Is the business good?
How good a business is FSS?
Federal Signal Corporation earns 15% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
15%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 6.5 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 16%
Operating margin · Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery median 9.2% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.07×
Cash conversion · 0.94× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −0.49%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 12% |
| FY2021 | 11% |
| FY2022 | 11% |
| FY2023 | 13% |
| FY2024 | 15% |
| FY2025 | 16% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 29%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 16%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 12%
- Free cash flow margin
- 12%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $2.34B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $291M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $271M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 15%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery
Ranks #2 of 12 by Smart Score