Safety equipment manufacturer MSA Safety (NYSE: MSA) reported Q3 CY2025 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 8.3% year on year to $468.4 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.94 per share was 3.9% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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"Our financial performance in the third quarter reflected solid results, demonstrating our continued execution of our Accelerate strategy," said Steve Blanco, President and CEO of MSA Safety.

Company Overview

Founded in 1914 as Mine Safety Appliances to protect coal miners from dangerous gases, MSA Safety (NYSE: MSA) designs and manufactures advanced safety products that protect workers and facilities across industries including fire service, energy, construction, and manufacturing.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul.

With $1.86 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, MSA Safety is a mid-sized business services company, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from better economies of scale. On the bright side, it can still flex high growth rates because it’s working from a smaller revenue base.

As you can see below, MSA Safety’s sales grew at a decent 6.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This shows its offerings generated slightly more demand than the average business services company, a useful starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within business services, a half-decade historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. MSA Safety’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its annualized revenue growth of 3.6% over the last two years was below its five-year trend.

This quarter, MSA Safety reported year-on-year revenue growth of 8.3%, and its $468.4 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.1%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 4.9% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. Although this projection suggests its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.

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Operating Margin

MSA Safety has been a well-oiled machine over the last five years. It demonstrated elite profitability for a business services business, boasting an average operating margin of 21%.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, MSA Safety’s operating margin rose by 5.5 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it immense operating leverage.

In Q3, MSA Safety generated an operating margin profit margin of 20.1%, down 2.9 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses grew faster than its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

MSA Safety’s EPS grew at a remarkable 11.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 6.9% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into MSA Safety’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, MSA Safety’s operating margin declined this quarter but expanded by 5.5 percentage points over the last five years. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its higher earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For MSA Safety, its two-year annual EPS growth of 7.3% was lower than its five-year trend. We hope its growth can accelerate in the future.

In Q3, MSA Safety reported adjusted EPS of $1.94, up from $1.83 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 3.9%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects MSA Safety’s full-year EPS of $7.80 to grow 11.4%.

Key Takeaways from MSA Safety’s Q3 Results

It was good to see MSA Safety beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue narrowly outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this print had some key positives. Investors were likely hoping for more, and shares traded down 1.6% to $160 immediately after reporting.

Big picture, is MSA Safety a buy here and now? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free for active Edge members.