Applied Industrial Technologies is a high-quality industrial distribution franchise — earning a perfect 9-out-of-9 Piotroski financial health score and recognized as best-in-class among peers on margins — but the stock trades just 1.2% below its price target with a risk/reward ratio of 0.26-to-1 that is deeply unfavorable for new exposure. Falling on-balance volume and a 2.2x average-volume surge on a recent selloff day introduce a near-term distribution signal that adds caution to an otherwise sound fundamental picture.
Thesis pillars
- Stretched Valuation Unfavorable Risk Reward↑Improving
- Piotroski Perfect Score Best In Class Margins→Stable
- Bearish Volume Distribution Signal↑Improving
- +1 more pillar — see the Why tab for full reasoning
Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) Stock Analysis
Industrials · Industrial Distribution
Hold if already holding. Not a fresh buy at $324.75, but acceptable to hold if already in. Reasons: Concentration risk — Product: Service Center segment (66.0%); Concentration risk — Geographic: United States (88.0%).
Applied Industrial Technologies distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technologies and provides related technical services — including MRO fulfillment, engineering, and systems integration — through a network of approximately 600 facilities and 6,800... Read more
Hold if already holding. Not a fresh buy at $324.75, but acceptable to hold if already in. Reasons: Concentration risk — Product: Service Center segment (66.0%); Concentration risk — Geographic: United States (88.0%). Chart setup: No clear chart pattern; technical signals are mixed. Multiple concerning factors. Consider reducing position. | News modifier +1 (SELL_IF_HOLDING → HOLD_IF_HOLDING) Score 5.8/10, moderate confidence.
Passes 6/8 gates (clean insider activity, no SEC red flags, news events none recent, earnings proximity 53d clear, semi cycle peak clear, materials cycle peak clear). Fails on weak momentum and favorable risk/reward ratio. Suitability: moderate.
About Applied Industrial Technologies
About Applied Industrial Technologies
Applied Industrial Technologies generated 66% of fiscal 2025 sales from its Service Center segment and 34% from Engineered Solutions, distributing industrial bearings, power transmission products, fluid power components, and automation technologies through roughly 600 facilities and 6,800 employee associates. The United States accounted for 88% of fiscal 2025 sales, with the remainder split between Canada (6%) and Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Costa Rica combined (6%).
Applied earns revenue by purchasing from thousands of manufacturers and reselling more than 9.2 million stock-keeping units to thousands of customers across food processing, chemicals, fabricated metals, mining, oil and gas, and other industrial end markets, layering on services such as inventory management, engineering, design, assembly, repair, and systems integration. The company operates as a non-exclusive distributor for its suppliers, many of which it has worked with for decades, and earns purchasing incentives tied to volume growth that can compress if customer demand softens. After the cost of products sold, labor is Applied's largest expense. The higher-margin Engineered Solutions segment — fluid power, flow control, and automation — contributes over 40% of consolidated EBITDA despite generating only 34% of sales, making segment mix a key driver of margin expansion alongside the company's acquisition-led growth strategy in a highly fragmented distribution market.
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Applied's risk profile is skewed toward supplier relationships rather than customer concentration — no single customer accounts for more than 5% of fiscal 2025 sales — but the 10-K flags that many key supplier relationships, while longstanding, are terminable by either party, and a supplier could change pricing, authorized territories, or the number of distributor authorizations it grants. Suppliers also pay volume-based purchasing incentives that Applied is less inclined to chase when customer demand softens, so a downturn can compress profitability from two directions at once — lower sales and reduced rebate income — a risk layered on top of $572.3 million of total debt outstanding at fiscal year-end.
See also: Industrials · Industrial Distribution
From Applied Industrial Technologies's most recent 10-K filing, extracted August 23, 2026.
Recent developments
updated 2026-09-04Recent Developments — Applied Industrial Technologies
Latest news
- NEWS Here’s How Much You Would Have Made Owning Applied Industrial Techs Stock In The Last 5 Years - Sahm — Sahm positive
- NEWS AIT Corp Sees FY Net Y3.39B - Moomoo — Moomoo positive
- NEWS Tema ETFs LLC Acquires 8,920 Shares of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. $AIT - MarketBeat — MarketBeat neutral
- NEWS AIT Maintained by Mizuho -- Price Target Raised to $355 - GuruFocus — GuruFocus positive
- NEWS Is Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) Still Below Fair Value Or Already Fully Valued? - Yahoo Finance — Yahoo Finance neutral
Generated 2026-09-04T15:42:07Z.
Upcoming dated catalysts
Thesis
Key Metrics
Quality Signals
Options Flow
Concentration Risks(10-K Item 1A)
- HIGHProductService Center segment66%10-K Item 1: 'our Service Center segment represented 66% of our total sales'
- HIGHGeographicUnited States88%10-K Item 1: 'Our operations are primarily based in the United States where 88% of our fiscal 2025 sales were generated.'
Model-generated analysis — not investment advice. Not a registered investment advisor. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
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Rating Breakdown
10 dimensions · all in-band
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Position Sizing
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Earnings
Verdict History
Frequently Asked Questions
Hold if already holding. Not a fresh buy at $324.75, but acceptable to hold if already in. Reasons: Concentration risk — Product: Service Center segment (66.0%); Concentration risk — Geographic: United States (88.0%). Chart setup: No clear chart pattern; technical signals are mixed. Multiple concerning factors. Consider reducing position. | News modifier +1 (SELL_IF_HOLDING → HOLD_IF_HOLDING) Target $348.00 (+7.2%), stop $308.24 (−5.4%), A.R:R 1.4:1. Score 5.8/10, moderate confidence.
Take-profit target: $348.00 (+7.1% upside). Target $348.00 (+7.2%), stop $308.24 (−5.4%), A.R:R 1.4:1. Stop-loss: $308.24.
Concentration risk — Product: Service Center segment (66.0%); Concentration risk — Geographic: United States (88.0%); Thin upside margin: 7.1%.
Applied Industrial Technologies trades at a P/E of 29.2 (forward 24.4). TrendMatrix value score: 4.8/10. Verdict: Hold.
13 analysts cover AIT with a consensus score of 4.1/5. Average price target: $400.
What does Applied Industrial Technologies do?Applied Industrial Technologies distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technologies and provides...
Applied Industrial Technologies distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technologies and provides related technical services — including MRO fulfillment, engineering, and systems integration — through a network of approximately 600 facilities and 6,800 employees primarily in North America, plus Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. In fiscal 2025, the Service Center segment generated 66% of total sales and the Engineered Solutions segment generated 34%, with 88% of sales coming from the United States.