AstroNova Inc (ALOT)
🔔 Watch stock
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We found at least one documented issue that threatens the company itself — regardless of how the stock is currently valued.
The price strength that put this stock in our ranking is fully explained and fully priced in: market capitalization on July 25, 2026 (roughly $223 million) and offer value ($224.7 million) are less than 1 percent apart, while the unaffected April 6, 2026 close was $9.40. Anyone entering now is no longer betting on cockpit printers but on shareholder approval and antitrust clearance arriving before November 13, 2026 — for a single-digit percentage gain against a double-digit multiple of downside. Anyone watching should track three things: the definitive proxy statement with the meeting date and record date, the expiry of the HSR waiting period, and whether the losing bidder returns with its $27.80. The decision is yours.
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AstroNova builds printers for aircraft cockpits and labels for packaging. On April 6, 2026 the stock closed at $9.40. Ten weeks later the board signed a merger agreement at $29.00 per share in cash, a premium of roughly 209 percent, paid by private equity firm Arcline. Its own investment bank had modeled just $16.34 to $26.19. The filings with the U.S. securities regulator, the SEC, explain how that gap opened: six bidders, one segment delivering 69 percent of revenue and no profit, and a second one carrying the entire earnings on 31 percent of sales. Not a recommendation — just the question of what you are actually buying when the price is already fixed.
Read the analysis
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 25, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at ALOT since then.
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Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 20 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 29.00 $ — 100% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralIn sechs geprüften Berichten (2 Geschäftsberichte 10-K, 4 Quartalsberichte 10-Q) taucht künstliche Intelligenz genau einmal auf — als allgemeiner Risikohinweis im Geschäftsbericht 2026, dass eine zu langsame eigene Einführung schaden könnte; kein KI-Produkt, keine KI-Umsatzquelle, kein beschriebener operativer Einsatz in Druckern, Etiketten- oder Cockpit-Systemen.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„Like many other businesses, we may from time to time adopt technological advancements such as artificial intelligence, including, generative AI, and engage with vendors that use AI in providing their respective goods and services."
Wie viele andere Unternehmen führen wir von Zeit zu Zeit technische Neuerungen wie künstliche Intelligenz ein, darunter generative KI, und arbeiten mit Anbietern zusammen, die bei ihren Waren und Dienstleistungen KI einsetzen.
„If we fail to incorporate AI into our business operations as quickly or effectively as our competitors do, such failure could impair our ability to compete effectively, and our operations could suffer accordingly."
Wenn wir KI nicht so schnell oder so wirksam in unsere Geschäftsabläufe einbauen wie unsere Wettbewerber, könnte das unsere Wettbewerbsfähigkeit beeinträchtigen und unseren Betrieb entsprechend belasten.
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2026-04-15 · 10-K 2025-04-15 · 10-Q 2026-06-08 · 10-Q 2025-12-10 · 10-Q 2025-09-09 · 10-Q 2025-06-06
Rated on July 25, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 10.3% below the current price.
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Next Reporting Date
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025: Q1 | -2.01 | -675.40 | 37 | -5.60 | -41.80 | 3 | 2 |
| 2025: Q2 | -0.05 | -131.80 | 38 | 14.40 | -1.00 | 4 | 4 |
| 2025: Q3 | -0.16 | – | 36 | -10.90 | -3.40 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.05 | 57.50 | 39 | -3.10 | 1.00 | 3 | 3 |
| 2026: Q1 | -0.15 | – | 38 | 0.50 | -3.00 | 4 | 4 |
| 2026: Q2 | 0.08 | – | 39 | 4.40 | 1.70 | 3 | 3 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
The merger agreement of June 16, 2026 fixes $29.00 per share in cash with no financing condition; Arcline stated it would fund the deal entirely from a $6 billion committed fund and delivered a limited guarantee. The board approved unanimously, and a formerly activist holder explicitly supports the transaction (Schedule 13D/A filed July 23, 2026).
Market capitalization stood at roughly $223 million on July 25, 2026 against an offer value of $224.7 million (7,747,772 shares times $29.00) — the remaining gap is under 1 percent. The unaffected close on April 6, 2026 was $9.40. Anyone entering today is risking roughly two thirds for about 1 percent.
The Aerospace business is strong: a 21.1 percent segment margin in fiscal 2026, revenue up 16.3 percent with a 29.2 percent margin in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, and 32 percent recurring revenue. The Product ID business, twice as large, earned nothing in fiscal 2026 (a $0.5 million loss on $104.2 million of revenue); third parties bid only $30 million to $40 million for it.
As of April 30, 2026, $35.9 million of debt stood against $4.7 million of cash; the fiscal 2026 annual report concedes that covenants were breached in prior quarters and that waivers were obtained from Bank of America (amendments dated September 8 and October 31, 2025). Interest expense of $3.5 million in fiscal 2026 exceeded operating income of $1.2 million.
Of the MTEX purchase price (EUR 17.3 million, May 2024), $13.7 million of goodwill was written off within 20 months; in September 2025 the company found that EUR 1.8 million of property, plant and equipment in the opening balance sheet did not exist or was obsolete at the acquisition date. Golden parachute compensation for the named executives totals roughly $12.7 million, plus transaction bonuses of up to $3.0 million.
About 1.8 times annual revenue on an enterprise value basis and about 2.9 times book value is ambitious for an industrial printer maker but not absurd; measured against management's planned fiscal 2027 adjusted EBITDA of $17.9 million the buyer is paying a little over 15 times — roughly the multiple the investment bank applied to the Aerospace segment alone (12 to 14 times).
AstroNova is no longer a stock analysis in the usual sense but a case study in how a price is formed. Three parties valued the same company and produced three numbers: the stock market $9.40 (close of April 6, 2026), the company's own bank $16.34 to $26.19 in a discounted cash flow, and an auction with six interested parties $29.00 on the evening of June 16, 2026. Behind it sits a group with three years of revenue stuck around $150 million, two loss-making years, a failed acquisition with $13.7 million of goodwill written off — and one small aerospace business delivering a 21.1 percent margin, which is what the buyers actually came for. Whoever holds the stock today holds a contract due November 13, 2026. Not investment advice.
- The essential context first: AstroNova is being acquired. On June 16, 2026 the company signed a merger agreement with Orion Merger Parent, Inc., an affiliate of Arcline Investment Management — $29.00 per share in cash, with closing expected in the third calendar quarter of 2026 according to the press release and an outside date of November 13, 2026. The share price has been pinned to the offer ever since, so every statement about valuation in this analysis is a statement about the contract, not about the operating business. On completion AstroNova will be a private company and will no longer trade on NASDAQ.
- AstroNova reached our research list through our in-house stock scanner: rank 5 in the Qullamaggie Top Gainers 3M ranking (U.S. selection) with an RS rating of 98, as of July 25, 2026. These lists are recalculated daily, so today's rank is not tomorrow's. The high rank here is entirely attributable to the takeover announcement of June 17, 2026.
- Reference dates: segment and annual figures come from the annual report for fiscal 2026 (year ended January 31, 2026), balance sheet and quarterly figures from the quarterly report as of April 30, 2026 (filed June 8, 2026), and transaction details from the Form 8-K of June 17, 2026 and the preliminary proxy statement of July 16, 2026. Market capitalization, share count and analyst target price carry a data date of July 25, 2026.
- Risk of confusion: AstroNova was called Astro-Med Inc. until May 2016 and is not the same company as Astronics Corporation, another aerospace supplier — which the investment bank uses as a comparable. The non-calendar fiscal year (ending January 31) shifts every year-on-year comparison by eleven months.
About the Company
AstroNova, Inc. entwirft, entwickelt, fertigt und vertreibt Spezialdrucker sowie Systeme zur Datenerfassung und -analyse in den USA, Europa, Kanada, Asien, Mittel- und Südamerika sowie international.
| Employees | 398 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | West Warwick, RI |
| Website | astronovainc.com |
| IPO Date | 7. Sep 1984 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Darius G. Nevin | Executive Chairman | 1958 |
| Jorik E. Ittmann | President, CEO & Director | 1979 |
| Thomas D. DeByle CPA | VP, Treasurer & CFO | 1960 |
| Thomas Wayne Carll | Senior VP & GM of AstroNova Aerospace Segment | 1967 |
| Michael J. Natalizia | VP of Technical & Strategic Alliances and CTO | 1964 |
| Michelle M. Graban | Deputy General Counsel & VP of Human Resources | – |
| Padraig Finn | Senior Vice President of Product Identification (Product ID) | 1983 |
| Daniel S. Clevenger | Secretary | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.