Applied Industrial's Engineered Solutions Growth Picks Up: More Upside to Come?

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. AIT is poised for growth on the back of strength across its served markets of technology, food & beverage, pulp & paper and oil & gas. Solid demand for the company’s technical offerings, including motion control, specialty flow control and automation solutions, due to increased investments across data center infrastructure and semiconductor manufacturing markets, is driving the Engineered Solutions segment.

Favorable order trends across automation, technology and industrial verticals are likely to support the segment’s revenues in the quarters ahead. However, declining sales in fluid power components, due to weak demand from off-highway mobile OEM customers, remain concerning. The Engineered Solutions segment’s organic revenues increased 1.8% year over year in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 (ended June 30, 2025).

Applied Industrial intends to strengthen and expand its business through buyouts. For instance, in May 2025, the company acquired IRIS Factory Automation (“IRIS”). The acquisition is expected to boost AIT’s automation offerings and has been integrated into the Engineered Solutions segment. Acquisitions boosted sales by 19.7% for the Engineered Solutions segments in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Segment Snapshot of AIT’s Peers

EnerSys ENS is witnessing strength in its Energy Systems segment, supported by the expansion of U.S. communications networks and AI-driven data demand. Revenues from EnerSys’ Energy Systems segment increased 8.4% in first-quarter fiscal 2026 (ended June 30, 2025). The global megatrends, including the expansion of 5G, rural broadband build-outs, the modernization of energy grids, electrification, automation and decarbonization, are likely to be favorable for EnerSys.

Another peer, Roper Technologies, Inc. ROP, is benefiting from solid momentum in Technology enabled Products segment. Strength in Roper’s Neptune business, due to continued demand for ultrasonic meters and cloud-based data and billing software solutions, is fostering the segment’s growth. Roper expects high-single-digit organic revenue growth for the segment in the second half of 2025.

AIT’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of Applied Industrial have surged 14.7% in the past three months compared with the industry’s growth of 8%.

From a valuation standpoint, AIT is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 24.23X, above the industry’s average of 21.14X. Applied Industrial carries a Value Score of C.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AIT’s fiscal 2026 (ending June 2026) earnings has inched down 0.4% over the past 60 days.

Applied Industrial currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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