MSC Industrial Direct Company Inc. Common Stock (MSM)

FairStock Score: 53/100 — MIXED

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I approach a distributor by asking whether it earns durable returns on capital and whether the price leaves a margin of safety. MSC sells metalworking and MRO products, and its filed results show a business with scale but weakening profitability. In FY2025, the year ended 2025-08-30, revenue was $3.8B and net income was $199.3M, or EPS of $3.57. That was down from FY2024 net income of $258.6M and EPS of $4.58, and FY2023 net income of $343.2M and EPS of $6.11. FairStock's Lynch category calls it a SLOW GROWER — Shrinking, with profit falling 4.5% a year over five years and revenue growth of 3.4%. The latest filed quarter, fiscal Q3 2026 ended 2026-05-30, showed revenue of $1.0B, net income of $80.4M, and diluted EPS of $1.44, which is better than fiscal Q2 2026's $42.5M net income and $0.76 EPS. That is encouraging, but one quarter does not reverse a multiyear trend. Financial health is decent: debt-to-equity is 0.39, Altman Z-Score is 5.15, and Piotroski is 6/9. ROE is 16.32%, but ROCE is only 8.68%, so the business is not producing lush returns on all capital. Free cash flow yield is 3.0%, and the dividend yield is 2.85%. Valuation is the rub. At the 2026-10-13 close of $132.17, FairStock calculates a P/E of 31.93, P/B of 5.20, and EV/EBITDA of 18.44. The Graham Number is $48.66, giving a margin of safety of -171.62%. A PEG of 0.77 only helps if growth returns. FairStock Score is 53/100. I see a fair business with little evidence of a wide moat, but the price asks for better results than the filings currently show.

In plain English: MSC Industrial Direct sells metalworking tools and maintenance supplies to businesses. Sales have been roughly flat and profits have fallen over the last few years, so the business looks weaker than it did before. At the recent price, the stock looks expensive compared with the company's earnings and accounting value, even though the dividend is modest.

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Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q3 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-05-30) · fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-02-28) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2025-11-29) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-05-31) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-08-30) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-08-31) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-09-02)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer