Acme United Corporation (ACU)
Consumer Defensive · ASE
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Acme United Corporation trades at USD53.94, which is 43% above the USD30.63 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure it screens as expensive, which is not the same as saying it will fall.
Our moat model scores it 42 out of 100, which is little in the way of a moat. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 20.3 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
ACU dividend history
Dividends per share by year
| Year | Total per share | Payments |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 (year to date) | USD0.480 | 3 |
| 2025 | USD0.620 | 4 |
| 2024 | USD0.600 | 4 |
| 2023 | USD0.560 | 4 |
| 2022 | USD0.540 | 4 |
| 2021 | USD0.520 | 4 |
| 2020 | USD0.480 | 4 |
| 2019 | USD0.480 | 4 |
| 2018 | USD0.440 | 4 |
| 2017 | USD0.420 | 4 |
| 2016 | USD0.400 | 4 |
Split-adjusted amounts in the listing currency, grouped by the calendar year of the ex-dividend date, from the filed record. Growth and streak figures compare complete years only.
ACU earnings and analyst estimates
Recommendation mix, 1 analyst rating
Estimates are the published analyst consensus and move often. An earnings date is scheduled, not certain, and a share tends to reprice most violently on the day itself.
About Acme United Corporation
Acme United Corporation supplies cutting, measuring, first aid, and sharpening products to the school, home, office, hardware, sporting goods, and industrial markets in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company offers scissors, shears, knives, rulers, pencil sharpeners, paper trimmers, safety cutters, lettering products, glue guns, and other craft products under the Westcott brand name; and cutting tools under the Clauss brand. It also provides sharpening knives, scissors, chisels, skis, skates, and other edges under the DMT brand. In addition, the company offers first aid kits and safety solutions under the First Aid Only brand; portable eyewash solution and over-the-counter medication, including active ingredients aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen under the PhysiciansCare brand; bodily fluid and spill clean-up solution under the Spill Magic brand; various first aid kit, refill, and safety supplies, including CPR kits, burn kits, and automotive and emergency first aid kits under the First Aid Central; first aid kits for the promotional products industry under Safety Made brand; alcohol prep pads, alcohol wipes, benzalkonium chloride wipes, various antiseptic wipes under the Med-Nap brand, and Pac-Kit, as well as My Medic brands. It sells its products directly and through its independent manufacturer representatives to wholesale, contract, and retail stationery distributors; office supply superstores, mass market retailers, industrial and medical distributors, school supply distributors, drug store retailers, sporting goods stores, hardware chains, and wholesale florists, as well as through its websites. The company was formerly known as Acme Shear Company and changed its name to Acme United Corporation in 1971. Acme United Corporation was founded in 1867 and is based in Shelton, Connecticut.
ACU passes 1 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Super investor ownership
2 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Renaissance Technologies, RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES LLC$5.23M · 0.0% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$312.2K · 0.0% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Acme United Corporation (ACU) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of USD30.63, ACU at USD53.94 is 43% above fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own ACU?
2 of the institutions we track reported a position in ACU in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is ACU's P/E ratio?
ACU trades at 20.3 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
Does Acme United Corporation (ACU) pay a dividend?
Yes. Acme United Corporation yields 1.35% at the current share price. It has paid USD0.640 per share over the trailing twelve months. It has paid a dividend in each of the last 22 complete calendar years. A dividend is declared by the board and can be cut at any time; a yield is a fact about the current price, not a promise.
The full research page for ACU, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.