Agricultural and farm machinery company Lindsay NYSE:LNN fell short of the market’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2026, with sales falling 5.1% year on year to $160.8 million. Its GAAP profit of $1.53 per share was 26.7% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
Lindsay (LNN) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $160.8 million vs analyst estimates of $169.5 million (5.1% year-on-year decline, 5.1% miss)
- EPS (GAAP): $1.53 vs analyst estimates of $1.21 (26.7% beat)
- Operating Margin: 11.5%, down from 14% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow was -$1.39 million, down from $25.66 million in the same quarter last year
- Market Capitalization: $1.19 billion
“Deliveries for the large irrigation project in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region remain on schedule despite continued geopolitical challenges," said Randy Wood, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Company Overview
A pioneer in the field of center pivot and lateral move irrigation, Lindsay NYSE:LNN provides a variety of proprietary water management and road infrastructure products and services.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last five years, Lindsay grew its sales at a sluggish 3% compounded annual growth rate. This fell short of our benchmarks and is a poor baseline for our analysis.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Lindsay’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years.
This quarter, Lindsay missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 5.1% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $160.8 million of revenue.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.3% over the next 12 months. While this projection implies its newer products and services will fuel better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
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Operating Margin
Lindsay’s operating margin has more or less stayed the same over the last 12 months , averaging 12.6% over the last five years. This profitability was top-notch for an industrials business, showing it’s a well-run company with an efficient cost structure. This result was particularly impressive because of its low gross margin, which is mostly a factor of what it sells and takes huge shifts to move meaningfully. Companies have more control over their operating margins, and it’s a show of well-managed operations if they’re high when gross margins are low.
Looking at the trend in its profitability, Lindsay’s operating margin might have fluctuated slightly but has generally stayed the same over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.
This quarter, Lindsay generated an operating margin profit margin of 11.5%, down 2.5 percentage points year on year. Since Lindsay’s operating margin decreased more than its gross margin, we can assume it was less efficient because expenses such as marketing, R&D, and administrative overhead increased.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth — for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
Lindsay’s weak 2.1% annual EPS growth over the last five years aligns with its revenue performance. This tells us it maintained its per-share profitability as it expanded.
Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.
Lindsay’s two-year annual EPS declines of 11% were bad and lower than its flat revenue.
Diving into the nuances of Lindsay’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. Lindsay’s operating margin has declined over the last two years. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its lower earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.
In Q2, Lindsay reported EPS of $1.53, down from $1.78 in the same quarter last year. Despite falling year on year, this print easily cleared analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Lindsay’s full-year EPS to grow 25.6% from $5.21 to $6.55.
Key Takeaways from Lindsay’s Q2 Results
It was good to see Lindsay beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also excited its operating income outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its revenue missed. Overall, we think this was still a decent quarter with some key metrics above expectations. The stock traded up 3.4% to $125.15 immediately following the results.
Indeed, Lindsay had a rock-solid quarterly earnings result, but is this stock a good investment here? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. .