Is the business good?
How good a business is MSA?
MSA Safety Incorporated earns 17% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
17%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 8.1 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 20%
Operating margin · Security & Protection Services median 18% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.06×
Cash conversion · 0.89× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −1.3%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 13% |
| FY2021 | 1.6% |
| FY2022 | 16% |
| FY2023 | 13% |
| FY2024 | 22% |
| FY2025 | 20% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 47%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 20%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 15%
- Free cash flow margin
- 16%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 3.4%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $1.92B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $309M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $291M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 17%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Security & Protection Services
Ranks #6 of 7 by Smart Score