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Rents and services uniforms, mats and workplace supplies for businesses across North America.
Rents and services uniforms, mats and workplace supplies for businesses across North America.
Rents uniforms and other items to businesses on multi-year contracts, delivering clean items and collecting soiled ones on regular routes, so income is recurring and depends on keeping customers and adding stops on existing routes. Heavy up-front spending on garments and laundries makes route density the key to profit. The Croatti family controls the company through a share class with extra votes.
Moat: narrow (scale, switching costs, distribution). Route-based delivery density and multi-year service contracts create switching costs for customers.
Headquarters: Wilmington, Massachusetts, United States · Founded: 1936 · Employees: 15,100
Size UniFirst (UNF) is a United States Industrials company (Other Consumer Services) with a market value of $4.10B, the 1333rd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $235.40 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 6.7%, against -7.3% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 10th highest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +9.8%); the operating margin is 5.4% (peer median 9.2%).
Valuation It trades at 27.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 18.0× (5th most expensive of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 19% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +7%, so the hurdle is +12 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 3.0 points below its cost of capital (8.1% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 5.9% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 6 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.52B | $2.52B | $2.43B | $2.43B | $2.23B |
| Revenue growth | — | +4% | 0% | +9% | — |
| Gross profit | $779M | $779M | $748M | $705M | $629M |
| EBITDA | $280M | $280M | $327M | $327M | $257M |
| Net income | $109M | $109M | $148M | $145M | $104M |
| Free cash flow | $70.8M | $70.8M | $141M | $135M | $42.9M |
| Capital expenditure | $135M | $135M | $154M | $160M | $172M |
| Total debt | $81.1M | $81.1M | $72.4M | $68.8M | $64.8M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UniFirst UNF | $4.10B | -7% | +4% | 5% | 27.9× | 18.9% |
| Cintas CTAS | $88.3B | +34% | +10% | 24% | 38.9× | 18.2% |
| Aramark ARMK | $13.9B | +17% | +11% | 4% | 19.8× | 16.1% |
| Vestis VSTS | $1.88B | +54% | 0% | 4% | 20.0× | 15.8% |
Peer set: Sector in the same market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | UNF | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -9.3% | -2.1% | 7th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -6.7% | -7.3% | 10th highest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -23.2% | -25.8% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.7% | +9.8% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 5.4% | 9.2% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 27.9× | 18.0× | 5th most expensive of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 18.9% | 10.0% | 3rd most demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.7% | +8.9% | 5th lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +12.2 pp | -1.9 pp | 3rd most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -3.0 pp | +2.7 pp | 7th lowest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 14.2× | 12.3× | 5th most expensive of 17 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -0.4× | 1.0× | 5th least indebted of 20 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UniFirst UNF | United States | $4.10B | -7% | +4% | 5% | 27.9× | 18.9% | +6.7% |
| MYR MYRG | United States | $4.09B | -40% | +23% | 6% | 18.1× | 14.0% | +10.2% |
| Korn Ferry KFY | United States | $4.11B | +11% | +7% | 13% | 13.0× | 2.0% | +10.1% |
| Franklin Electric FELE | United States | $4.16B | -5% | +7% | 13% | 18.0× | 9.2% | +11.3% |
| Corporacion America Airports CAAP | United States | $4.00B | -3% | +16% | 23% | 9.6× | -6.3% | +26.4% |
| Exponent EXPO | United States | $3.99B | +37% | +15% | 21% | 32.6× | 10.8% | +7.8% |
| X-Energy XE | United States | $4.24B | -65% | -9% | -156% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Robert Half RHI | United States | $4.28B | +55% | -3% | 1% | 23.5× | 26.7% | +1.0% |
| DPC DPC | United States | $4.30B | n/a | +12% | -1% | 31.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Everus Construction ECG | United States | $3.91B | -53% | +33% | 8% | 12.2× | 13.9% | +11.5% |
| Argan AGX | United States | $3.89B | -59% | +29% | 15% | 20.5× | 0.3% | +19.2% |
| Alaska Air ALK | United States | $4.35B | -5% | +8% | -1% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Construction Partners ROAD | United States | $4.38B | -45% | +42% | 9% | 26.5× | 12.5% | +29.1% |
| Aar AIR | United States | $4.39B | -7% | +22% | 9% | 18.4× | 13.2% | +14.9% |
| Mercury Systems MRCY | United States | $4.48B | -19% | +8% | 2% | 44.2× | 59.6% | +1.3% |
| Mueller Water Products MWA | United States | $3.75B | -9% | +6% | 21% | 15.3× | 2.4% | +5.8% |
| Alliance Laundry ALH | United States | $4.49B | -11% | +10% | 19% | 16.4× | 15.2% | +7.5% |
| EquipmentShare.com EQPT | United States | $3.73B | -33% | +18% | 7% | 29.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Brink's BCO | United States | $4.54B | +3% | +7% | 10% | 11.8× | 0.1% | +7.3% |
| Brady BRC | United States | $3.69B | 0% | +10% | 16% | 12.0× | 1.0% | +7.7% |
| Griffon GFF | United States | $4.58B | +15% | -12% | 20% | 17.1× | 7.5% | +4.0% |