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what it is
Cimpress sells customized print, promo, and small-business marketing products to millions of tiny businesses worldwide.
how it gets paid
Last year Cimpress made $3.4B in revenue. business cards was the main engine at $0.95B, or 28% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 3.4% last year. Quarterly EPS came in at $1.95 versus the $2.00 estimate.
what just happened
Latest quarter revenue jumped to $1.9B, but earnings still missed consensus.
At a glance
B balance sheet — gets the job done, barely
5/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
132.8x trailing p/e — you're paying up for this one
21.8% return on capital — every dollar works hard here
xvary composite: 52/100 — below average
What they do
Cimpress sells customized print, promo, and small-business marketing products to millions of tiny businesses worldwide.
Cimpress wins on scale. It serves tens of millions of customers across more than a dozen business units, according to the company, which helps spread manufacturing and shipping costs across a huge order base. That matters when your customer wants 250 business cards, a banner, and a hoodie fast. Convenience becomes stickiness (repeat demand → customers come back because reordering is easy → so what: small orders can still add up to $3.4B in annual revenue).
How they make money
$3.4B
annual revenue · their business grew +3.4% last year
business cards
$0.95B
+3.4%
signage and display
$0.70B
+4.5%
apparel and promotional gifts
$0.65B
+4.5%
brochures calendars and cards
$0.55B
+2.0%
digital marketing services
$0.55B
+5.0%
The products that matter
manufactures custom print products
Customized Print Products
$1.7B · 50% of revenue
it's still a $1.7B business and half of total sales. this is the legacy engine, which means any slowdown here still matters a lot.
50% of revenue
sells marketing and design services
Marketing and Design Services
$1.7B · matches print
this $1.7B segment now stands shoulder to shoulder with print. the strategic story is that services becomes the cleaner growth engine. the numbers say that handoff is still unfinished.
equal in size
early-stage business incubation
New Ventures
0% of sales
these ventures contribute 0% of sales today. that makes them optional upside, not part of the current investment case.
optionality
Key numbers
45%
debt load
Long-term debt equals 45% of capital. Translation: nearly half the business is financed with long-term borrowing. So what: weak margins leave less room if demand or rates turn against you.
132.8x
trailing p/e
Trailing p/e means price divided by last 12 months of earnings. Plain English: you are paying $132.80 for every $1 of profit. So what: that is rich for a company with 0.7% net margin.
21.8%
return on capital
Return on capital means profit earned on the money used to run the business. Plain English: management has shown it can generate strong returns on invested money. So what: execution is better than the bottom-line margin suggests.
0.7%
net margin
Net margin means what is left after all costs. Plain English: Cimpress keeps less than 1 cent from each $1 of sales. So what: one bad quarter can do real damage.
Financial health
B
strength
- balance sheet grade B — adequate — nothing special
- risk rank 4 — safer than 20% of stocks
- price stability 20 / 100
- long-term debt $1.6B (45% of capital)
- net profit margin 0.7% — keeps 1 cents of every dollar in revenue
B — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in CMPR 3 years ago → it's now worth $27,410.
The index would have given you $14,770.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
missed estimates
Latest quarter revenue jumped to $1.9B, but earnings still missed consensus.
Quarterly EPS came in at $1.95 versus the $2.00 estimate, a 2.5% miss. That contrast is the whole story: sales surged 83% vs. prior year, but the profit conversion still was not clean enough.
$1.9B
revenue
$1.95
eps
8.0%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The important number was the 2.5% EPS miss, because a stock trading at 132.8x trailing earnings does not get much forgiveness.
-
in early 2020, cimpress bought back a lot of stock.
-
this was intended to return value to shareholders in lieu of a dividend.
-
unfortunately, however, due to the unforeseeable effects of the pandemic, this move backfired.the buy back decimated shareholders’ equity, and at the same time, the company was forced to take on $300 million in high priced debt to conserve liquidity and help navigate huge uncertainties as the bottom line turned red.
-
since then, long-term debt has remained lofty, while shareholders’ deficit has widened.this financial liability has lurked in the background while annual sales have increased and the bottom line has gyrated substantially.
-
this has resulted in an erratic stock price, which has swung from a high of $129 to a low of $18.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is commoditization in Customized Print Products.
med
half the business sits in a low-barrier category
Customized Print Products is listed at $1.7B, or 50% of total revenue. if digital-first competitors keep taking the easy work, pricing gets harder and growth gets thinner.
Impact: when half your revenue comes from a commoditized category, even small pricing pressure matters.
med
debt limits how forgiving the setup is
CMPR carries $1.6B in long-term debt, equal to 45% of capital. that is manageable when margins hold. it gets less comfortable if earnings wobble again.
Impact: leverage turns an operating stumble into a capital-structure problem faster than investors want.
med
earnings are hard to model
earnings predictability is 5/100 and price stability is 20/100. in human-speak: this stock has a habit of surprising people, and not always in the fun direction.
Impact: a premium forward setup can unravel quickly if the next few quarters do not smooth out.
A $1.7B print business with no moat and $1.6B of long-term debt means CMPR needs execution to stay tight. There is not much slack in this story.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
whether EPS starts catching up to revenue
Last quarter's setup was +11% revenue growth and -17% EPS growth from last year. You want those lines moving in the same direction.
risk
debt as a percentage of capital
$1.6B of long-term debt already equals 45% of capital. If operating results soften, leverage will matter more than the revenue headline.
calendar
the next earnings print
With predictability at 5/100, each report is a real event. This is not a stock where you can safely assume the quarter will look normal.
trend
whether services finally pull ahead of print
Both main segments are sitting at $1.7B. If Marketing and Design Services stays merely tied with print, the growth story stays thinner than the stock's run suggests.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
top 20%
momentum score 2 — analysts expect above-average price performance in the year ahead. in human-speak: they like the tape more than the fundamentals.
risk profile
below average
stability score 4 — more volatile than most stocks. you should expect bigger swings here.
chart momentum
top 5%
technical score 1 — the chart is stronger than almost everything in the coverage universe. welcome to momentum doing its job.
earnings predictability
5 / 100
the business is harder to forecast than most. if you own this stock, surprises come with the package.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 2 consecutive quarters — 87 buyers vs. 69 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 22.1M shares. net buying for 2 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$54
$135
$77
current price
$95
target midpoint · +23% from current · 3-5yr high: $150 (+95% · 18% ann'l return)
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