MSA NYSE Russell 1000 Earnings call
MSA Safety (MSA) · Q2 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $176.24 · 2026-11-11
Results Q2 2026 vs Q1 2026 · previous quarter · published 31 Jul 2026 and 5 May 2026
Net income up 20.9% on the previous quarter. Management sounded upbeat, in its script and in answers to analysts.
Only a basic analysis is available for this company at the moment.
1 · Numbers
+20.9%
Net income vs Q1 2026
Outlook given
Net income 86.2M vs 71.3M
Revenue +8.6%
Against the same quarter last year (Q2 2025) it is +37.3%, so it is not just seasonal.
2 · How management spoke
Upbeat
More upbeat than 68% of company calls
Answers to analysts: restrained, in line with the script.
Similar to last call.
3 · What stood out
Key theme
Adjusted operating margin was 24.1%, up 230 basis points sequentially and 270 basis points from last year.
Valuation
Is MSA Safety undervalued?
Reverse DCF on net income from the last full fiscal year (no meaningful free cash flow: a bank, insurer or a year of negative cash flow) (2025-12-31), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At 7.1% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $137.79 a share — the stock trades 28% above it. Today's price assumes 10.4% growth a year.
Current price
$176.24
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+10.4% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$137.79
Buy below
$103.35
Price vs fair value
Overvalued 28%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued 71%
Read between the lines
-
Guidance
MSA Safety expects gross margin to temper in the second half from delayed inflation caused by the Middle East conflict.
Source quote
“We expect a moderate tempering in gross margin in the second half, which reflects the delayed impact of inflation caused by the Middle East conflict as this higher...”
-
Figure
MSA reported 6% sales growth and expanded margins with adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter.
Source quote
“For the second quarter, we achieved 6% reported sales growth and delivered robust margin expansion with adjusted earnings per share...”
-
Dropped
MSA Safety thinks that's going to be a real big win here.
Source quote
“We think that's going to be a real big win here. ...set, you combine that with ours, you now have the full suite that our end customers really look for, and we can get earlier access when they're really designing out based on the regulatory requirements, they're designing out that platform for fire and gas detection.”
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q2 2026. Ring: Q1 2026.
Script and answers carried a similar tone, so the script's message held up under questioning.
Sentences that drove the tone
“For the second quarter, we achieved 6% reported sales growth and delivered robust margin expansion with adjusted earnings per share of $2.40, up 24% from last year.”
“We delivered double-digit organic growth in Industrial PPE and high single-digit growth in Detection.”
“As expected, sales in our International segment increased sequentially, growing 17%.”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-06-30)
| Metric | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-30 | Q1 2026period end 2026-03-31 | Change | Q2 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 503.3M | 463.6M | +8.6% | 474.1M | +6.2% |
| Gross profit | 249.3M | 219.6M | +13.5% | 220.7M | +12.9% |
| Operating income | 112.0M | 93.0M | +20.4% | 85.9M | +30.4% |
| Net income | 86.2M | 71.3M | +20.9% | 62.8M | +37.3% |
| EPS | 2.23 | 1.83 | +21.9% | 1.59 | +40.3% |
| P/E today 22.8 | 21.7 | 22.1 | −0.4 | 23.9 | −2.2 |
Topics
Most discussed now
- MSA Safety also generated strong free cash flow, which enabled $47 million of returns to shareholders via buybacks and dividends.
- Year-over-year gross margin reflects the strength of MSA Safety's MSA business system, including strategic pricing, productivity…
- GAAP operating margin was 22.2%, a 410 basis points increase driven by the gross margin expansion.
- Included in the quarter was approximately $4 million of tariff refunds, which favorably impacted gross margin by approximately 100...
- MSA Safety did see some really nice strength in the protective ballistic helmet side of the business, which it expects to...
Faded since Q1 2026
- Fading Organic sales performance in the quarter was driven by high single-digit performance in the Americas, which was partially offset by...
- Fading Year-over-year gross margin reflects strong operational performance from MSA Safety's team, including strategic pricing, productivity, as…
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
- Other events · SEC 8-K
- Shareholder vote results · SEC 8-K
- Material agreement; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Other events · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K