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Key Takeaways Applied Industrial benefits from strong MRO demand, with Service Center organic sales rising 7.9% in Q4 FY26.AIT's acquisitions expand its automation capabilities and geographic reach, supporting long-term growth.Applied Industrial raised its quarterly dividend 11% and repurchased $317.2 million in shares in fiscal 2026. Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (AIT - Free Report) is well-poised to benefit from strength across its business, acquisitions, focus on improving the product line and operational excellence. The company remains focused on investing in growth opportunities and solidifying its long-term market position.

AIT has a market capitalization of $12.3 billion and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Let’s delve into the factors that have been aiding the firm for a while now.

Business Strength: Applied Industrial continues to benefit from demand for technical MRO services, which remains a key support for the Service Center segment. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 (ended June 30, 2026), the Service Center segment’s organic sales rose 7.9% year over year, with U.S. organic sales up 9% as technical MRO demand and internal sales initiatives supported growth.

Acquisition Benefits: The company continues to add assets that expand capabilities and geographic reach. In the fiscal fourth quarter, acquisitions had a positive impact of 0.3% on the company's sales. The company announced the bolt-on acquisition of Thompson Industrial Supply (in January 2026), which is expected to generate approximately $20 million of annual sales in its first year and has been integrated into Service Center operations.

In May 2025, the company acquired IRIS Factory Automation (“IRIS”). The acquisition boosted Applied Industrial’s automation offerings and was integrated into the Engineered Solutions segment.

Price Performance of AIT
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

In the past year, AIT stock has gained 35% compared with the industry’s 3.8% growth.

Business Initiatives: AIT’s focus on improving the product line, increasing value-added services and initiatives to drive operational excellence will boost results in the quarters ahead. Its focus on pricing, mix, channel execution and internal initiatives remains supportive of underlying margins.

Shareholder-Friendly Policies: It remains committed to rewarding its shareholders through dividend payouts and share buybacks. In fiscal 2026, it paid out dividends worth $72.6 million, up 14% on a year-over-year basis. Also, the company increased its quarterly dividend by 11% to 51 cents per share in January 2026 and repurchased shares worth $317.2 million during fiscal 2026.

Estimate Revisions: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIT’s fiscal 2027 (ending June 2027) earnings is pegged at $11.96 per share, reflecting an increase of 9.2% from year-ago figure. The consensus estimate for first-quarter fiscal 2027 (ended September 2026) earnings is pegged at $2.84, indicating an increase of 8% year-over-year.

Other Key PicksSome other top-ranked stocks from the same space are presented below.

IDEX Corporation (IEX - Free Report) presently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The company delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 7.7%. In the past 60 days, the consensus estimate for IEX’s 2026 earnings has increased 1.2%.

Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH - Free Report) currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. Parker-Hannifin delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 7.8%. In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for PH’s fiscal 2027 (ending June 2027) earnings has increased 0.7%.

Emerson Electric Co. (EMR - Free Report) currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. EMR delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 1.3%. In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Emerson’s fiscal 2026 (ending September 2026) earnings has increased 0.2%.

Both industrial distributors have rewarded shareholders for years, but one carries a payout ratio that leaves little cushion while the other sits below analyst targets with a cleaner growth story waiting to play out.

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Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST | FAST Price Prediction) or Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT): which dividend grower should an investor planning for retirement own right now? Starting yields are low: Fastenal pays 1.81% and Applied pays 0.58%. This contest turns on moat, payout growth, coverage and price. Both stocks have run this year, with Fastenal up 27.73% and Applied up 30.48% year to date. Both slipped over the past month, by 1.41% and 2.64%, respectively.

Business Model: Fastenal’s Embedded Vending Network Wins Fastenal runs roughly 3,200 in-market locations and 140,789 FASTBin and FASTVend installations, up 6.5%. Contract customers now make up 75.8% of revenue, and Digital Footprint sales reached 61.6% of net sales. A vending machine bolted to a customer’s plant floor creates switching costs that a branch counter cannot match. Second-quarter revenue rose 14.7% to $2.39B.

Applied wins customers through technical expertise. Automation organic sales rose over 20%, and 27 of the top 30 U.S. service center sectors grew. That edge leans on engineers and acquisitions, with more than 18 transactions since 2018. Fastenal’s physical presence inside customer facilities is harder to replace. One caveat: its gross margin contracted 50 bps to 44.6% in the first quarter as larger accounts grew in the mix.

Dividend Growth and Coverage: Applied Pulls Ahead Fastenal’s record needs cleaning up. It paid supplemental distributions of $0.40 in December 2020 and $0.38 in December 2023. The drop from $0.44 to $0.22 in 2025 coincides with a two-for-one stock split. The regular payout then rose to $0.24 in January and $0.26 in July. Coverage is thin. The 2025 dividends of $1,004.2M took 79.8% of net income. That came against free cash flow of $1.05B, and 2026 capex guidance jumps to $310M to $330M from $230.6M.

Applied’s history is clean and steady. The quarterly payout climbed from $0.33 in 2021 to $0.51, with no specials. Its latest 11% raise was its 17th increase since 2010. A $2.04 forward dividend stands against fiscal 2026 GAAP EPS of $10.95 and free cash flow of $460.5M. Applied still bought back $317.2M of stock while carrying net leverage of just 0.2 times EBITDA.

Valuation: Applied Is the Cheaper Compounder Long-run historical multiples are unavailable here, so each stock is measured against its own trading range and growth. Fastenal trades at 43x trailing and 37x forward earnings, with a PEG of 3.39. Its $50.43 price stands above the $48.84 analyst target and near its $52.92 52-week high.

Applied trades at 31x trailing and 28x forward, with a PEG of 2.779. At $333.16, it stands below both its $374.27 high and the $400 target. Management cited five-year EPS growth of 18% and guides fiscal 2027 EPS to $11.65 to $12.15. It also raised its intermediate sales target to $7 billion. CEO Neil Schrimsher said Applied enters the year “with the strongest market position in Applied’s history.”

Verdict: Applied Industrial Wins for Dividend Growers Applied takes two of three dimensions and wins for the long-term dividend-growth investor, offering faster raises, wide coverage, a strong balance sheet and a lower multiple. Fastenal fits a narrower profile. It suits a retiree who wants a higher starting yield and less volatility, given its beta of 0.713 versus Applied’s 0.834. That investor pays a premium for a payout with little room to grow faster than earnings.

Two developments would flip this call. A large debt-funded acquisition at Applied, or organic growth falling short of its 6% to 8% first-quarter forecast, would weaken its case. Fastenal’s multiple compressing toward Applied’s while its payout ratio eases would strengthen its own. Both companies’ next earnings reports could reveal either shift.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT - Free Report) came out with quarterly earnings of $3.17 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.92 per share. This compares to earnings of $2.8 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +8.56%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this industrial products company would post earnings of $2.63 per share when it actually produced earnings of $2.65, delivering a surprise of +0.76%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times.

Applied Industrial Technologies, which belongs to the Zacks Manufacturing - General Industrial industry, posted revenues of $1.35 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.58%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $1.22 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Applied Industrial Technologies shares have added about 37.2% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13.2%.

What's Next for Applied Industrial Technologies?While Applied Industrial Technologies has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Applied Industrial Technologies was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $2.83 on $1.27 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $11.80 on $5.18 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Manufacturing - General Industrial is currently in the top 24% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Another stock from the same industry, Nordson (NDSN - Free Report) , has yet to report results for the quarter ended July 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 19.

This maker of adhesives and industrial coatings is expected to post quarterly earnings of $3.09 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +13.2%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 1.4% higher over the last 30 days to the current level.

Nordson's revenues are expected to be $779 million, up 5.1% from the year-ago quarter.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 22nd, 2026

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its stake in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT – Free Report) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 290,328 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,224 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.79% of Applied Industrial Technologies worth $77,030,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Compound Planning Inc. increased its position in Applied Industrial Technologies by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 822 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. US Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. US Asset Management LLC now owns 1,266 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 653 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 1,160 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $308,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Applied Industrial Technologies by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,585 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $407,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.52% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Industrial Technologies In related news, Director Madhuri A. Andrews sold 3,845 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.89, for a total value of $1,268,427.05. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,633,285.39. This trade represents a 43.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Warren E. Hoffner III sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.04, for a total transaction of $2,448,320.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 40,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,471,436.04. This represents a 16.41% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes Several brokerages recently commented on AIT. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies in a report on Friday, April 24th. Mizuho upped their target price on Applied Industrial Technologies from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, DA Davidson assumed coverage on Applied Industrial Technologies in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $380.00 target price on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $336.71.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Applied Industrial Technologies

Applied Industrial Technologies Price Performance Shares of Applied Industrial Technologies stock opened at $340.91 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 2.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.83. Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $238.34 and a twelve month high of $345.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $321.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $293.64.

Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The industrial products company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Applied Industrial Technologies had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 21.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.57 earnings per share. Applied Industrial Technologies has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 2.850-2.960 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 10.640-10.750 EPS. Analysts forecast that Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. will post 10.71 EPS for the current year.

Applied Industrial Technologies Dividend Announcement The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. Applied Industrial Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.26%.

Applied Industrial Technologies Company Profile (Free Report)

Applied Industrial Technologies, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AIT, is a leading distributor of industrial products and services. The company offers a comprehensive range of bearings, power transmission components, fluid power products, industrial rubber products, and automation solutions. Through its network of distribution centers and branch locations, Applied Industrial Technologies serves diverse end markets including manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, food and beverage, and wastewater treatment.

Founded in 1923 and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Applied Industrial Technologies has grown through a combination of organic expansion and strategic acquisitions.

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