4 pp | 2nd highest of 19 |
| EV / EBITDA | 19.8× | 12.3× | 3rd most expensive of 20 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -0.1× | 1.8× | 5th least indebted of 20 |
| Bond spread | 61 bp | 99 bp | tightest of 12 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UL Solutions ULS | United States | $15.9B | -22% | +6% | 19% | 31.2× | 9.1% | +5.8% |
| Bureau Veritas BVI.PA | France | $14.9B | +13% | +2% | 15% | 20.2× | 7.9% | +7.0% |
| Computershare CPU.AX | Australia | $17.2B | +44% | 0% | 30% | 19.1× | -2.6% | +9.2% |
| Eurofins Scientific ERF.PA | France | $17.5B | +49% | +3% | 12% | 23.0× | 13.3% | +6.1% |
| Rollins ROL | United States | $18.1B | -29% | +8% | 19% | 31.4× | 11.2% | +11.7% |
| Secom 9735.T | Japan | $18.8B | +16% | +4% | 13% | 22.7× | -0.3% | +3.9% |
| Intertek ITRK.L | United Kingdom | $12.3B | +12% | +4% | 18% | 22.3× | 14.8% | +4.6% |
| CETC Lantian Technology 688818.SS | China | $12.1B | -33% | +5% | 9% | 214.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Rentokil Initial RTO.L | United Kingdom | $11.9B | -26% | 0% | 14% | 16.9× | 8.2% | +13.4% |
| Baycurrent 6532.T | Japan | $11.2B | +132% | +32% | 33% | 35.6× | 6.4% | +28.2% |
| Sgs SGSN.SW | Switzerland | $24.8B | +21% | +5% | 15% | 24.5× | 3.1% | +4.4% |
| Booz Allen Hamilton BAH | United States | $10.1B | +11% | -6% | 9% | 13.3× | -7.0% | +7.4% |
| Securitas SECU-B.ST | Sweden | $9.22B | +4% | -5% | 7% | 12.3× | -4.9% | +7.5% |
| CAE CAE.TO | Canada | $8.67B | +3% | +5% | 13% | 29.5× | 13.2% | +10.5% |
| Spie SPIE.PA | France | $8.64B | -8% | +3% | 6% | 14.5× | 8.6% | +9.3% |
| Adyen ADYEN.AS | Netherlands | $32.0B | 0% | +17% | 42% | 23.7× | 18.9% | -6.0% |
| ALS ALQ.AX | Australia | $7.40B | -3% | +11% | 17% | 23.6× | 23.0% | +13.5% |
| Universal Music UMG.AS | Netherlands | $35.3B | -15% | +5% | 16% | 16.9× | 7.1% | +11.0% |
| Iss A/s ISS.CO | Denmark | $7.08B | +13% | +4% | 5% | 15.3× | -6.1% | +3.7% |
| Genpact G | United States | $7.07B | +30% | +7% | 16% | 9.9× | -7.5% | +6.5% |
| Airtel Mobile Commerce AMC.L | United Kingdom | $7.05B | n/a | +30% | 48% | n/a | 11.5% | +30.3% |
UL Solutions has 1 bond outstanding with $300M face value. The agencies rate it BBB; its bonds trade like BBB+. Weighted yield 5.18%, a spread of 61 bp over government bonds.
UL Solutions reported $120M of remaining performance obligations at 30 Sep 2026, down 37% from a year earlier and down 8% from the previous quarter. That is 0.0 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 0.99.