Skip to main content
Homepage
Full 18-step deep-dive · ~20–30 min · a member feature.
FRESH Analysis Report
Aug 16, 2026
7 days ago · 100% complete
NOT DEPENDABLE This report predates a filing — its financial basis has been replaced.
Report generated: Aug 16, 2026 · Filing on record since: Aug 23, 2026 · 7 days after
For AI assistants & researchers — machine-readable summary of this page

What this page is: Delvantic's full research page for Heico Corporation (HEI) — AI-driven forensic equity research: mechanical valuation models (DCF, EPV, anchored-PE, scenario) plus three independent AI lenses (Quality / Value / Sentiment). Everything below is rendered server-side; you are not missing content that requires JavaScript. All scores are predictions and research opinions, not financial advice.

Our current read (analysis of 2026-08-23): Designation Watch · Gem Score -6 (−100…+100 Quality+Value blend) · Quality 80 · Value -76 · Sentiment 27 (timing only, not weighted) · Composite fair value $134.39 vs $374.67 at analysis

Page map (sections in order; each card carries a stable reference-name attribute you can cite):

  • profile-header / price-overview — company profile, live quote, market cap
  • extended-analysisthe core: three AI lens reads with findings, scores, and the analyst memo
  • future-predictions — our forward price-band predictions
  • market-narrative / ai-findings / gpt-critique — narrative context, cross-model findings, and an adversarial critique of our own analysis (near the end of the document)
  • Members-only sections (render as login gates for anonymous readers): price-history, income-trend, key-metrics, financials (statement tables), insider-trading. The analysis above is public; the raw data tables require a free account.

More for machine readers: site briefing at /llms.txt · any ticker resolves at delvantic.com/stock/TICKER · raw inputs are public-company filings and market data (via licensed data feeds); every model, score, lens read, and prediction on this page is Delvantic's own analysis.

Heico Corporation

HEI NYSE
Industrials · Aerospace & Defense
Hollywood, FL 33021, United States heico.com Updated Aug 15, 8:29pm
Price
$374.67
Market Cap
$52.4B
Employees
10,000
Beta
1.05
Avg Volume
405,635
Last Dividend
$0.25
CEO
Mr. Eric A. Mendelson

Heico Corporation is an aerospace and defense technology company focused on specialized replacement parts, components, and electronic systems used across commercial, regional, business, and military aircraft. The company also serves industrial and defense markets with products for turbines, targeting systems, missiles, simulation equipment, and electro-optical applications. Its business is organized around flight support and electronic technologies, reflecting a role in both aircraft maintenance and mission-critical systems supply. Heico Corporation is known for serving niche, high-precision segments where reliability, certification, and long product lifecycles are essential, making it an important supplier within the broader aerospace and defense ecosystem.

Runs with full report Generated: Aug 16, 2026 12:16am
Price Overview
Price at report time
$374.67
as of Aug 16, 12:11am (7d ago)
Change · Aug 16
+3.11 (+0.84%)
Day Range
$369.53 – $375.84
52-Week Range
$256.11 – $376.86
50-Day MA
$348.79
200-Day MA
$320.69
Volume
477,900.00
Right now · live
Log in to get the live feed
Members see the real-time price and the move since this report (over 7d).
Share Structure
Outstanding 139,659,000.00
Float 123,819,122.00
Free Float 88.7%
High free float — 88.7% of shares trade freely, ~11.3% held by insiders/institutions
Very liquid — most shares trade freely. Low insider ownership can mean less management alignment, but makes large position sizing straightforward.
Price History (1 Year)
Last updated: Aug 16, 2026 12:26am (7d ago)
Revenue & Net Income Trend
The directional story — useful even when net income is negative.
Last updated: Aug 16, 2026 12:25am (7d ago)
Revenue
The top line — total sales before any costs or taxes are subtracted. A measure of how much business the company is doing.
Net Income
The bottom line — profit left after subtracting all expenses, interest, and taxes from revenue. Reflects accounting profitability, but includes non-cash items like depreciation, so it isn't the same as cash earned.
Operating Cash Flow
The real cash generated by the day-to-day business — selling products, paying suppliers, collecting from customers. Calculated from net income by adding back non-cash items and adjusting for timing (unpaid bills, unsold inventory). When OCF consistently lags net income, the reported profit may not be converting to real money.
Period Revenue Net Income Net Margin YoY/QoQ
Key Metrics
TD Twelve Data statement HEX SEC filing
Industry comparison last run: Aug 16, 2026 12:14am
P/E Ratio (Price per dollar of earnings)
HEX
Stock Price / EPS (Diluted)
76.46
Stock Price: $374.67
EPS (Diluted): 4.90
P/B Ratio (Price vs net asset value)
HEX
Stock Price / Book Value Per Share
10.88
Stock Price: $374.67
Total Equity: $4.85B
Shares: 140,771,000
EV/EBITDA (Total value vs operating profit)
HEX
Enterprise Value / EBITDA
42.70
Market Cap: $52.36B
Total Debt: $3.36M
Cash: $217.78M
EBITDA: $1.22B
Enterprise Value (Takeover price (cap + debt - cash))
HEX
Market Cap + Total Debt - Cash
$51.9B
Market Cap: $52.36B
Total Debt: $3.36M
Cash: $217.78M
Gross Margin (Revenue left after direct costs)
HEX
Gross Profit / Revenue
39.8%
Gross Profit: $1.79B
Revenue: $4.49B
Operating Margin (Revenue left after all operations)
HEX
Operating Income / Revenue
22.7%
Operating Income: $1.02B
Revenue: $4.49B
Net Margin (Revenue left as actual profit)
HEX
Net Income / Revenue
15.4%
Net Income: $690.39M
Revenue: $4.49B
ROE (Profit from shareholder equity)
HEX
Net Income / Total Equity
14.2%
Net Income: $690.39M
Total Equity: $4.85B
ROIC (Profit from all invested capital)
HEX
NOPAT / Invested Capital
18.4%
Operating Income: $1.02B
Tax Rate: 16.6%
Equity: $4.85B
Total Debt: $3.36M
Cash: $217.78M
Current Ratio (Can it pay short-term bills)
HEX
Current Assets / Current Liabilities
2.83
Current Assets: $2.36B
Current Liabilities: $832.00M
Debt/Equity (Leverage — debt vs equity)
HEX
Total Debt / Total Equity
0.00
Short-Term Debt: $3.36M
Long-Term Debt: $0.00
Total Debt: $3.36M
Total Equity: $4.85B
Rev/Share (Top-line per share)
HEX
Revenue / Shares Outstanding
$31.86
Revenue: $4.49B
Shares: 140,771,000
Book Value/Share (Net assets per share)
HEX
(Total Assets - Total Liabilities) / Shares
$34.43
Total Equity: $4.85B
Shares: 140,771,000
FCF/Share (Real cash generated per share)
HEX
(Operating Cash Flow + CapEx) / Shares
$6.12
Operating CF: $934.27M
CapEx: -$72.89M
Shares: 140,771,000
CapEx is negative (outflow) — added to OCF to get FCF
Div Yield (Annual income from holding)
TD
Last Annual Dividend / Stock Price
0.1%
Last Dividend: $0.25
Stock Price: $374.67
Payout Ratio (Earnings paid out as dividends)
HEX
Dividends Paid / Net Income
4.6%
Dividends Paid: -$31.97M
Net Income: $690.39M
Industry Benchmarks
Last run: Aug 16, 2026 12:14am
Compares HEI against LLM-researched typical ranges for its industry. One research call per industry, cached indefinitely — every stock in the same industry reuses the same baseline.
Income Statement (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 16, 2026 12:25am (7d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue $1.9B $2.2B $3.0B $3.9B $4.5B
Cost of Revenue $1.1B $1.3B $1.8B $2.4B $2.7B
Gross Profit $727.4M $862.8M $1.2B $1.5B $1.8B
Operating Expenses $334.5M $365.9M $528.1M $677.3M $767.5M
Operating Income $392.9M $496.8M $625.3M $824.5M $1.0B
Net Income $304.2M $351.7M $403.6M $514.1M $690.4M
EBITDA $485.9M $593.2M $755.4M $999.8M $1.2B
EPS $2.25 $2.59 $2.94 $3.71 $4.97
EPS (Diluted) $2.21 $2.55 $2.91 $3.67 $4.90
Balance Sheet (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 16, 2026 12:11am (7d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Cash & Equivalents $108.3M $139.5M $171.0M $162.1M $217.8M
Total Current Assets $937.4M $1.2B $1.9B $2.1B $2.4B
Total Assets $3.5B $4.1B $7.2B $7.6B $8.5B
Current Liabilities $294.9M $420.9M $665.3M $663.9M $832.0M
Long-Term Debt
Total Liabilities $948.9M $1.1B $3.6B $3.5B $3.7B
Total Equity $2.5B $3.0B $3.6B $4.1B $4.8B
Retained Earnings $1.9B $2.3B $2.6B $3.1B $3.6B
Cash Flow (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 16, 2026 12:25am (7d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Operating Cash Flow $444.1M $467.9M $448.7M $672.4M $934.3M
Capital Expenditure -$36.2M -$32.0M -$49.4M -$58.3M -$72.9M
Free Cash Flow $407.9M $435.9M $399.3M $614.1M $861.4M
Acquisitions (net) -$136.5M -$347.3M -$2.4B -$219.3M -$629.8M
Net Debt Issued / (Repaid) $0 $0 $1.2B $0 $0
Dividends Paid -$23.0M -$24.5M -$27.4M -$29.1M -$32.0M
Stock Buybacks
Net Change in Cash -$298.6M $31.2M $31.5M -$8.9M $55.7M
Growth Trends (YoY %)
Last updated: Aug 16, 2026 12:25am (7d ago)
Metric 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue Growth +18.4% +34.4% +30.0% +16.3%
Gross Profit Growth +18.6% +33.7% +30.2% +19.0%
Operating Income Growth +26.5% +25.9% +31.8% +23.6%
Net Income Growth +15.6% +14.8% +27.4% +34.3%
EBITDA Growth +22.1% +27.3% +32.4% +21.5%
Dividend History (Last 20)
Last updated: Aug 11, 2026 12:58pm (12d ago)
Date Dividend Declaration Record Payment
2026-07-01 $0.13
2026-01-05 $0.12
2025-07-01 $0.12
2025-01-03 $0.11
2024-07-01 $0.11
2024-01-03 $0.10
2023-06-30 $0.10
2023-01-04 $0.10
2022-06-30 $0.09
2022-01-05 $0.09
2021-06-30 $0.09
2021-01-06 $0.08
2020-06-30 $0.08
2020-01-08 $0.08
2019-06-28 $0.07
2019-01-02 $0.07
2018-07-10 $0.06
2018-01-02 $0.03
2017-06-30 $0.03
2016-12-30 $0.02
0Company Classification 1Industry Landscape 2Company Momentum 3Forward Projection 4aDCF Valuation 4bEarnings Power Value 4cAnchored PE 4dReverse DCF 4eRevenue-Based DCF 4fAnchored P/S 4gScenario Analysis 4hDividend Discount Model 4iBook Value Analysis 4jInsider Activity 4fCash Flow Quality 4gDebt Maturity Risk 4hMacro Environment 4iSector Intelligence 4jRevenue Confidence 4kSensitivity Analysis 4lSector Demand Cycle 5AI Investigation 5bThesis Evaluation 6Valuation Synthesis
computed not applicable not yet run 17 computed · 6 not applicable · 1 not yet run
Risk : Reward — if the last quarter repeats
Live · as of 2026-08-23 02:52
-0.7 : 1 recovery upside vs repeat-quarter downside
Even the bull case prices 55% below today — the ratio here measures the model-vs-market gap, not payoff odds. Another quarter like the worst recent one costs 80%.
CaseGrowthMarginFair valuevs price ($374.67)
Bull — recovery +38% 18.5% $168.46 -55%
Base — stabilizes +25% 16.1% $104.47 -72%
Bear — keeps slipping +13% 13.7% $62.39 -83%
Stress — last quarter repeats +14% 16.1% $75.83 -80%
The next quarters keep the trajectory of the worst recent matched quarter (ending 2026-01-31) — growth stays at 14.4% and margins bend by the same profit-vs-revenue ratio (×1.00). Stress is a trajectory, not a prediction — it answers "what if the ship's current heading simply continues," which history says is the case to respect.
Why this is appearing: this company files quarterly, so its recent trajectory could be measured rather than assumed — the engine matched Apr 2026, Jan 2026 against the same quarters one year earlier and found revenue +20.0% · operating income +28.5% · net income +30.6% year-over-year. That measured heading is what the stress case extends forward. Of those, the stress case extends the worst matched quarter — the one ending Jan 31, 2026 (revenue +14.4%, operating income +14.6% YoY) — not the average. Data measured through Apr 30, 2026 — this card recalculates automatically when the next quarterly filing is ingested. Companies without quarterly filings (many foreign listings) never show this card: with no measured trajectory, there is nothing honest to repeat.
Narrative Economics
The story the market is telling about this stock — the intangible X-factor (founder mythology, cult dynamics, TAM-of-imagination) that moves price beyond what cash flows alone explain. After Shiller, Narrative Economics.
No narrative profile yet for HEI — it's generated by the pipeline (market-narrative step).
AI Lens 4th lens · how AI reaches this business · 5-yr
2026-08-16
The creme is there an opportunity here? Opportunity
AI barely threatens what HEICO sells and directly attacks the engineering bottleneck that caps how fast it can sell more of it.
Exposure is genuinely low at 37 — the unit monetized is a certified physical part, customer DIY preference scores 84, and revenue unit durability 81 — so the AI question here is not survival but throughput: if AI compresses the reverse-engineering-to-approval cycle, organic growth de-links from the acquisition pipeline that currently carries the story. The offset, and the reason central sits at 64 rather than higher, is OEM digital authentication and data-gated service agreements fencing PMA out of the installed fleet. Watch new PMA approvals per year against the share of engines under OEM long-term service agreements — that ratio decides the direction before margins show it.
66
AI Position
Favorable - physical and regulatory shield, quiet internal throughput lever
Cheap intelligence barely touches what HEICO sells (certified physical parts) but directly attacks its binding internal constraint — the engineering and documentation cycle time to get new PMA parts approved.
Exposure 37 Confidence 71 50 = neutral
Primary Tailwind

HEICO's growth in Flight Support is gated by how many new PMA parts its engineers can reverse-engineer, test, document and shepherd through FAA approval each year; AI-assisted teardown analysis, simulation, materials matching and certification-package drafting compresses that cycle without touching the regulatory clock's credibility.

Primary Pressure

OEMs are using digital serialization, part authentication and data-gated engine-health/power-by-the-hour service agreements to structurally exclude PMA parts from the fleets they cover — an AI-enabled contractual lockout, not a technical one.

Critical Hinge

Whether OEM data-and-contract lock-in of the installed fleet spreads faster than HEICO's AI-accelerated catalog expansion. Watch new PMA approvals per year versus the share of narrowbody/widebody engines under OEM long-term service agreements.

Forensic fingerprint same 11 factors for every stock · 0 unfavorable · 50 neutral · 100 favorable
Underlying Need Persistence do people still need this at all? 93
Aircraft will keep needing certified replacement parts regardless of how cheap intelligence gets.
The need is physical wear on flying hardware plus regulatory mandate to replace with approved parts; no amount of machine intelligence removes a worn actuator or an obsolete circuit card.
global fleet flight-hour trends · aircraft retirement vs life-extension rates · defense electronics program starts
relevance 80 · confidence 90
Solution Persistence will they still solve it this way? 74
The PMA-alternative model persists, though additive manufacturing plus AI design could shift who supplies the long tail.
Airlines will keep buying discounted approved alternatives to OEM parts; the medium-term wildcard is AI-designed, on-demand additively manufactured spares certified by OEMs or MROs, which HEICO can adopt but does not control.
FAA approvals for additively made spares · MRO in-house part production announcements · HEICO additive manufacturing capex
relevance 70 · confidence 66
Intelligence Commoditization does cheap AI power them or copy them? 60
Cheap AI powers HEICO's reverse-engineering throughput but also arms smaller PMA rivals.
The engineering skill to characterize and substantiate a replacement part is exactly the kind of analysis AI accelerates — a real internal lever, but a symmetric one available to any funded competitor; only certification history and production qualification break the symmetry.
new PMA approvals per year · engineering headcount vs part introductions · new PMA entrants gaining FAA approvals
relevance 72 · confidence 62
Responsibility Transfer are they paid to take the blame? 76
HEICO is paid to own airworthiness liability that no airline or MRO wants on its own balance sheet.
A PMA holder carries design responsibility and FAA accountability for the part; even a perfect internal AI design tool leaves an operator unwilling to become a parts manufacturer and assume that liability.
FAA enforcement or AD actions on PMA parts · product liability reserves · airline PMA acceptance policies
relevance 68 · confidence 72
Scarcity Migration do their assets get rarer or more common? 72
As engineering analysis gets cheap, approvals, qualified capacity and BOM incumbency become the relatively scarcer assets — and HEICO owns them.
AI commoditizes the design/analysis step but not FAA approval timelines, airline qualification, defense clearances or low-rate precision production; HEICO's stock of ~thousands of existing approvals appreciates in relative terms.
FAA approval cycle times · specialty machining/casting capacity constraints · cleared-facility defense backlog
relevance 76 · confidence 70
Customer DIY Preference will customers just build it themselves? 84
Airlines and primes will not become their own certified parts manufacturers, whatever AI enables.
Vertical integration into low-volume regulated manufacturing is capital-intensive, liability-heavy and off-strategy for operators; the DIY path runs through OEMs, not customers.
airline in-house PMA filings · MRO vertical integration moves · prime contractor supplier insourcing
relevance 62 · confidence 80
AI Intermediation Position do AI agents go through them or around them? 57
Agentic MRO procurement mostly surfaces HEICO's price advantage over OEM list, but also flattens negotiation opacity.
Automated sourcing tools make discounted approved alternatives easier to find — helpful against OEM pricing — while simultaneously making HEICO's own quotes comparable against other PMA suppliers in real time.
digital MRO marketplace adoption · Flight Support gross margin trend · distribution segment pricing commentary
relevance 45 · confidence 55
Data Leverage does their data make AI better? 58
Decades of teardown, test and failure data is genuinely proprietary but serves internal throughput, not a saleable data moat.
HEICO's substantiation archives and field-reliability history are a strong training corpus for its own reverse-engineering models; the party with the richest fleet-condition data is the OEM/engine maker, not HEICO.
engineering data platform investment · reliability-based part targeting disclosures · OEM engine health data exclusivity moves
relevance 48 · confidence 52
AI Margin Conversion do the AI savings become profit? 58
AI savings land in engineering and inspection, but COGS is dominated by materials and precision machining.
With gross margin ~39.8% and operating margin 22.7%, cost of goods is physical; realistic AI gains show up in engineering productivity, machine-vision inspection and yield — real but incremental against material and labor inputs.
gross margin above 40% · SG&A as percent of revenue · scrap and rework rates
relevance 58 · confidence 58
Revenue Unit Durability does the thing they charge for survive? 81
The monetized unit is a shipped certified part — no seats, no tokens, nothing AI deflates directly.
Revenue scales with flight hours and defense build rates, not with headcount-priced software; the pricing risk is OEM contractual exclusion and procurement transparency, not AI substitution of the unit itself.
organic Flight Support growth rate · aftermarket price realization · share of fleet under OEM service agreements
relevance 72 · confidence 78
Entrant Compression how easily can newcomers copy them? 62
Cheaper engineering lowers one barrier, but certification clock, liability and qualified production still gate entry.
An AI-native reverse-engineering startup can shorten design work yet still faces multi-year FAA approval, airline qualification, insurance and capital-intensive low-volume manufacturing — and HEICO's standing model is to acquire such shops rather than fight them.
number of new PMA holders approved · acquisition multiples HEICO pays · venture funding into aftermarket parts startups
relevance 70 · confidence 64

AI Lens thesis

Thesis breaker A major airline or MRO group publicly restricting PMA usage because OEM digital authentication or health-monitoring contracts make it uneconomic — or, on the upside, HEICO disclosing a step-change in annual new-part approvals attributable to engineering automation.
What the market may be underestimating

Upside The market models HEICO's organic growth as fleet-flight-hours plus acquisitions; if AI raises new-part introductions per engineer materially, organic growth de-links from the M&A pipeline and the multiple's dependence on deal supply falls.

Downside Agentic MRO procurement makes cross-supplier part substitution and price comparison trivial, eroding the pricing latitude HEICO enjoys as the quietly-negotiated discount alternative to OEM list price — a margin, not volume, risk.PA-approved catalog positions, DER/airworthiness liability acceptance, qualified low-volume machining and test capacity, defense clearances and 20-year BOM incumbency — none of which are code.P-/PMA-approved part positions built over decades, the liability HEICO absorbs for airworthiness, qualified low-rate production capacity, defense program clearances and BOM incumbency with 20-year lifecycles.","ai_lens_thesis":"AI reaches HEICO almost entirely on the cost/throughput side, not the revenue side: the monetized unit is a physical, certified, serialized part flown on an aircraft, and neither the need nor the delivery mechanism is information-processing. Where intelligence matters is HEICO's actual core competency — reverse-engineering OEM parts and assembling FAA-acceptable substantiation packages — which is an engineering-labor bottleneck that AI can meaningfully compress, expanding the addressable long tail of parts HEICO can economically pursue. The offsetting mechanism is that the same tools lower the engineering barrier for rival PMA shops and for OEM-aligned suppliers, and that OEMs can use digital authentication and data-driven service contracts to fence PMA out of the fleet. Certification time, liability, airline qualification and physical production capacity all survive cheap software, so entrant compression is modest; the real contest is OEM contractual lockout versus HEICO's catalog velocity.","thesis_breaker":"A major airline or MRO group publicly restricting PMA usage because OEM digital authentication or health-monitoring contracts make it uneconomic — or, upside, HEICO disclosing a step-change in annual new-part approvals from engineering automation.

Outcome range spread 38

41Bear case
64Central case
79Bull case
Three headline numbers, deliberately never blended: Position (which way), Exposure (how much it matters at all), Confidence (how sure). The fingerprint asks every stock the same 11 questions so companies a sector label would lump together get told apart. Not an input to GEM/Coal or the Q/V/S lenses.
Growth Outlook
Analyzed 2026-08-17 16:17

The question every valuation on this page silently assumes: is this company likely to grow? Judged forward — the business, its category, the world — against what's already printed.

Growing Durable mid-teens compounding: aftermarket PMA/repair demand plus defense electronics keep revenue growing ~16% with earnings leveraging ahead of it, though the quarterly trend is decelerating off the Wencor-boosted comps rather than accelerating. conf 8/10
Inline with category Category growing · Aerospace & Defense is in expansion (industry 14.9% revenue CAGR, 21.6% earnings CAGR). HEICO's recent revenue YoY of 16.3% is at the category median, so it is riding a strong tide rather than visibly out-growing it on revenue; the differentiation shows in earnings (+34% YoY) and FCF conversion, i.e. share of profit pool rather than share of revenue.
Next 2 quarters
Growing
Aftermarket shop-visit demand and defense electronics backlog are already in hand; margin mix continues to push earnings growth above revenue growth. Sequential deceleration in the revenue rate is likely as M&A comps lap, but both prints should still be solidly positive on revenue and earnings.
↑ above expectations
Year 1
Growing
Full-year revenue should compound in the low-to-mid teens with earnings ahead of it: fleet-age tailwind plus defense replenishment, partially offset by tougher organic comps and no assumption of a large new acquisition.
≈ inline with expectations
Years 2–3
Growing
Certification moats and 20+ year product lifecycles mean the installed content base grows cumulatively; the aftermarket pool expands as the fleet ages and defense electronics content per platform rises. Earnings power should be structurally higher in three years, though the compounding rate likely settles nearer low-to-mid teens than the historic 23% once M&A contribution normalizes.
— expectations unclear
The creme: each rung's call measured against what's already printed (vs analyst estimates · vs guidance / FY consensus · vs price-implied growth) — expectations in print are already in the price, so only the variant margin can pay. Hover a rung's chip for the margin read.
Growth drivers
75 Aftermarket demand structurally extended by OEM delivery shortfalls — Airlines flying older airframes longer because new-aircraft deliveries slip means more shop visits, more PMA replacement parts and more repair events — HEICO's Flight Support economics are tied to fleet utilization and age, not to new build rates, so the OEM bottleneck is a tailwind rather than a drag.
62 Certification/BOM lock-in gives price and volume durability — Once a PMA part or a qualified defense electronic is on the bill-of-material, requalification cost keeps it there for 20+ year lifecycles. That converts today's wins into a multi-year annuity and supports the earnings YoY (+34%) running well ahead of revenue (+16%) via mix and pricing.
48 Defense electronics and munitions-adjacent replenishment — Targeting, missile, simulation and electro-optical content sits in the part of defense budgets being replenished during the sector's expansion phase (sector demand score 2), giving a second, non-correlated growth leg to commercial aero.
44 Serial acquisition machine with FCF to fund it — FCF CAGR 46.9% versus revenue CAGR 22.9% shows the decentralized bolt-on model converts cash and self-funds the next tuck-ins; this is the mechanism that has historically kept reported growth above the industry's 14.9% CAGR.
Growth risks
61 Organic deceleration once acquisition comps lap — Revenue confidence flags the quarterly trend as decelerating. The 22.9% multi-year CAGR is inflated by large M&A; the 16.3% recent YoY is exactly the category median, implying the organic core compounds closer to low-double-digits than twenty-plus.
39 Growth depends on deal supply and deal terms — If seller expectations stay elevated or primes buy up suppliers, the bolt-on pipeline thins and reported growth converges to organic. Higher long rates (10y 4.63) raise the hurdle on leveraged deals.
26 Defense budget timing and program lumpiness — Continuing-resolution dynamics and program-level timing can push Electronic Technologies orders across quarters; this segment is choppier than the aftermarket and can mask underlying demand.
24 Air-traffic/macro sensitivity — Macro backdrop is flagged as headwinds; a genuine demand shock to global flying hours would hit shop-visit volumes with a two-to-three-quarter lag. Not visible in current data, but it is the single fastest path to a Stalling print.
The world is short of new aircraft and long of old ones. Every year OEM deliveries under-run plan, the installed fleet ages and the aftermarket — parts, repair, PMA alternatives — captures spend that would otherwise have gone into new metal. Airlines under cost pressure are structurally more willing to accept certified PMA and third-party repair, which widens HEICO's addressable share of a growing pool. In parallel, Western defense budgets are in a replenishment phase favouring electronics, sensors and munitions content over big platforms — exactly HEICO's slice. The offsets are macro (higher long rates raise the cost of the acquisition engine) and supply-chain/labour constraints on capacity to convert demand into shipments. Net: the structural wind is behind this business for several years, with the debate being rate of compounding, not direction.
Growth position composite +35
ShrinkingStallingHoldingGrowingAccelerating
70Next 2 quarters · Growing
70Year 1 · Growing
70Years 2–3 · Growing
+35Composite (−100…+100)
A research prediction, not advice. Forward-graded: each rung is scored against the prints that follow it. Not an input to the GEM designation — track record first.
Claude Reading
Independent analyst synthesis · claude-opus-4-7 · generated 2026-08-16 00:24:34
Verdict Overvalued but the synthesis undershoots — fair value $250-280, not $178; wait for a pullback below $290 or accumulate incrementally, don't chase $375.

The raw quarterly cadence is genuinely impressive and complicates the "overvalued" call. Revenue climbed from $992M (Jul-24) to $1.38B (Apr-26) — that's 39% growth over seven quarters with net margin expanding from 13.8% to 17.0%. The most recent print showed 25% YoY revenue growth and net income of $233.8M vs $136.6M — a 71% earnings jump. The "decelerating" tag in secondary signals is wrong on the tape: Q2'26 accelerated meaningfully off Q1'26's $1.18B. FCF conversion is exceptional ($861M FCF on $690M NI = 125%), debt is a rounding error ($3.4M against $4.85B equity), and ROIC of 18.3% on a business that compounds via bolt-on M&A is exactly the setup that justifies a premium — the question is how much.

That said, 76x trailing P/E and 42x EV/EBITDA are not defensible on any normal DCF, and the synthesis fair value of $178 is directionally right even if I'd argue it undershoots. Let me steelman higher: assume FY26 earnings run-rate off the last four quarters is ~$790M (annualizing the recent trajectory yields closer to $900M), grow 18% annually for five years to ~$1.8B, apply a generous 35x exit multiple (still a premium to peers like TDG), discount at 9% — you get roughly $220-240 fair value, still 35-40% below spot. The gap to $375 requires believing HEI compounds earnings at 20%+ for a decade AND retains a 40x+ multiple at the end. That's a possible outcome, not a base case. The synthesis is right that this is priced for perfection; the narrative layer's "50-60% is story" framing feels about right.

The contrarian pushback the models underweight: HEI's aftermarket parts business (Flight Support Group) has genuine pricing power that doesn't show up in typical DCF discount rates — PMA parts are effectively regulated micro-monopolies with 20-year annuities, and the family-run capital allocation record (Mendelson family) has delivered 20%+ IRRs on acquisitions for three decades. If you handicap that the M&A machine keeps working and defense/aerospace stay structurally strong post-Ukraine/Taiwan-anxiety spending resets, the intrinsic multiple probably deserves to be in the 45-55x range, not 25-30x. That would land fair value closer to $260-290. Still below $375, but the discount is 25%, not 52%. Where the models are most exposed to being wrong: assuming HEI's compounding rate reverts to industrial averages. It might not.

Where the data is thin: no insider activity provided, no segment split between Flight Support (aftermarket/commercial) and Electronic Technologies (defense), and the annual metrics tag on P/E suggests trailing figures that don't reflect the Q2'26 acceleration — forward P/E is probably closer to 55-60x. The "Macro Headwinds" signal contradicts the actual print, which shows accelerating growth into a supposedly weakening macro. Either HEI is genuinely decoupled (plausible given aftermarket recurring revenue) or Q2'26 pulled forward demand. I'd want the Q3 print before adding, and I'd want to see if the margin expansion to 17% is sustainable or a one-quarter mix benefit. My verdict: I partially agree with the synthesis that HEI is overvalued, but $178 fair value is too pessimistic — it ignores the demonstrated compounding rate and moat quality. Real fair value is $250-280. Not a short, not a buy here, but a name to accumulate 20-30% lower or on a clean earnings miss.

GPT Reading
Independent reading · gpt-5.4 · generated 2026-08-16 00:24:51
Verdict Overvalued at $374.67 — elite fundamentals justify a premium, but not 76x earnings; I’d need a pullback toward ~$280 or a clear path to $1B+ sustainable annual earnings to get constructive.

The raw numbers say HEICO is an exceptional business and a difficult stock. On fundamentals alone, the operating machine is hard to criticize: annual revenue has scaled from $1.87B in 2021 to $4.49B in 2025, a 2.4x increase in four years, while net income rose from $304M to $690M. That is not just top-line expansion; operating margin moved from 21.0% in 2021 to 22.7% in 2025, gross margin from 38.9% to 39.8%, and free cash flow reached $861M against $690M of net income, which is unusually clean conversion for an industrial. The balance sheet is absurdly conservative, with only $3.4M of debt and $218M of cash, so this is effectively ungeared equity in a business generating high-teens ROIC and over $900M of operating cash flow. The quarterly sequence is even stronger than the annual view: revenue went from $992M in July 2024 to $1.38B in April 2026, while net margin expanded from 13.8% to 17.0%. That kind of simultaneous growth and margin expansion usually deserves a premium.

But the stock is priced for a continuation of something close to perfection. At $374.67 and a $52.4B market cap, investors are paying roughly 11.8x trailing sales, 76x earnings, and 42.7x EV/EBITDA for an aerospace and defense components company, not a software platform. Even if I annualize the most recent quarter’s $233.8M of net income to around $935M, the stock is still about 56x a run-rate earnings base. Likewise, annualizing the latest quarter’s revenue gets you roughly $5.5B, which still leaves the stock near 9.5x forward-ish sales. Those are elite multiples usually reserved for businesses with either much higher incremental margins, much larger TAM expansion, or clearer network effects than HEICO has. The core contradiction in the model outputs is that some of the language treats HEICO like a mature earner with durable compounding, which is directionally right, but the market is not valuing it like a mature earner at all; it is valuing it like a near-frictionless compounder that can sustain 20%+ growth and premium margins for many years without cyclical interruption. For an industrial tied to aviation utilization, defense budgets, and acquisition execution, that is too generous.

What stands out most to me is that the quality is real enough to tempt analysts into excusing the valuation. This is not a low-quality roll-up hiding behind adjusted EBITDA. The company is producing real earnings, real cash flow, and rising margins, and the near-zero leverage gives management enormous optionality. That said, the current price already capitalizes a lot of future M&A success and a lot of resilience. If HEICO earns roughly $0.9B to $1.0B within the next year and compounds earnings at, say, 15-18% for several years, the current multiple could eventually be “grown into,” but buyers at $375 are accepting years of execution risk with little valuation protection. My read is simple: this is a great company where the stock has become the weak link. I would not short a franchise this strong, but I also would not underwrite fresh capital here unless I believed normalized earnings power can exceed $1.2B fairly soon, because that is the kind of path required to make today’s price look merely reasonable rather than stretched.

The strongest case against my view is that HEICO has repeatedly earned the right to look expensive. The recent quarterly trajectory is not mild growth; it is acceleration. Revenue was up about 16% year over year in the latest quarter, but net income grew nearly 49% versus the $156.8M reported in the comparable quarter a year earlier, and net margin stepped up from 14.3% to 17.0%. If that margin profile holds, 2025 may understate the earnings base materially. A bull can also point out that return metrics remain strong despite a huge equity base, with ROIC at 18.4%, and that the balance sheet leaves room for acquisition-led EPS accretion without stressing the business. In that framework, a high multiple is not irrational but a rational tax investors pay for durability, scarcity, and management trust. I weigh that evidence differently because even outstanding companies can be bad stocks at the wrong entry price, and the multiple here leaves too little room for any pause in civil aerospace demand, any defense program hiccup, or simply a re-rating of long-duration equities.

What would change my mind is not another quarter of “good” results but evidence that HEICO is moving into a meaningfully higher earnings plateau than the market already discounts. Specifically, if quarterly revenue sustains above $1.35B and net margin stays at 16.5-17.0% or better for several quarters, that would imply annualized net income approaching or exceeding $950M with more confidence. I would also revisit my stance if management deploys the balance sheet into a large, clearly accretive acquisition without sacrificing returns, or if the stock corrected materially into the high-$200s while operations remained intact. Absent that, I see a premium business priced at an ultra-premium level.

Grok Reading
Independent reading · grok-4.5 · generated 2026-08-16 00:25:33
Verdict Overvalued at $375 — exceptional compounder but 76x P/E and 1.6% FCF yield price in flawless multi-year execution already fading in the growth rate

The raw numbers describe a genuine high-quality compounder that has executed nearly flawlessly, not a story stock inventing growth. Revenue scaled from $1.87B in FY2021 to $4.49B in FY2025, a 22.9% CAGR, while net income climbed from $304M to $690M and free cash flow hit $861M against only $73M of capex. The latest quarter accelerated again—$1.38B revenue and $234M net income at a 17% margin—extending a multi-year pattern of operating leverage that has lifted annual operating margin to 22.7% and ROIC to 18.4%. The balance sheet is a fortress: $3.4M of total debt against $4.85B of equity and $218M of cash, so virtually every dollar of the $934M operating cash flow is available for the acquisition engine that has defined the model. That combination of niche aerospace aftermarket positions, defense electronics, and serial accretive M&A is real and has produced earnings and FCF CAGRs of 31% and 47%.

What the same numbers refuse to support is a 76x trailing P/E, 12x sales, and 43x EV/EBITDA at a $52B enterprise value. FY2025 net income of $690M and FCF of $861M imply an earnings yield under 1.4% and an FCF yield of roughly 1.6%. Even granting another year of mid-teens-to-20% growth, the forward multiple remains in the mid-50s to low-60s—levels that already embed perpetual mid-teens compounding plus continued margin expansion plus flawless M&A deployment. Annual revenue growth has already decelerated from the 30%+ rates of FY2023–24 to 16% in FY2025, and the secondary signal flags a decelerating quarterly trend. At these prices the market is not paying for the business that exists; it is paying for an uninterrupted decade of TransDigm-like durability with better visibility, and the 50–60% narrative premium flagged in the briefing is visible in every multiple.

The strongest counter-argument is straightforward and data-backed: businesses that compound free cash flow at nearly 50% for half a decade with zero leverage and high switching-cost moats routinely confound traditional DCF anchors, and the $178 signal-adjusted fair value may simply be using too low a terminal growth or too high a discount rate for a company whose aftermarket and defense niches have historically proven counter-cyclical and certification-protected. A bull can also note that the most recent quarter’s 25% year-on-year revenue jump and 17% net margin show the operating leverage thesis is still intact, and that a pristine balance sheet means dilution or distress risk is near zero—so patient capital can still earn mid-teens IRRs if earnings power triples over five to seven years even with multiple compression. I weigh this less heavily because the deceleration in the organic growth rate is already visible, ROIC of 18% is excellent for an industrial but not scarce enough to justify 76x, and the macro-headwinds flag plus concentrated exposure to commercial aerospace cycles and defense budgets create asymmetric downside if either falters. The quality is not in dispute; the price of that quality is.

I would reverse to a neutral or constructive stance if the next two reported quarters re-accelerate organic revenue growth sustainably above 20% while holding or expanding the 17% net margin, or if a material acquisition lands that is immediately accretive enough to pull the forward P/E below 45x on updated consensus. A clear defense-budget upcycle that lifts the electronics segment faster than commercial aftermarket softens would also narrow the gap. Absent those, the stock is priced for perfection that the decelerating top-line already begins to question.

Big-3 Panel — where each AI stands
Each AI above independently stated a direction (undervalued, fairly valued, or overvalued) and how strongly it believes it (conviction, 0–5). We combine those into a Bull-Bear Index on a 0–10 scale: 5 is neutral, 10 is maximum bullish (undervalued at full conviction), 0 is maximum bearish. We compute the score ourselves with the same arithmetic for every seat — the models never grade their own bullishness — so the three are directly comparable. Δ shows how far each seat sits from the panel average of 1.3; a large Δ marks the dissenting voice, usually the one worth reading.
Claude claude-opus-4-7 2.0
overvalued · conviction 3/5 · Δ +0.7 vs panel · self: 4.0
GPT gpt-5.4 1.0
overvalued · conviction 4/5 · Δ -0.3 vs panel · self: 3.0
Grok grok-4.5 1.0
overvalued · conviction 4/5 · Δ -0.3 vs panel · self: 3.0
Advanced Analysis Forensic deep-dive · separate lenses
Separate reads — Company Quality (is it a great business?), Valuation (is it mispriced?), and General Sentiment (how macro + narrative are pushing it), plus AI Impact (how the AI wave reshapes it), kept deliberately apart · 2026-08-16 00:34:18
Delvantic - Cairn AI
Great company, bad price — watchlist only 8/10
Fortress-quality compounder (Q+80) trading at roughly 2x fair value (V-76) — I admire it, I don't buy it here.
The cruxWhether HEI's premium multiple can survive any hiccup in the acquisition-fueled growth cadence that already decelerated from 22% to 16%.
Forensic checks Derived mechanically from HEI's filed financials — not from the AI lenses
The four lensesswitch a tab for its full read — score + evidence
Company Quality
+80
Fortress
edge √Σ 147 · risk √Σ 36 · conf 8/10

Revenue grew from $1.87B in 2021 to $4.49B in 2025, a 24% CAGR, while gross margin held a tight band of 38.9-39.8% and operating margin expanded from 21.1% to 22.7%. Net income more than doubled from $304M to $690M and free cash flow tracks earnings closely ($861M FCF vs $690M net income in 2025, a 125% conversion), which is a strong tell on earnings integrity - the reported profits are cash-real, not accrual-inflated. Diluted share count crept from 137.9M to 140.8M over five years, roughly 0.4% annualized dilution, so per-share value accrues to owners rather than being siphoned to stock comp. FCF per share went from ~$2.96 to ~$6.12, more than doubling. The combination of scaling revenue, expanding margins, superb cash conversion, and disciplined share count is what a well-run aerospace aftermarket franchise looks like. Without balance sheet detail I cannot confirm leverage/liquidity, but the operating engine itself is running clean.

Strengths 4
m85
Compounding revenue with margin expansion
Revenue 2.4x in four years ($1.87B to $4.49B) while operating margin rose 160bps to 22.7% - scaling is not diluting profitability, it is enhancing it.
m80
Cash conversion validates earnings quality
2025 FCF of $861M exceeds net income of $690M (125% conversion); five-year FCF cumulative ~$2.7B versus net income ~$2.26B. Reported earnings are cash-backed.
m70
Minimal dilution
Diluted shares moved 137.9M to 140.8M over five years (~2.1% total, ~0.4% annualized) - per-share economics are protected.
m55
Consistency of gross margin
GM held 38.9-39.8% across a period of major revenue growth and heavy M&A activity in the sector - suggests pricing power and disciplined integration.
Concerns 2
m30
Balance sheet not visible in this brief
No leverage, cash, or debt schedule provided; HEI is an active acquirer historically, so debt load and interest coverage are unknowns that could temper the fortress read.
m20
No forensic modules run
Beneish/Altman/accruals not provided; the earnings-quality read rests on the cash-vs-income sanity check alone.
This looks like a genuine high-quality industrial compounder. The numbers I can see line up in the way that is hardest to fake: revenue scales, margins expand modestly, cash follows earnings dollar-for-dollar (and then some), and management is not printing shares to fund the growth. That combination is uncommon. My hesitation on pushing higher is purely epistemic - I do not have the balance sheet, and HEI is famously an M&A roll-up, so I want to see leverage and goodwill before calling it flawless. But on operating quality alone, this is Fortress territory.
Verify before trusting this (6)
  • Net debt, interest coverage, and debt maturity ladder from the latest 10-K given HEI's acquisition-driven history
  • Organic vs acquired revenue split - how much of the 24% CAGR is same-store growth
  • Goodwill and intangibles as a percentage of assets and any impairment history
  • Stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue and FCF (dilution has been contained but true cost of SBC needs confirmation)
  • Customer and program concentration in the aftermarket segment
  • Working capital dynamics - inventory build vs revenue growth
Valuation / Mispricing
-76
Rich
edge √Σ 18 · risk √Σ 118 · conf 7/10
price $374.67 vs signal-adj FV $178.07 and anchored-PE $272.34 - price sits 38% to 110% above deserved value depending on method; no margin of safety exists. attractive below $230.00

The composite fair value lands at $139.31 and the signal-adjusted FV at $178.07 versus a $374.67 price - implied downside of 52% to 62% on the e2e math. Even the most generous input, the anchored-PE at $272.34, still sits 27% below spot, while the DCF ($118.10) and EPV floor ($48.69) suggest the market is capitalizing not just current earnings power but decades of pristine compounding. I discount the EPV as a true floor (aftermarket franchises deserve a premium above no-growth earnings) and treat the anchored-PE as the most relevant read given the Fortress quality grade.

Cheap signals 1
m18
Fortress quality deserves a premium
Quality score 80, clean cash conversion, minimal dilution - the business genuinely earns a multiple above the composite. But a Fortress grade justifies maybe 30-50% above DCF, not 110%.
Rich / priced-in 4
m78
Price 110% above composite FV
$374.67 vs $139.31 composite implies -63% to fair value. Even signal-adjusted $178.07 leaves -52% downside. The gap is too large to explain away as method conservatism.
m62
Anchored-PE still says overvalued
The most quality-friendly method ($272.34, which already bakes in a premium multiple) leaves the stock 27% expensive. When even the generous lens flags it rich, the verdict is durable.
m55
Priced for perpetual perfection
At ~2.1x sales and a 110% premium to DCF, the tape requires uninterrupted aerospace aftermarket growth, continued tuck-in M&A at accretive multiples, and no defense-budget slowdown - all simultaneously.
m30
EPV floor is trivial vs price
EPV of $48.69 is 87% below spot - meaning virtually all of today's price is growth optionality, not in-place earnings. Fine for a compounder, but leaves zero downside cushion if growth wobbles.
Fully - to - richly valued. I love the business (Fortress for a reason) but I refuse to pay 2x fair value for quality the whole world already knows about. Every valuation lens I have - composite, signal-adjusted, even the generous anchored-PE - says the price is ahead of the fundamentals. I need this stock in the $220-240s before the risk-reward gets interesting; anywhere near $375 I am a spectator, not a buyer. This is the archetypal great company at a bad price.
Verify before trusting this (5)
  • Organic vs acquired growth split in latest 10-Q - is the aftermarket engine still compounding without M&A?
  • Defense budget commentary and FMS backlog trends on latest call
  • Incremental margin trajectory - any signs of mix-driven compression
  • Cash acquisition multiples paid in recent tuck-ins (are they still accretive?)
  • Any pension/lease/off-balance-sheet items that would lower the deserved equity value
General Sentiment
+27
Tailwind
tail √Σ 82 · head √Σ 54 · conf 6/10

The tape is mildly risk-on (VIX 14, S&P near highs) and HEI's 1.05 beta means it participates cleanly on up days without being punished on down days. More importantly, the active narrative on this name - platform-monopoly, strong intensity, durable, medium cult - is exactly the kind of story that gets rewarded in a calm, risk-on regime: aerospace aftermarket dominance, certification moats, serial-acquirer flywheel. That story is doing the heavy lifting on the tape and is still intact. News flow is quiet but supportive - growth-investor framing, cash-producer buy lists, sector-relative performance pieces - nothing narrative-cracking. Momentum is strong_positive on a multi-year basis, though the recent 16% vs 22% long-term deceleration is a subtle amber light that could feed the bear thesis if defense spending or M&A cadence wobbles. The lone real headwind is macro: 10y at 4.63% and market PE 26 make richly-valued long-duration compounders like HEI (trading at ~2x DCF anchor) structurally exposed to any rate scare or growth-scare rotation. Net: a persistent, moderate tailwind from narrative + tape, with a latent valuation-sensitivity risk that isn't currently being pressed.

Tailwinds 3
m62
Durable platform-monopoly narrative
Strong-intensity, durable story around irreplaceable aftermarket/defense positions is the dominant force on the tape for this name and continues to justify a premium multiple in investors' minds.
m40
Risk-on tape fits the profile
Beta 1.05 with VIX at 14 and indices near highs means the regime is a gentle following wind - not decisive, but no resistance to owning quality compounders here.
m35
Supportive, low-key news flow
Growth-stock and cash-producer framing in recent coverage reinforces the bull narrative; nothing in the 72h flow challenges the story.
Headwinds 2
m45
Rate/valuation sensitivity latent
10y 4.63% and market PE 26 with price at ~2x DCF anchor means any rate scare or multiple compression rotation would hit HEI harder than defensives - dormant now but real.
m30
Momentum deceleration
Recent 16.3% trailing vs 22.9% long-term CAGR is a mild negative divergence that could become narrative ammunition if it persists into a print.
Net pressure leans positive but not decisively so. The narrative is doing real work here - platform-monopoly stories in a calm tape get bid and stay bid - and there is nothing in the news flow or analyst tone cracking that story. I would call this a moderate tailwind: the story is intact, the tape is friendly, and the beta is benign. The one thing that keeps me from a stronger read is that HEI is exactly the kind of premium-multiple, long-duration name that would get hit disproportionately if rates or growth expectations shift - so the tailwind is real but conditional on the regime staying calm.
Verify before trusting this (4)
  • Whether recent-vs-long-term momentum gap widens into next earnings - would give bears their first real hook
  • Defense budget headlines or prime-contractor consolidation news that could pressure the aftermarket monopoly story
  • Any move in the 10y toward 5% - would disproportionately pressure premium-multiple compounders like HEI
  • M&A cadence - the serial-acquirer story needs continued deals to justify the accretion premium
The market-wide tape + this name's exposure to it (beta / sector / narrative durability). Context on the non-fundamental pressure — not a call on the business or the price. processId: detail-general-sentiment
AI Impact
+44
Favorable - physical and regulatory shield, quiet internal throughput lever
opp √Σ 112 · thr √Σ 0 · conf 7/10
AI opportunities 8
m69
Underlying Need Persistence
Aircraft will keep needing certified replacement parts regardless of how cheap intelligence gets.
m34
Solution Persistence
The PMA-alternative model persists, though additive manufacturing plus AI design could shift who supplies the long tail.
m14
Intelligence Commoditization
Cheap AI powers HEICO's reverse-engineering throughput but also arms smaller PMA rivals.
m35
Responsibility Transfer
HEICO is paid to own airworthiness liability that no airline or MRO wants on its own balance sheet.
m33
Scarcity Migration
As engineering analysis gets cheap, approvals, qualified capacity and BOM incumbency become the relatively scarcer assets — and HEICO owns them.
m42
Customer DIY Preference
Airlines and primes will not become their own certified parts manufacturers, whatever AI enables.
m45
Revenue Unit Durability
The monetized unit is a shipped certified part — no seats, no tokens, nothing AI deflates directly.
m17
Entrant Compression
Cheaper engineering lowers one barrier, but certification clock, liability and qualified production still gate entry.
AI threats 0

None surfaced.

AI barely threatens what HEICO sells and directly attacks the engineering bottleneck that caps how fast it can sell more of it. Exposure is genuinely low at 37 — the unit monetized is a certified physical part, customer DIY preference scores 84, and revenue unit durability 81 — so the AI question here is not survival but throughput: if AI compresses the reverse-engineering-to-approval cycle, organic growth de-links from the acquisition pipeline that currently carries the story. The offset, and the reason central sits at 64 rather than higher, is OEM digital authentication and data-gated service agreements fencing PMA out of the installed fleet. Watch new PMA approvals per year against the share of engines under OEM long-term service agreements — that ratio decides the direction before margins show it.
Verify before trusting this (8)
  • global fleet flight-hour trends
  • aircraft retirement vs life-extension rates
  • defense electronics program starts
  • FAA approval cycle times
  • specialty machining/casting capacity constraints
  • cleared-facility defense backlog
  • new PMA approvals per year
  • engineering headcount vs part introductions
The structural effect of the AI wave on this specific business over the next ~5 years — demand, cost leverage, moat, barriers to entry, position in the AI stack. The reality beneath the AI story, not the story's market pressure (General Sentiment owns that) — and not a call on the business today or the price.
Growth Outlook
+35
Growing
edge √Σ 117 · risk √Σ 81 · conf 8/10

The world is short of new aircraft and long of old ones. Every year OEM deliveries under-run plan, the installed fleet ages and the aftermarket — parts, repair, PMA alternatives — captures spend that would otherwise have gone into new metal. Airlines under cost pressure are structurally more willing to accept certified PMA and third-party repair, which widens HEICO's addressable share of a growing pool. In parallel, Western defense budgets are in a replenishment phase favouring electronics, sensors and munitions content over big platforms — exactly HEICO's slice. The offsets are macro (higher long rates raise the cost of the acquisition engine) and supply-chain/labour constraints on capacity to convert demand into shipments. Net: the structural wind is behind this business for several years, with the debate being rate of compounding, not direction.

Growth drivers 4
m75
Aftermarket demand structurally extended by OEM delivery shortfalls
Airlines flying older airframes longer because new-aircraft deliveries slip means more shop visits, more PMA replacement parts and more repair events — HEICO's Flight Support economics are tied to fleet utilization and age, not to new build rates, so the OEM bottleneck is a tailwind rather than a drag.
m62
Certification/BOM lock-in gives price and volume durability
Once a PMA part or a qualified defense electronic is on the bill-of-material, requalification cost keeps it there for 20+ year lifecycles. That converts today's wins into a multi-year annuity and supports the earnings YoY (+34%) running well ahead of revenue (+16%) via mix and pricing.
m48
Defense electronics and munitions-adjacent replenishment
Targeting, missile, simulation and electro-optical content sits in the part of defense budgets being replenished during the sector's expansion phase (sector demand score 2), giving a second, non-correlated growth leg to commercial aero.
m44
Serial acquisition machine with FCF to fund it
FCF CAGR 46.9% versus revenue CAGR 22.9% shows the decentralized bolt-on model converts cash and self-funds the next tuck-ins; this is the mechanism that has historically kept reported growth above the industry's 14.9% CAGR.
Growth risks 4
m61
Organic deceleration once acquisition comps lap
Revenue confidence flags the quarterly trend as decelerating. The 22.9% multi-year CAGR is inflated by large M&A; the 16.3% recent YoY is exactly the category median, implying the organic core compounds closer to low-double-digits than twenty-plus.
m39
Growth depends on deal supply and deal terms
If seller expectations stay elevated or primes buy up suppliers, the bolt-on pipeline thins and reported growth converges to organic. Higher long rates (10y 4.63) raise the hurdle on leveraged deals.
m26
Defense budget timing and program lumpiness
Continuing-resolution dynamics and program-level timing can push Electronic Technologies orders across quarters; this segment is choppier than the aftermarket and can mask underlying demand.
m24
Air-traffic/macro sensitivity
Macro backdrop is flagged as headwinds; a genuine demand shock to global flying hours would hit shop-visit volumes with a two-to-three-quarter lag. Not visible in current data, but it is the single fastest path to a Stalling print.
vs expectations: ~6m above · 1y inline · 2-3y unknown
The forward growth verdict — is the business itself likely to grow (next 2 quarters / year 1 / years 2–3), judged against its category and against printed expectations. The full horizon ladder + creme renders on the Growth Outlook card above. Not a call on the price (Valuation owns that) or the tape (Sentiment owns that).
Please log in to view trade setups
The Augustus trade-setup read is a members feature.
Log in
Lenses kept deliberately separate — Company Quality (price-agnostic), Valuation (price-conditional), General Sentiment (non-fundamental macro/narrative pressure), AI Impact (structural ~5yr AI exposure), and Growth Outlook (the forward growth verdict). The scores are not blended. Filing-level items (convertibles, lock-ups, customer concentration) are v2 — see each lens's "verify."
Price Prediction
Lower -6.1% v0.6.0 View full prediction →

When we made this prediction on Aug 16, 2026, HEI was $374.67. We expect it to be $352.00 by Feb 2027, and we consider it great value under $230.00. This is an early model (v0.6.0) — the direction is more reliable than the exact price. Made Aug 16, 2026.

Price when predicted$374.67
Our estimate for Feb 2027$352.00-6.1%
Great value below$230.00
Price history shown (6 Months)

Blue is our prediction, starting the day we made it. Grey is a slower route to the same place — the same destination, taking longer. Black is the actual price, so you can see how we are doing.

Community AI Feedback
No community reviews yet for HEI. Be the first — hit How to Contribute, have any AI review this page, and paste its take back here.
My Notes personal — only you see this
v1.1.562 · 9b2927c4 · 2026-08-22 16:52:06