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OLDER Analysis Report
Aug 17, 2026
51 days ago · 100% complete
This report is 51 days old — newer filings and price moves since then are not reflected.
For AI assistants & researchers — machine-readable summary of this page

What this page is: Delvantic's full research page for Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) — 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 2026-10-07): Designation Low · Gem Score -26 (−100…+100 Quality+Value blend) · Quality 48 · Value -75 · Sentiment -48 (timing only, not weighted) · Composite fair value $98.95 vs $449.37 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-analysis — the 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.

Rockwell Automation, Inc.

ROK NYSE
Industrials · Specialty Industrial Machinery
Milwaukee, WI 53204-2410, United States rockwellautomation.com Updated Aug 17, 12:21am
Price
$449.37
Market Cap
$50.0B
Employees
26,000
Beta
1.54
Avg Volume
824,170
Last Dividend
$5.45
CEO
Mr. Blake D. Moret

Rockwell Automation, Inc. is a leading industrial automation and digital transformation company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company provides hardware, software, and services that help manufacturers design, operate, and optimize automated production systems across sectors such as automotive, food and beverage, life sciences, energy, and heavy industries. Its intelligent devices portfolio includes drives, motors, sensors, relays, safety components, and actuators that operate at the factory floor level. Rockwell Automation’s software and control offerings span programmable automation controllers, industrial computers, human-machine interface software, visualization tools, and simulation platforms that enable integrated control and information systems. Through its lifecycle services segment, the company delivers digital consulting, engineered-to-order solutions, remote monitoring, cybersecurity services, and asset and plant maintenance and optimization support. Rockwell Automation plays a central role in enabling smart manufacturing and industrial productivity by connecting devices, control platforms, and data-driven software into unified automation and information architectures.

Runs with full report Generated: Aug 17, 2026 12:31am
Price Overview
Price at report time
$449.37
as of Aug 17, 12:37am (51d ago)
Change · Aug 17
+3.86 (+0.87%)
Day Range
$440.55 – $450.42
52-Week Range
$332.71 – $497.36
50-Day MA
$462.82
200-Day MA
$416.22
Volume
454,300.00
Right now · live
Log in to get the live feed
Members see the real-time price and the move since this report (over 51d).
Share Structure
Outstanding 111,048,676.00
Float 110,266,893.00
Free Float 99.3%
High free float — 99.3% of shares trade freely, ~0.7% 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 17, 2026 12:43am (51d ago)
Revenue & Net Income Trend
The directional story — useful even when net income is negative.
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 12:42am (51d 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 17, 2026 12:29am
P/E · trailing (TTM) (Price per dollar of earnings over the past year — not a run-rate or forward P/E)
HEX
Stock Price / EPS (Diluted)
58.59
Stock Price: $449.37
EPS (Diluted): 7.67
P/B Ratio (Price vs net asset value)
HEX
Stock Price / Book Value Per Share
13.70
Stock Price: $449.37
Total Equity: $3.71B
Shares: 113,100,000
EV/EBITDA (Total value vs operating profit)
HEX
Enterprise Value / EBITDA
25.68
Market Cap: $50.00B
Total Debt: $2.62B
Cash: $468.00M
EBITDA: $2.03B
Enterprise Value (Takeover price (cap + debt - cash))
HEX
Market Cap + Total Debt - Cash
$52.1B
Market Cap: $50.00B
Total Debt: $2.62B
Cash: $468.00M
Gross Margin (Revenue left after direct costs)
HEX
Gross Profit / Revenue
48.1%
Gross Profit: $4.02B
Revenue: $8.34B
Operating Margin (Revenue left after all operations)
HEX
Operating Income / Revenue
20.4%
Operating Income: $1.70B
Revenue: $8.34B
Net Margin (Revenue left as actual profit)
HEX
Net Income / Revenue
10.4%
Net Income: $869.00M
Revenue: $8.34B
ROE (Profit from shareholder equity)
HEX
Net Income / Total Equity
23.4%
Net Income: $869.00M
Total Equity: $3.71B
ROIC (Profit from all invested capital)
HEX
NOPAT / Invested Capital
23.7%
Operating Income: $1.70B
Tax Rate: 18.3%
Equity: $3.71B
Total Debt: $2.62B
Cash: $468.00M
Current Ratio (Can it pay short-term bills)
HEX
Current Assets / Current Liabilities
1.14
Current Assets: $3.91B
Current Liabilities: $3.45B
Debt/Equity (Leverage — debt vs equity)
HEX
Total Debt / Total Equity
0.70
Short-Term Debt: $2.00M
Long-Term Debt: $2.61B
Total Debt: $2.62B
Total Equity: $3.71B
Rev/Share (Top-line per share)
HEX
Revenue / Shares Outstanding
$73.76
Revenue: $8.34B
Shares: 113,100,000
Book Value/Share (Net assets per share)
HEX
(Total Assets - Total Liabilities) / Shares
$32.81
Total Equity: $3.71B
Shares: 113,100,000
FCF/Share (Real cash generated per share)
HEX
(Operating Cash Flow + CapEx) / Shares
$12.01
Operating CF: $1.54B
CapEx: $0.00
Shares: 113,100,000
Div Yield (Annual income from holding)
TD
Last Annual Dividend / Stock Price
1.2%
Last Dividend: $5.45
Stock Price: $449.37
Payout Ratio (Earnings paid out as dividends)
HEX
Dividends Paid / Net Income
68.0%
Dividends Paid: -$591.00M
Net Income: $869.00M
Industry Benchmarks
Last run: Aug 17, 2026 12:27am
Compares ROK 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 17, 2026 12:42am (51d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue $7.0B $7.8B $9.1B $8.3B $8.3B
Cost of Revenue $4.1B $4.7B $5.3B $5.1B $4.3B
Gross Profit $2.9B $3.1B $3.7B $3.2B $4.0B
Operating Expenses $2.1B $2.2B $1.8B $1.6B $2.3B
Operating Income $795.2M $894.4M $1.9B $1.6B $1.7B
Net Income $1.4B $932.2M $1.4B $952.5M $869.0M
EBITDA $985.0M $1.1B $2.2B $1.9B $2.0B
EPS $11.69 $8.02 $12.03 $8.32 $7.69
EPS (Diluted) $11.58 $7.97 $11.95 $8.28 $7.67
Balance Sheet (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 12:21am (51d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Cash & Equivalents $662.2M $490.7M $1.1B $471.0M $468.0M
Total Current Assets $3.1B $3.6B $4.9B $3.9B $3.9B
Total Assets $10.7B $10.8B $11.3B $11.2B $11.2B
Current Liabilities $3.0B $3.6B $3.4B $3.6B $3.4B
Long-Term Debt $3.5B — — $2.6B $2.6B
Total Liabilities $8.0B $7.7B $7.6B $7.6B $7.5B
Total Equity $2.7B $3.0B $3.7B $3.7B $3.7B
Retained Earnings $8.0B $8.4B $9.3B $9.6B $5.4B
Cash Flow (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 12:42am (51d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Operating Cash Flow $1.3B $823.1M $1.4B $863.8M $1.5B
Capital Expenditure -$120.3M -$141.1M -$160.5M — —
Free Cash Flow $1.1B $682.0M $1.2B — —
Acquisitions (net) -$2.5B -$16.6M -$168.4M -$749.2M $0
Net Debt Issued / (Repaid) $1.5B $0 -$599.8M $0 -$289.0M
Dividends Paid -$497.1M -$519.4M -$542.4M -$571.0M -$591.0M
Stock Buybacks -$299.7M -$301.3M -$311.5M -$594.9M -$425.0M
Net Change in Cash -$51.0M -$171.5M $572.5M -$609.4M -$3.0M
Growth Trends (YoY %)
Last updated: Aug 17, 2026 12:42am (51d ago)
Metric 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue Growth +10.9% +16.7% -8.8% +0.9%
Gross Profit Growth +7.1% +19.8% -14.1% +25.8%
Operating Income Growth +12.5% +115.7% -17.3% +6.8%
Net Income Growth -31.4% +48.8% -31.3% -8.8%
EBITDA Growth +15.1% +92.3% -12.3% +6.0%
Dividend History (Last 20)
Last updated: Aug 12, 2026 10:16am (56d ago)
Date Dividend Declaration Record Payment
2026-05-18 $1.38 — — —
2026-02-23 $1.38 — — —
2025-11-17 $1.38 — — —
2025-08-18 $1.31 — — —
2025-05-19 $1.31 — — —
2025-02-18 $1.31 — — —
2024-11-18 $1.31 — — —
2024-08-12 $1.25 — — —
2024-05-10 $1.25 — — —
2024-02-16 $1.25 — — —
2023-11-10 $1.25 — — —
2023-08-11 $1.18 — — —
2023-05-12 $1.18 — — —
2023-02-17 $1.18 — — —
2022-11-10 $1.18 — — —
2022-08-12 $1.12 — — —
2022-05-13 $1.12 — — —
2022-02-11 $1.12 — — —
2021-11-12 $1.12 — — —
2021-08-13 $1.07 — — —
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 18 computed · 6 not applicable
Risk : Reward — upside vs downside from this company's own quarters
Computed 2026-10-01 02:02
-0.9 : 1 +1σ upside vs −1σ downside, from this company's own quarterly history
A +1σ run of quarters pays -73%; a −1σ run costs 86%. Ratio -0.9:1 (μ 5.9%, σ 10.1% , 16 pairs).
Older method (repeat-worst-quarter): -1.0 : 1
CaseGrowthMarginFair valuevs price ($449.37)
Bull — recovery +4% 17.3% $97.32 -78%
Base — stabilizes +3% 15.0% $82.37 -82%
Bear — keeps slipping +1% 12.8% $68.64 -85%
Stress — last quarter repeats +8% 14.7% $94.26 -79%
Upside — a +1σ run of quarters (v2) +16% 14.7% $120.06 -73%
Stress — a −1σ run of quarters (v2) -4% 14.7% $64.45 -86%
The next quarters keep the trajectory of the worst recent matched quarter (ending 2026-06-30) — growth stays at 7.9% and margins bend by the same profit-vs-revenue ratio (×1.10). 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 Jun 2026, Mar 2026, Dec 2025 against the same quarters one year earlier and found revenue +10.5% · operating income +28.1% · net income +45.4% 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 Jun 30, 2026 (revenue +7.9%, operating income +21.1% YoY) — not the average. Data measured through Jun 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 ROK — it's generated by the pipeline (market-narrative step).
Growth Outlook
Analyzed 2026-08-17 16:19

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.

Holding Revenue has flattened at roughly the category's own pace (+0.9% YoY) after a multi-year contraction, with earnings still eroding but cost execution driving repeated EPS beats — a stabilizing cyclical, not a re-accelerating one. conf 6/10
Cyclical Category flat · Company recent revenue growth of +0.9% YoY is exactly the category median (+0.9%), inside an industry with a 4.1% long-run revenue CAGR that is currently in a slowdown phase with declining industry earnings. Rockwell is tracking its category, not diverging from it — no share loss signal, no share gain signal. Its multi-year -4% revenue CAGR versus a positive industry CAGR does hint at share given up during the destock/backlog unwind, but the current quarter shows convergence back to category pace.
Next 2 quarters
Holding
Revenue has flattened near zero and the mix that is holding it up — MRO, services, recurring software — is the most predictable part of the book. New-project orders remain gated by rates and by soft discrete verticals, so a real volume upturn inside two quarters is unlikely. Earnings should keep benefiting from cost actions, meaning EPS behaves better than revenue.
↑ above expectations
Year 1
Holding
A full year at roughly category pace: flat-to-slightly-positive revenue with earnings pressured by industry-wide margin compression and offset by cost programs. The lapping of the channel destock helps reported growth arithmetically, but the sector's slowdown phase caps how far above flat the year can go.
≈ inline with expectations
Years 2–3
Holding
Structurally the earnings power is defensible, not expanding fast. The installed base and reshoring pipeline argue for a return to low-to-mid single-digit revenue growth once rates normalize; industry-wide margin compression and device commoditization argue against operating leverage compounding on top of it. Absent hard evidence that software mix is bending the corporate growth rate, Holding — with a modest upward tilt — is the earned call.
↓ below expectations
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
45 Cost/margin execution beating the modelled bar — Three of the last four prints came in above analyst EPS estimates, two by double-digit percentages, against essentially flat revenue. That gap is not volume — it is cost structure, mix and pricing discipline flowing through. It says management's margin levers are still live even in a soft demand phase, and it is the single most repeatable near-term source of upside surprise.
39 Installed-base annuity: MRO, services, recurring software — Rockwell's Logix/FactoryTalk control layer is embedded in existing lines; spare parts, upgrades and service attach revenue does not require a new capex decision from the customer. This is the mechanism that put a floor under revenue this quarter while new-project orders stayed soft, and it is why the trajectory flattened rather than continued down.
32 North America reshoring / capacity capex as the structural demand pool — Rockwell is the most US-weighted major automation vendor, so domestic plant construction in food & beverage, life sciences, semis and defence lands disproportionately in its funnel. This is a real multi-year pipeline, but it converts slowly and is currently being throttled by financing costs, so treat it as a years-2-3 driver, not a next-2q one.
28 Post-destocking comparison base — The multi-year record (-4% revenue CAGR, -21% earnings CAGR) embeds a distributor/channel inventory unwind that is largely complete. Once a destock laps, reported growth mechanically improves without any demand improvement — the +0.9% YoY is likely the first evidence of that arithmetic.
Growth risks
49 Sector is entering slowdown, not exiting one — Sector demand phase reads slowdown with a negative demand score, and industry earnings are declining at -8.9% CAGR. A stabilizing company inside a decelerating category can re-roll over; the flat quarter is not yet proof of an upturn, and orders in discrete automation (auto/EV, semiconductor tooling) remain the swing factor Rockwell least controls.
43 Industry-wide margin compression — Net margins across the industry are down 3.5pp over three years, and Rockwell's own earnings are still falling (-8.8% YoY) despite the EPS beats. Commoditization at the intelligent-devices layer and lower-cost Asian and European competition attack the hardware gross margin that funds the software story. Cost programs mask this for a while; they do not reverse it.
36 High-rate macro defers the capex decision — 10y at 4.63% with a macro-headwinds backdrop directly lengthens payback math on discretionary line automation and greenfield plants. Automation capex is deferrable by a quarter or three with little operational cost to the customer — precisely the spending that goes last and returns last.
36 Structural growth must be earned by software, and evidence is thin — The bull case requires the software/digital stack (FactoryTalk, Plex, Fiix) to become a growth engine large enough to change the corporate rate. Nothing in the measured trajectory yet shows software mix bending total revenue upward; until it does, the group behaves as a mature cyclical equipment supplier with a services annuity.
The world's automation demand is real but currently rate-gated. Manufacturers still want fewer people per line, more traceability in pharma and food, and supply chains nearer to end markets — all structurally pro-Rockwell. But with the 10y near 4.6% and a flat curve, the capex committee defers, and the deferral shows up first in exactly Rockwell's discrete-automation order book. Meanwhile the value inside a factory is drifting from the controller box toward the software and data layer, where Rockwell has assets but faces Siemens' scale and hyperscaler-adjacent entrants, and toward lower-cost device suppliers at the commodity end. The honest read: a mature, essential franchise inside a flat category, with a genuine multi-year reshoring pipeline that arrives on the far side of the rate cycle rather than inside the next two prints.
Growth position composite -10
ShrinkingStallingHoldingGrowingAccelerating
50Next 2 quarters · Holding
50Year 1 · Holding
50Years 2–3 · Holding
-10Composite (−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 2026-08-17 00:41:45
Verdict Overvalued but not catastrophically so — fair value $320-$380 on run-rate earnings, not the $155 the composite suggests; trim into strength, don't short, revisit if Q4 FY26 margin holds above 15%.

The raw quarterly trajectory tells a more constructive story than the models credit. Sequential revenue has climbed four straight quarters — $1.88B → $2.00B → $2.14B → $2.24B → $2.31B — and net margin has expanded from 9.8% to 17.6% over that same span. The trailing four quarters annualize to roughly $8.98B revenue and ~$1.40B net income, versus fiscal 2025's $8.34B/$869M. That's a run-rate earnings recovery of ~60% from the trough, not the "deteriorating value trap" the Market Forces model describes. The 5-year revenue CAGR of -4% is a backward-looking artifact of the FY2023 $9.06B peak; the forward inflection is real and visible in the last three prints. This is a cyclical industrial coming off a destock trough, and the models leaning hard on TTM P/E of 58x are anchoring on stale earnings.

That said, the synthesis verdict of "overvalued" is directionally correct — just overstated. Recompute on run-rate: $50B market cap on ~$1.4B run-rate NI is ~36x forward, on ~$9B revenue is 5.6x P/S. That's still rich for a mid-single-digit grower, but nowhere near the $155 "signal-adjusted fair value" the composite spits out. A $155 target implies ROK trades at ~11x run-rate earnings — Rockwell has not traded there in a decade absent GFC-style dislocation. Historical fair range for ROK at mid-cycle is 22-28x forward, which puts fair value in the $310-$395 zone on $1.4B run-rate NI, or higher if the Q3 FY26 17.6% margin proves sustainable rather than a working-capital/tax quirk (the Q4 FY25 collapse to 6% margin suggests these prints are noisy). The narrative-economics layer nails the setup: the $449 price requires either sustained margin expansion above historical peak (~20% operating) or a software re-rating that hasn't shown up in disclosed segment mix.

The contrarian pushback to my own read: the FY25 annual gross margin of 48.1% versus FY24's 38.6% on similar revenue is suspiciously large and worth interrogating — is that a reclassification, a one-timer, or genuine mix shift? If genuine, ROK is further along the software transition than bears claim and 36x forward is defensible. If it's an accounting artifact, the earnings recovery is thinner than the quarterly trajectory suggests. Second, debt-to-equity of 0.70 and current ratio of 1.14 aren't alarming but they do constrain buyback-driven EPS support if the cycle rolls over again. Third, the insider data is essentially useless — two tiny transactions in July 2026 tells us nothing. The Thesis Evaluation's -19 score feels roughly right in magnitude but its "revenue directly contradicts" framing ignores that the contradiction resolved two quarters ago.

I partially dissent from the synthesis. The stock is overvalued, but the $155 fair value is a DCF artifact that over-penalizes a company mid-recovery with visible sequential acceleration and margin expansion. My fair value range is $320-$380, implying 15-30% downside from $449 rather than the model's -65%. This is a "wait or trim" situation, not a "short the value trap" setup. The Market Forces "deteriorating" call will look wrong if the next two prints confirm the margin trajectory; conversely, if Q4 FY26 reverts to the 6-12% margin band that dominated the prior two years, the bear case snaps back into force. The asymmetry doesn't favor buyers at $449 — you're paying peak-multiple for a cyclical whose peak-earnings sustainability is unproven — but the models calling for a two-thirds haircut are as narrative-driven in their bearishness as the market is in its bullishness.

GPT Reading
Independent reading · gpt-5.4 · generated 2026-08-17 00:42:00
Verdict Overvalued at $449 — high-quality franchise, but the current price assumes a durable earnings step-up and software-style multiple that the revenue and profit history do not yet justify; fair value looks closer to $300-$340.

At $449, Rockwell is being valued like a high-quality compounder with a clear runway, but the actual income statement still looks like a cyclical industrial clawing out of a soft patch rather than a software-like growth asset. Revenue over the last four reported quarters sums to about $8.98B, up versus the prior four-quarter base of roughly $8.06B, so the business is recovering, but that is only about 11% trailing growth off a depressed level and still does not erase the fact that annual revenue was $9.06B in 2023, fell to $8.26B in 2024, and only reached $8.34B in 2025. That is not the profile that usually supports 6.1x sales, 25.7x EV/EBITDA, and 58.6x earnings. What stands out most is that earnings have improved sharply quarter to quarter in 2026 — net income moved from $305M to $350M to $408M over the last three quarters, with net margin rising from 14.5% to 15.6% to 17.6% — but the market is already capitalizing that recovery as if it is both durable and just the beginning of a much steeper multi-year margin expansion.

The key contradiction is between quality and valuation, not between quality and survival. This is a good business. Gross margin in fiscal 2025 was 48.1%, operating margin 20.4%, ROIC 23.7%, and operating cash flow $1.54B on $8.34B of revenue. Debt is manageable at $2.62B against $3.71B of equity, even if cash of $468M is not especially large. Those are the numbers of a solid franchise, and the rebound in quarterly margins suggests the trough may already be behind it. But paying 13.7x book and nearly 60x annual earnings for a company whose annual net income was $869M in 2025 versus $952.5M in 2024 and $1.39B in 2023 is a leap. Even if I annualize the most recent quarter’s $408M net income, I get about $1.63B of run-rate earnings; that would put the stock closer to 31x that more optimistic number, still rich for a company with low-single-digit to low-teens top-line growth and obvious cyclicality.

The market seems to be giving Rockwell credit for three things at once: a clean manufacturing capex rebound, software-and-services mix improvement, and sustained margin recovery. Maybe one or two of those happen, but at this price the company needs almost all of them. Annual operating income was $1.93B in 2023, then $1.60B in 2024, then $1.70B in 2025; that looks like a business oscillating with demand, not one that has already structurally re-rated into a platform model. The low point in 2025’s September quarter is especially revealing: revenue was actually the highest of the eight quarters shown at $2.32B, yet net income was only $138M, a 6.0% margin. That tells you this business can still produce ugly earnings outcomes even when revenue looks decent, which is exactly why a premium multiple should be earned cautiously. My read is straightforward: Rockwell deserves a quality premium to average industrials, but not a valuation that implies a near-frictionless transition to a higher-growth, higher-multiple model. Fair value looks materially below the current price; even a generous 24-28x normalized earnings framework points far closer to the low $300s than to $449.

The strongest pushback is that the numbers may be understating an inflection already underway. The latest four quarters show sequential revenue of $1.88B, $2.00B, $2.14B, $2.32B, then $2.11B, $2.24B, $2.31B depending on fiscal seasonality, and margins have clearly rebuilt in 2026. If the business can hold quarterly net income around $350M-$400M while returning to annual revenue above the 2023 peak, then 2025 was just a temporary inventory-and-capex air pocket. On that view, the 23%-plus ROE and ROIC metrics, the 48% gross margin, and strong operating cash generation justify a persistent scarcity premium because there are not many scaled industrial automation assets with this installed base and customer stickiness. I take that argument seriously. I just weigh it less heavily because the current valuation does not merely anticipate normalization; it anticipates sustained outperformance after normalization. That is a much harder hurdle.

What would change my mind is evidence that the recovery is broad enough to support the premium. Specifically, I would want to see annual revenue clearly exceed the old $9.06B high, not just drift around $8.3B-$9.0B, while maintaining operating margin above 20% and net margin consistently in the mid-to-high teens rather than bouncing around. If the next few quarters show revenue holding above $2.3B with net income staying in the $375M-$425M range, then the earnings power is stronger than the 2024-2025 trough suggested and a higher valuation floor is warranted. Short of that, the stock looks priced for a best-case industrial recovery plus software halo that the reported data still does not fully prove.

Grok Reading
Independent reading · grok-4.5 · generated 2026-08-17 00:42:43
Verdict Overvalued at $449 — quality industrial with real margin recovery, but 58× earnings and 6× sales price a software platform transformation the revenue line has not delivered

The numbers describe a classic late-cycle industrial that has already lost its peak earnings power and is only now clawing back, yet the stock trades as if the transformation is already complete. Annual revenue peaked at $9.06B in fiscal 2023, slipped to $8.26B in 2024, and barely recovered to $8.34B in 2025—a −4% revenue CAGR that sits awkwardly beside a 58.6× trailing P/E, 6.1× sales, and 25.7× EV/EBITDA. Net income tells the same story more sharply: $1.39B in 2023, $953M in 2024, $869M in 2025, an earnings CAGR of roughly −21%. Against that backdrop the $449 price and $50B enterprise imply the market has fully underwritten a multi-year V-recovery plus a durable software re-rating. The balance sheet does not give management unlimited room to buy that future either: $2.62B of debt against only $468M cash, a current ratio of 1.14, and a 68% payout ratio leave limited dry powder if the cycle stalls again.

What does stand out positively—and what the pure DCF at ~$156 underweights—is the unmistakable margin inflection in the last several quarters. Net margin compressed to 6% in the September 2025 quarter, then marched steadily higher: 14.5%, 15.6%, and 17.6% by June 2026, with absolute net income rising from $305M to $350M to $408M. Gross margin for the full 2025 year jumped to 48.1% from roughly 39% the prior year, and operating margin reached 20.4%. That is not accounting noise; it is consistent with a richer software-and-services mix inside the “connected enterprise” story. ROE and ROIC both sit near 23–24%, and operating cash flow of $1.54B confirms the earnings are real cash. Sequential revenue has also stabilized and begun to grind higher ($1.88B → $2.00B → $2.14B → $2.32B → $2.11B → $2.24B → $2.31B). So the trough appears to be behind the company, and the quality of the earnings stream is improving even while top-line growth remains anemic.

Still, quality improvement is not the same as the growth acceleration required to justify today’s multiple. Annualizing the latest quarter’s $408M net income produces a ~$1.6B run-rate; even on that optimistic base the stock is still ~31× forward earnings and more than 5× sales for a business whose recent revenue growth is under 1% year-over-year. The valuation synthesis fair value near $156–$179 is directionally correct: the gap to $449 is almost pure narrative premium—the bet that Rockwell becomes a platform monopoly with 40%+ recurring mix and step-function TAM expansion from reshoring and AI-enabled automation. Nothing in the reported revenue line yet validates that step-function. The 0.9% recent revenue growth and decelerating quarterly trend directly contradict the explosive digital-transformation pricing embedded in the 58× multiple.

The strongest case against an overvalued verdict is precisely that margin and cash-flow trajectory. A skeptic of the bear case would note that fiscal 2025 already delivered a 900-basis-point gross-margin expansion and that the last three quarters have produced mid-teens net margins the company has not sustained in years. If that mix shift continues and revenue re-accelerates even into the mid-single digits as industrial CapEx normalizes, the forward multiple compresses rapidly through the earnings denominator rather than through a price collapse. High returns on capital and sticky installed base in auto, pharma, and food give the bull case real industrial logic; the market is simply paying for the entire optionality today. I weigh the recent operational progress as genuine but insufficient to close a nearly 3× gap to cash-flow value when revenue itself has still not reclaimed the 2023 peak and the balance sheet carries meaningful leverage into a still-uncertain CapEx cycle.

I would flip toward neutral or undervalued only if the next two reported quarters show organic revenue growth sustainably above 8% year-over-year while net margins hold above 15%, or if management discloses recurring software/subscription revenue crossing roughly 30% of the mix with clear net retention metrics. A material reduction in net debt or a forward P/E compressing below 25× through earnings delivery (rather than multiple contraction alone) would also force a reassessment. Until then the stock remains a high-quality industrial priced for perfection it has not yet earned.

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: 3.0
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), kept deliberately apart · 2026-08-17 00:52:59
Delvantic - Cairn AI
Great business, bad price - pass, buy list below 320 8/10
High-quality automation franchise priced like a software platform it isn't - pass here, buyer's list starts in the low 300s.
The cruxThe gap between a real but flat industrial (+48 quality) and a stock at ~2.5x DCF fair value (-75) is the whole trade; nothing about the price makes sense unless the digital-factory re-rate arrives on schedule.
Forensic checks Derived mechanically from ROK's filed financials — not from the AI lenses
DilutionShare Count Shrinking
Earnings QualityHigh Earnings Quality
The four lensesswitch a tab for its full read — score + evidence
Company Quality
+48
Strong
edge √Σ 116 · risk √Σ 64 · conf 8/10

Rockwell shows the hallmarks of a high-quality mature industrial: gross margin expanded to 48.1% in 2025 from ~40% earlier, operating margin sits at ~20% (up from ~11% pre-2023), and FCF reached $1.54B on $8.34B revenue (~18% FCF margin). Earnings quality is clean — OCF/NI of 1.1x, accruals -0.6% of assets, Beneish M of -2.79, and Altman Z of 5.97 all point to real, cash-backed earnings with no manipulation flags. Capital discipline is a genuine strength: diluted shares fell from 117.1M to 113.1M (a -0.9% CAGR), SBC is a modest ~1% of revenue, and buyback/SBC of 491.8% means the company is a meaningful net repurchaser. The concerns are directional rather than structural. Revenue growth has stalled — after peaking at $9.06B in 2023, sales dropped to $8.26B in 2024 and only edged up to $8.34B in 2025 — and net income has actually declined for two straight years (from $1.39B in 2023 to $869M in 2025) despite margin expansion, suggesting mix/one-time items are flattering GM% while volume/orders soften. This is consistent with a late-cycle automation slowdown, not a broken business. Insider activity is neutral/non-signal (a single small option-exercise-and-sell). Altman Z of 5.97 indicates a solid balance sheet, though liquidity module was unavailable so leverage specifics are unverified here.

Strengths 4
m70
Clean earnings quality
OCF/NI 1.1x, accruals -0.6% of assets, Beneish M -2.79, Altman Z 5.97 — no mechanical red flags; 2025 FCF of $1.54B exceeded net income of $869M.
m60
Per-share discipline
Diluted shares down from 117.1M to 113.1M over 5 years (-0.9% CAGR); buybacks are ~4.9x SBC, so per-share value is being concentrated.
m55
Structural margin step-up
Operating margin roughly doubled from ~11% in 2021-22 to ~20% in 2023-25; gross margin hit 48.1% in 2025 vs 38.6% in 2024, suggesting mix/pricing leverage.
m45
High FCF conversion
2025 FCF of $1.54B on $8.34B revenue = ~18% FCF margin, the strongest of the 5-year window.
Concerns 3
m55
Revenue and earnings stagnation
Revenue peaked at $9.06B in 2023 and has since fallen to $8.34B; net income fell from $1.39B (2023) to $869M (2025) despite higher stated margins.
m30
Margin/earnings mismatch
GM jumped from 38.6% to 48.1% year-over-year while net income still declined — worth verifying whether one-time gains or reclassifications flatter the 2025 gross line.
m15
Liquidity module absent
Cannot directly verify debt/cash position; Altman Z of 5.97 implies safety but leverage specifics unconfirmed here.
This looks like a genuinely high-quality industrial franchise going through a cyclical soft patch. The earnings are real, the cash conversion is strong, and management is quietly shrinking the share count rather than diluting — those are the marks of a well-run mature earner. What keeps me from calling it a fortress is the flat-to-down revenue since 2023 and the fact that net income has fallen two years running even as reported margins expand; I want to understand whether the 2025 GM spike is durable before crediting a step-change. Net-net, a solid business I'd rate in the upper-middle of the quality distribution, not elite, not stressed.
Verify before trusting this (5)
  • Whether the 2025 gross margin jump to 48.1% reflects durable mix/pricing or a one-time reclassification or gain
  • Net debt, revolver capacity, and maturity schedule (liquidity module was unavailable)
  • Order book / book-to-bill trend to confirm the revenue softness is cyclical, not share-loss
  • Segment detail on Intelligent Devices vs Software & Control vs Lifecycle Services to locate the weakness
  • Any restructuring charges or asset sales inflating 2025 operating margin
Valuation / Mispricing
-75
Rich
edge √Σ 20 · risk √Σ 118 · conf 7/10
Price $449 vs composite deserved ~$179 (signal-adj $156); price is ~2.5x fair value - roughly 60-65% above deserved. attractive below $300.00

The e2e synthesis pins composite fair value at $178.61 and signal-adjusted at $155.70 against a $449.37 price - implying the market is paying roughly 2.5x deserved value. DCF ($110) and EPV ($103) both anchor well below price; only the anchored-PE method ($392) gets close, and even that sits ~13% under spot. When three of three methods say rich and the most generous one still says modestly rich, the honest read is that ROK is expensively priced. The $50B market cap capitalizes a business whose revenue has been flat-to-down since 2023 and whose net income has slid two years running - fine for a quality compounder at a fair price, but not at ~30x on depressed earnings. What is priced in: a durable re-acceleration into a digital-factory upgrade cycle with margin expansion. What is not priced in: continued cyclical softness, share loss to lower-cost automation vendors, or a multi-year revenue plateau. Quality is real (clean earnings, buybacks, sticky installed base) and lifts the deserved multiple - but not to 2.5x DCF. Margin of safety is negative here.

Cheap signals 1
m20
Quality lifts deserved multiple
Strong earnings quality, buybacks, and sticky installed base justify a premium over pure DCF/EPV - but not the 2-3x gap seen here.
Rich / priced-in 4
m78
Composite FV far below price
Composite $178.61 and signal-adjusted $155.70 vs $449.37 spot imply -65% downside; two independent methods (DCF $110, EPV $103) corroborate the gap.
m55
Even the generous anchor is below price
Anchored-PE of $392 - the most price-friendly method, which already bakes in a premium multiple - still sits ~13% under $449, meaning no method supports today's quote.
m60
Paying growth multiple for flat fundamentals
Revenue flat-to-down since 2023 and net income lower two years running, yet the stock trades at a premium multiple that requires a durable digital-factory upcycle to reappear.
m35
Bull case is the price
The platform-monopoly narrative (exponential automation adoption, software attach) is already embedded; if it merely plays out on schedule, returns from $449 are pedestrian.
This is a great company at a bad price. Every serious valuation method - DCF, EPV, even a generous anchored PE - lands below $449, and the composite says fair value is closer to $180. Even if I generously double the DCF to reward the franchise quality and optionality, I get to maybe $220. I would need to see this in the $280-320 zone before I would call it interesting, and honestly nearer $250 for a real margin of safety. At today's quote the market is already paying for the digital-automation super-cycle - I would rather wait and let a cyclical air-pocket give me the entry.
Verify before trusting this (4)
  • Order book and book-to-bill trend in latest 10-Q to test cyclical inflection
  • Software/ARR mix and growth rate - does it justify a software-like multiple
  • FY guidance for revenue and segment margins
  • Any one-time restructuring charges depressing current EPS that could normalize higher
General Sentiment
-48
Headwind
tail √Σ 53 · head √Σ 106 · conf 6/10

The macro tape is mildly supportive - VIX 14, S&P near highs, risk-on regime - and with a 1.54 beta ROK should mechanically catch a bid in that environment. But stock-specific sentiment is working against it: the platform-monopoly narrative is intact but visibly fraying, evidenced by a 7.4% drop on Aug 4 into a beat-and-raise print. That is a textbook 'narrative exhaustion' tell - when good news is sold, the marginal buyer is gone and the story is doing the heavy lifting alone at ~3x DCF fair value.

Tailwinds 2
m35
Risk-on tape lifts high-beta industrials
With beta 1.54 and a calm VIX of 14, the established risk-on regime provides mechanical support. But this is a broad tailwind, not ROK-specific, and modest against the narrative cracks.
m40
AI-industrial narrative still gets airtime
The Plex/VisionAI integration and CMMS/predictive-maintenance headlines keep ROK tagged to the AI-in-factories theme - a medium-cult narrative that can flare back on any AI-capex headline.
Headwinds 4
m70
Beat-and-raise sold hard
ROK dropped 7.4% on Aug 4 despite beating Q3 and raising guidance. That is the signature of a stock priced for perfection where the marginal buyer has left - sentiment tell of a fading, not strengthening, story.
m55
Negative price momentum
-4% CAGR and -4.9pp over 3y signals the tape has been quietly de-rating this name even in an up market. Momentum-followers are not on this side of the trade.
m45
Valuation-anxiety headlines dominate flow
Recent coverage explicitly frames ROK as 'too expensive' with DCF and multiples flagging overvaluation. That framing seeds analyst caution and shapes the tone incoming buyers face.
m35
Rates backdrop unhelpful for long-duration story
10y at 4.63% and market PE 26 do not favor a name whose price implicitly requires a step-change in margin/growth several years out.
The story here is fading, not breaking - and that is a real headwind even in a friendly tape. When a stock drops 7% on a beat-and-raise, the market is telling you the narrative is doing all the work and running out of believers. Risk-on and high beta give a modest mechanical lift, but flows and framing (expensive, DCF-stretched, price momentum negative) are pushing the other way. Net: headwind, not catastrophic - the story still has enough AI-adjacent oxygen to prevent a rout, but the pressure is downward.
Verify before trusting this (4)
  • Whether the next earnings print is again sold on strong numbers - would confirm narrative exhaustion
  • Any sell-side downgrade citing valuation - would accelerate the de-rate
  • AI-capex or reshoring headlines that could re-ignite the platform-monopoly story
  • Sector rotation into defensives that would strip the beta tailwind
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
Growth Outlook
-10
Holding
edge √Σ 73 · risk √Σ 83 · conf 6/10

The world's automation demand is real but currently rate-gated. Manufacturers still want fewer people per line, more traceability in pharma and food, and supply chains nearer to end markets — all structurally pro-Rockwell. But with the 10y near 4.6% and a flat curve, the capex committee defers, and the deferral shows up first in exactly Rockwell's discrete-automation order book. Meanwhile the value inside a factory is drifting from the controller box toward the software and data layer, where Rockwell has assets but faces Siemens' scale and hyperscaler-adjacent entrants, and toward lower-cost device suppliers at the commodity end. The honest read: a mature, essential franchise inside a flat category, with a genuine multi-year reshoring pipeline that arrives on the far side of the rate cycle rather than inside the next two prints.

Growth drivers 4
m45
Cost/margin execution beating the modelled bar
Three of the last four prints came in above analyst EPS estimates, two by double-digit percentages, against essentially flat revenue. That gap is not volume — it is cost structure, mix and pricing discipline flowing through. It says management's margin levers are still live even in a soft demand phase, and it is the single most repeatable near-term source of upside surprise.
m39
Installed-base annuity: MRO, services, recurring software
Rockwell's Logix/FactoryTalk control layer is embedded in existing lines; spare parts, upgrades and service attach revenue does not require a new capex decision from the customer. This is the mechanism that put a floor under revenue this quarter while new-project orders stayed soft, and it is why the trajectory flattened rather than continued down.
m32
North America reshoring / capacity capex as the structural demand pool
Rockwell is the most US-weighted major automation vendor, so domestic plant construction in food & beverage, life sciences, semis and defence lands disproportionately in its funnel. This is a real multi-year pipeline, but it converts slowly and is currently being throttled by financing costs, so treat it as a years-2-3 driver, not a next-2q one.
m28
Post-destocking comparison base
The multi-year record (-4% revenue CAGR, -21% earnings CAGR) embeds a distributor/channel inventory unwind that is largely complete. Once a destock laps, reported growth mechanically improves without any demand improvement — the +0.9% YoY is likely the first evidence of that arithmetic.
Growth risks 4
m49
Sector is entering slowdown, not exiting one
Sector demand phase reads slowdown with a negative demand score, and industry earnings are declining at -8.9% CAGR. A stabilizing company inside a decelerating category can re-roll over; the flat quarter is not yet proof of an upturn, and orders in discrete automation (auto/EV, semiconductor tooling) remain the swing factor Rockwell least controls.
m43
Industry-wide margin compression
Net margins across the industry are down 3.5pp over three years, and Rockwell's own earnings are still falling (-8.8% YoY) despite the EPS beats. Commoditization at the intelligent-devices layer and lower-cost Asian and European competition attack the hardware gross margin that funds the software story. Cost programs mask this for a while; they do not reverse it.
m36
High-rate macro defers the capex decision
10y at 4.63% with a macro-headwinds backdrop directly lengthens payback math on discretionary line automation and greenfield plants. Automation capex is deferrable by a quarter or three with little operational cost to the customer — precisely the spending that goes last and returns last.
m36
Structural growth must be earned by software, and evidence is thin
The bull case requires the software/digital stack (FactoryTalk, Plex, Fiix) to become a growth engine large enough to change the corporate rate. Nothing in the measured trajectory yet shows software mix bending total revenue upward; until it does, the group behaves as a mature cyclical equipment supplier with a services annuity.
vs expectations: ~6m above · 1y inline · 2-3y below
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).
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Lenses kept deliberately separate — Company Quality (price-agnostic), Valuation (price-conditional), General Sentiment (non-fundamental macro/narrative pressure), 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 -12.1% v0.6.0 View full prediction →

When we made this prediction on Aug 17, 2026, ROK was $449.37. We expect it to be $395.00 by Feb 2027, and we consider it great value under $300.00. This is an early model (v0.6.0) — the direction is more reliable than the exact price. Made Aug 17, 2026.

Price when predicted$449.37
Our estimate for Feb 2027$395.00-12.1%
Great value below$300.00
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.

Post-Report Due Diligence NOTES
The report is written. This is what its valuation stands on.
Analyzed Oct 1, 2026 · 02:02 6d ago
Read epv-floor ext-gem-composite anchored-pe · FY income statement, balance sheet
1 finding · $0, re-derived on each view

Evidence for a closer look, not a verdict — no score or designation on this page has been changed by it. Items marked material are ones where a conclusion above moves to the other side of the price.

anchored-pe — the "fair value below price" reading turns on 2 inputs NOTE found by sensitivity, not by rule
Published $365.53 vs price $449.37. Nudging `trailing_eps` (up 25%), `adjusted_pe` (up 25%) moves the fair value to the other side of the price. This does not say those inputs are wrong — it says they are where to look first.
trailing_eps flips up 25% adjusted_pe flips up 25%
Price at analysis $449.37. This is where an investigation should start — it is not where one ends. Nothing here was checked against the filings, the tape, or the news; that is the investigator's job.
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My Notes personal — only you see this
v1.1.760 · f4b58a28 · 2026-10-07 20:07:48