MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (MSM)
Industrials · NYQ · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. trades at USD125.63, which is 27% below the USD159.78 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure alone it screens as undervalued, though a DCF is an argument rather than a measurement, and the market is frequently right about why something is cheap.
Our moat model scores it 52 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. 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 29.9 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.
About MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc.
MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products and services in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's metalworking and MRO products include cutting tools, abrasives, machining fluids, measuring instruments, metalworking products, machinery and accessories, tooling components, fasteners, flat stock products, raw materials, machinery hand and power tools, safety and janitorial supplies, plumbing supplies, materials handling products, power transmission components, and electrical supplies. It also offers stock-keeping units through its catalogs and brochures; e-commerce channels, including its website; inventory management solutions; and customer care centers, customer fulfillment centers, regional inventory centers and warehouses. In addition, the company serves individual machine shops, manufacturing companies, and government agencies. MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.
MSM passes 5 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
5 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Israel Englander, MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC$67.23M · 0.0% of book
- Steve Cohen, Point72 Asset Management, L.P.$49.03M · 0.1% of book
- Richard Pzena, PZENA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC$41.02M · 0.1% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$36.76M · 0.0% of book
- Cliff Asness, AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$27.45M · 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 MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (MSM) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of USD159.78, MSM at USD125.63 is 27% below 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 MSM?
5 of the institutions we track reported a position in MSM 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 MSM's P/E ratio?
MSM trades at 29.9 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.
The full research page for MSM, 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.