Start here if you're new
what it is
H.B. Fuller makes the adhesives and sealants buried inside diapers, buildings, packaging, and industrial products.
how it gets paid
Last year Ful made $3.5B in revenue. Hygiene, Health, & Consumer Adhesives was the main engine at $1.58B, or 45% of sales.
why growth slowed
Revenue fell 2.7% last year. The 6.9% EPS miss mattered most because this is already a slow-growth story.
what just happened
Was a mixed bag: EPS missed, but revenue jumped to $2.6B.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
70/100 earnings predictability — reasonably predictable
23.8x trailing p/e — priced about right
1.5% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
6.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 61/100 — average
What they do
H.B. Fuller makes the adhesives and sealants buried inside diapers, buildings, packaging, and industrial products.
This is a formulations business. That means recipes, customer approvals, and production know-how that are painful to swap out once your factory line is running. H.B. Fuller posts a 15.5% operating margin and sells into everyday categories like hygiene and construction, so you are not betting on one hot product.
How they make money
$3.5B
annual revenue · their business grew -2.7% last year
Hygiene, Health, & Consumer Adhesives
$1.58B
Engineering Adhesives
$1.05B
Building Adhesives
$0.88B
Other specialty products
$0.00B
The products that matter
manufactures industrial adhesives
Industrial Adhesives
part of the $3.5B revenue base
This is core to the business. The page gives you the company total — $3.5B in annual revenue — but not the segment split. That missing detail makes end-market underwriting harder, because you know the size of the pie but not which slices are holding up.
core demand
manufactures consumer adhesives
Consumer Adhesives
exposed to end-market spending
Consumer demand matters because company sales already fell 2.7% last year. When margins are 4.5%, a soft patch in discretionary demand does not stay small for long.
cyclical exposure
corporate and legal activities
Corporate & Unallocated
$157M in fiscal 2024
This line was $157M in fiscal 2024, and it muddies clean operating comparisons. In human-speak: not every reported sales dollar here reflects core adhesive demand, so you should be careful with simple top-line readings.
noise in the numbers
Key numbers
1.0%
sales growth
Sales growth → revenue getting bigger → so what: the business is expected to barely expand, which makes the 23.8x P/E look demanding.
$2.0B
long-term debt
Debt → money the company owes → so what: that is heavy for a company with a $4B market cap and only 5.1% net margin.
15.5%
operating margin
Operating margin → profit before interest and taxes on each sales dollar → so what: the core business is solid even if growth is not.
23.8x
trailing p/e
P/E → price compared with last year's profit → so what: you are paying a full price for a company expected to have no growth in 2026.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 80 / 100
- long-term debt $2.0B (36% of capital)
- net profit margin 5.1% — keeps 5 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 8% — $0.08 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in FUL 3 years ago → it's now worth $9,660.
The index would have given you $13,880.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
missed estimates
Was a mixed bag: EPS missed, but revenue jumped to $2.6B.
Quarterly revenue rose 189% vs. prior year to $2.6B, while EPS came in at $0.54 versus the $0.58 estimate. Gross margin was 31.0%, which says the core business is still pricing okay even as earnings missed.
$2.6B
revenue
$0.54
eps
31.0%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The 6.9% EPS miss mattered most because this is already a slow-growth story, so investors do not give many free passes.
-
h b fuller’s fiscal 2025’s sales were stronger than they look (fiscal year ended november 29).excluding corporate unallocated revenue (cur) of $157 million in fiscal 2024, revenues would have been around $3.41 billion. cur incurs costs, not sales (in the traditional sense) and usually appertains to treasury, m&a, and legal activities.
-
we aren’t looking for any topor bottom-line growth in fiscal 2026.
-
fuller is a cyclical company subject to the vagaries of global economic variances.we envision greater economic uncertainties in the year ahead due to high u.s. tariffs, and rising unemployment. in 2025, economic growth held up thanks to continued spending from the higher earning segment of the domestic population, whose wealth depends on real estate and the stock market. as we approach the mid-term elections, we expect both of these sources of income to become increasingly vulnerable.
-
this will likely lead to lower consumer demand for discretionary products, including many of fuller’s items.
-
the company is trying to become less susceptible to the vicissitudes of cyclicality.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the main risk here is simple: H.B. Fuller's margins are thin enough that a small operating problem can become an earnings problem fast.
high
industrial and consumer slowdown
H.B. Fuller is cyclical. If packaging, manufacturing, and consumer project activity soften, the pressure lands directly on adhesive volumes.
That exposes the full $3.5B revenue base, and a 4.5% net margin does not leave much shock absorption.
med
cost inflation with limited pricing room
Low-margin manufacturers do not need a huge cost spike to have a problem. Raw materials, freight, or input inflation do more damage here than they would in a high-margin model.
At 5.0% return on capital, even modest pressure can turn an average year into a frustrating one.
med
recovery expectations outrunning the numbers
The stock sits near the top of its $48–$67 range while revenue fell 2.7% last year and the fy2026 revenue estimate on this page sits at $3B.
If growth does not show up soon, 23.8x trailing earnings can compress without any dramatic headline.
med
earnings look better than the core revenue picture
Q4 EPS of $1.22 and full-year EPS of $3.00 were good enough to clear the bar. The issue is that quarterly revenue was $892M and the page still points you toward a weaker $3B fiscal 2026 revenue view.
If investors stop rewarding clean EPS and start focusing on demand, the debate shifts from recovery timing to recovery credibility.
If you hold FUL, you are betting that demand stabilizes before thin margins turn into a bigger earnings problem. That is manageable with a B++ balance sheet. It is not comfortable with 4.5% net margin.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
earnings
the next revenue print
Q4 EPS was fine. What you need next is revenue that stops slipping from the current $3.5B annual base.
metric
return on capital
5.0% is the number to watch. If it stays stuck there, the business is treading water even when EPS looks tidy.
risk
input costs versus volume
Thin margins mean you care about both sides at once — what volumes do and what materials cost.
trend
whether the recovery case gets real
The stock is trading near its 52-week high. You want the business to start acting like it deserves that.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
average
momentum score 3 — in human-speak, analysts do not see a strong near-term edge either way.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — this sits in the middle of the pack, not especially defensive and not especially wild.
chart momentum
below average
technical score 4 — the chart is weaker than the recovery narrative would ideally be.
earnings predictability
70 / 100
That is decent, not elite. You can model it, but you should not confuse predictable enough with high quality.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
162 buyers vs. 163 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 53.3M shares.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$56
$120
$66
current price
$88
target midpoint · +34% from current · 3-5yr high: $95 (+45% · 11% ann'l return)
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