Aerospace and defense company Cadre (NYSE: CDRE) reported Q2 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 31.8% year on year to $207.1 million. The company’s full-year revenue guidance of $759 million at the midpoint came in 2.9% above analysts’ estimates. Its GAAP profit of $0.26 per share was 18% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Originally known as Safariland, Cadre (NYSE: CDRE) specializes in manufacturing and distributing safety and survivability equipment for first responders.

Revenue Growth

Examining a company’s long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Over the last five years, Cadre grew its sales at a solid 9.4% compounded annual growth rate. Its growth beat the average industrials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a helpful starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss new industry trends or demand cycles. Cadre’s annualized revenue growth of 13.5% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was strong and recently accelerated.

We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segment, Products. Over the last two years, Cadre’s Products revenue (body armor, corrections tools, sensors) averaged 21.8% year-on-year growth. This segment has outperformed its total sales during the same period, lifting the company’s performance.

This quarter, Cadre reported wonderful year-on-year revenue growth of 31.8%, and its $207.1 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 16.3%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 10.8% over the next 12 months, a slight deceleration versus the last two years. Despite the slowdown, this projection is noteworthy and suggests the market is baking in success for its products and services.

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Operating Margin

Operating margin is an important measure of profitability as it shows the portion of revenue left after accounting for all core expenses — everything from the cost of goods sold to advertising and wages. It’s also useful for comparing profitability across companies with different levels of debt and tax rates because it excludes interest and taxes.

Cadre has done a decent job managing its cost base over the last five years. The company has produced an average operating margin of 9.6%, higher than the broader industrials sector.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Cadre’s operating margin rose by 6.7 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it immense operating leverage.

In Q2, Cadre generated an operating margin profit margin of 10.8%, up 1.5 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.

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.

Sadly for Cadre, its EPS declined by 9.3% annually over the last five years while its revenue grew by 9.4%. However, its operating margin actually improved during this time, telling us that non-fundamental factors such as interest expenses and taxes affected its ultimate earnings.

Diving into the nuances of Cadre’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. Cadre recently raised equity capital, and in the process, grew its share count by 57.9% over the last five years. This has resulted in muted earnings per share growth but doesn’t tell us as much about its future. We prefer to look at operating and free cash flow margins in these situations.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Cadre, its two-year annual EPS declines of 9.5% are similar to its five-year trend. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.

In Q2, Cadre reported EPS of $0.26, down from $0.30 in the same quarter last year. Despite falling year on year, this print easily cleared analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Cadre’s full-year EPS to grow 67.6% from $0.84 to $1.41.

Key Takeaways from Cadre’s Q2 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Cadre blew past analysts’ EBITDA expectations this quarter. We were also excited its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. The stock traded up 4.7% to $32.49 immediately following the results.

Cadre may have had a good quarter, but does that mean you should invest right now? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).