What Happened?
Shares of industrial manufacturer Standex (NYSE: SXI) fell 6.9% in the afternoon session after its third-quarter 2025 report revealed weakening profitability that overshadowed a beat on headline revenue and earnings.
While the company reported revenue of $217.4 million and adjusted earnings per share of $1.99, topping Wall Street's expectations, other key metrics disappointed investors. Standex missed analyst forecasts for adjusted EBITDA and saw its operating margin shrink to 13.6% from 15.9% in the same quarter last year. Furthermore, the company's free cash flow margin also declined, pointing to lower efficiency. These underlying weaknesses appeared to outweigh the headline beats, souring investor sentiment on the company's performance.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Standex? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Standex’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 8 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 18 days ago when the stock gained 4.9% on the news that a softened tone from President Donald Trump on U.S.-China relations boosted investor sentiment. The positive shift followed a weekend post on Truth Social where Trump stated, "Don't worry about China, it will all be fine!" and expressed a desire to help rather than hurt the country's economy. This statement provided significant relief to markets that had ended the prior week with steep losses. In response, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.2%, the S&P 500 gained 1.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.3% higher, as investors' fears of escalating trade tensions subsided.
Standex is up 22.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $231.52 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $244.87 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Standex’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,556.
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