Cintas (CTAS)
Forward P/E is 37.49x against a peer median of 17.79x, a ratio of 2.11x — above the ~2x bubble threshold — with trailing P/E 42.16x and PEG 3.21. That is an extreme absolute multiple, and at revenue growth of 10.9% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR) the price only makes sense if demand and earnings accelerate well beyond what has been delivered. Delivered demand check: the Conglomerates & diversified services group's median growth was 1.7% year over year — demand steady, not accelerating.
What would change this label: Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to about 35.6x or below (2.00x the peer median) at unchanged estimates. Move to FAIRLY PRICED if it compresses to about 20.5x or below (1.15x the peer median), or if revenue growth rises above 25% year over year for two quarters while the PEG falls below 1.5.
Cintas rents and cleans work uniforms and supplies everyday workplace items to businesses, a steady and profitable line of work. Its shares, though, cost more than twice as much per dollar of expected earnings as similar companies, while sales grew 10.9% in the latest quarter. That price only makes sense if growth speeds up sharply from here, so the shares sit in bubble territory.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Cintas returned +156.24% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Cintas: -28.2% (2025-06-06 to 2026-05-13). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 37.49x against a peer median of 17.79x, a ratio of 2.11x — above the ~2x bubble threshold — with trailing P/E 42.16x and PEG 3.21. That is an extreme absolute multiple, and at revenue growth of 10.9% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR) the price only makes sense if demand and earnings accelerate well beyond what has been delivered. Delivered demand check: the Conglomerates & diversified services group's median growth was 1.7% year over year — demand steady, not accelerating. The company’s forward P/E is 37.5× against a peer median of 17.8×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the conglomerates & diversified services group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 1.7% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady; Cintas itself grew 10.9%, well above that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +10.9% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cintas (CTAS) | $213.73 | 37.5× | 42.2× |
| MMM | $172.09 | 17.8× | 25.8× |
| HON | $217.15 | 22.9× | 9.8× |
| CPRT | $28.89 | 17.8× | 18.6× |
| DD | $138.14 | 18.3× | 354.7× |
| LDOS | $139.97 | 11.6× | 13.1× |
| Peer median | 17.8× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Aug 2026 2026-08-31 | $3.0B | 51.5% | $552M | 1.36 | $465M |
| Q/E May 2026 2026-05-31 | $2.9B | 51.0% | $511M | — | $613M |
| Q/E Feb 2026 2026-02-28 | $2.8B | 51.0% | $502M | 1.24 | $531M |
| Q/E Nov 2025 2025-11-30 | $2.8B | 50.5% | $495M | 1.21 | $425M |
| Q/E Aug 2025 2025-08-31 | $2.7B | 50.3% | $491M | 1.20 | $313M |
| Q/E May 2025 2025-05-31 | $2.7B | 49.7% | $448M | — | $521M |
| Q/E Feb 2025 2025-02-28 | $2.6B | 50.6% | $463M | 1.13 | $522M |
| Q/E Nov 2024 2024-11-30 | $2.6B | 49.8% | $448M | 1.09 | $340M |
| Q/E Aug 2024 2024-08-31 | $2.5B | 50.0% | $452M | 1.10 | $374M |
| Q/E May 2024 2024-05-31 | $2.5B | — | $414M | — | $591M |
| Q/E Feb 2024 2024-02-29 | $2.4B | — | $398M | 3.84 | $550M |
| Q/E Nov 2023 2023-11-30 | $2.4B | — | $375M | 3.61 | $299M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | CINTAS CORP |
| Chief executive | Todd Schneider (source: https://www.trsa.org/news/cintas-to-transform-its-headquarters/) |
| Sector | Industrials — Diversified Support Services — rents and launders work uniforms and supplies workplace basics such as mats, mops and first-aid kits to businesses |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $213.73 |
| Market value (market cap) | $85.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 397,075,093 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $11.6B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $2.1B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $2.0B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Aug 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +156.24% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -28.2% (2025-06-06 to 2026-05-13) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E (5-year median): not computed in the Phase 1 batch — UNVERIFIED
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000723254.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000723254.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/CTAS/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.