Agricultural and farm machinery company Lindsay (NYSE: LNN) fell short of the markets revenue expectations in Q4 CY2025, with sales falling 6.3% year on year to $155.8 million. Its GAAP profit of $1.54 per share was 4.4% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“In the U.S., farmer sentiment continues to reflect trade uncertainty, lower commodity prices, and higher input costs, however, our team's diligent focus on price management, operational efficiencies, and cost management led to improved gross margin in our irrigation segment that muted the impact of softer demand" said Randy Wood, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Company Overview

A pioneer in the field of center pivot and lateral move irrigation, Lindsay (NYSE: LNN) provides a variety of proprietary water management and road infrastructure products and services.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Unfortunately, Lindsay’s 7% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was mediocre. This was below our standard 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. Lindsay’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years. We also note many other Agricultural Machinery businesses have faced declining sales because of cyclical headwinds. While Lindsay’s growth wasn’t the best, it did do better than its peers.

This quarter, Lindsay missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 6.3% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $155.8 million of revenue.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.2% over the next 12 months. Although this projection suggests its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

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Operating Margin

Lindsay has been an efficient company over the last five years. It was one of the more profitable businesses in the industrials sector, boasting an average operating margin of 12.8%. This result was particularly impressive because of its low gross margin, which is mostly a factor of what it sells and takes huge shifts to move meaningfully. Companies have more control over their operating margins, and it’s a show of well-managed operations if they’re high when gross margins are low.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, Lindsay’s operating margin rose by 3.5 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.

In Q4, Lindsay generated an operating margin profit margin of 12.6%, in line with the same quarter last year. This indicates the company’s cost structure has recently been stable.

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.

Lindsay’s EPS grew at a remarkable 14.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 7% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

Diving into Lindsay’s quality of earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Lindsay’s operating margin was flat this quarter but expanded by 3.5 percentage points over the last five years. On top of that, its share count shrank by 1.7%. These 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 more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Lindsay, its two-year annual EPS growth of 3.9% was lower than its five-year trend. We hope its growth can accelerate in the future.

In Q4, Lindsay reported EPS of $1.54, down from $1.57 in the same quarter last year. Despite falling year on year, this print beat analysts’ estimates by 4.4%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Lindsay’s full-year EPS of $6.75 to shrink by 7.3%.

Key Takeaways from Lindsay’s Q4 Results

Revenue in the quarter missed quite badly. The company did manage to beat on the EPS line with better profit performance, but this wasn't enough. The stock traded down 5% to $113 immediately after reporting.

Should you buy the stock or not? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free for active Edge members.