Lifting and material handling equipment company Terex (NYSE:TEX) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2025, with sales falling 4.9% year on year to $1.23 billion. On the other hand, the company’s full-year revenue guidance of $5.4 billion at the midpoint came in 2.2% above analysts’ estimates. Its GAAP profit of $0.31 per share was 29.7% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Terex? Find out in our full research report.

Company Overview

With humble beginnings as a dump truck company, Terex (NYSE:TEX) today manufactures lifting and material handling equipment designed to move and hoist heavy goods and materials.

Sales Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Regrettably, Terex’s sales grew at a tepid 4.6% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmark for the industrials sector and is a poor baseline for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Terex’s annualized revenue growth of 4.3% over the last two years aligns with its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was consistently weak.

This quarter, Terex missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 4.9% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $1.23 billion of revenue.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 6% over the next 12 months. Although this projection indicates its newer products and services will catalyze better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.

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Operating Margin

Terex has done a decent job managing its cost base over the last five years. The company has produced an average operating margin of 9.3%, higher than the broader industrials sector.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Terex’s operating margin rose by 4.2 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.

This quarter, Terex generated an operating profit margin of 5.6%, down 6.6 percentage points year on year. Since Terex’s operating margin decreased more than its gross margin, we can assume it was less efficient because expenses such as marketing, R&D, and administrative overhead increased.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Terex’s EPS grew at an astounding 24% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 4.6% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into Terex’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Terex’s operating margin declined this quarter but expanded by 4.2 percentage points over the last five years. Its share count also shrank by 5.1%, and these factors together are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For Terex, its two-year annual EPS declines of 16.4% mark a reversal from its (seemingly) healthy five-year trend. We hope Terex can return to earnings growth in the future.

In Q1, Terex reported EPS at $0.31, down from $1.60 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates, but we care more about long-term EPS growth than short-term movements. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Terex’s full-year EPS of $3.67 to grow 22.5%.

Key Takeaways from Terex’s Q1 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Terex blew past analysts’ EBITDA expectations this quarter. We were also glad its full-year EBITDA guidance trumped Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its revenue fell slightly short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this print was mixed but still had some key positives. The stock traded up 5.8% to $38.45 immediately after reporting.

Terex had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.