Crane and lifting equipment company Manitowoc (NYSE: MTW) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2025, with sales falling 4% year on year to $539.5 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.80 per share was significantly above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Contracted by the United States Navy during WWII, Manitowoc (NYSE: MTW) provides cranes and lifting equipment.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Regrettably, Manitowoc’s sales grew at a mediocre 6.3% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmark for the industrials sector and is a rough 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. Manitowoc’s performance shows it grew in the past but relinquished its gains over the last two years, as its revenue fell by 1.3% annually. Manitowoc isn’t alone in its struggles as the Construction Machinery industry experienced a cyclical downturn, with many similar businesses observing lower sales at this time.

Manitowoc also reports its backlog, or the value of its outstanding orders that have not yet been executed or delivered. Manitowoc’s backlog reached $729.3 million in the latest quarter and averaged 15.1% year-on-year declines over the last two years. Because this number is lower than its revenue growth, we can see the company hasn’t secured enough new orders to maintain its growth rate in the future.

This quarter, Manitowoc missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 4% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $539.5 million of revenue.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 6% over the next 12 months. Although this projection indicates its newer products and services will catalyze better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

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Operating Margin

Manitowoc was profitable over the last five years but held back by its large cost base. Its average operating margin of 1.6% was weak for an industrials business. This result isn’t too surprising given its low gross margin as a starting point.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Manitowoc’s operating margin decreased by 2.4 percentage points over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability. Manitowoc’s performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows that costs were rising and it couldn’t pass them onto its customers.

This quarter, Manitowoc generated an operating margin profit margin of 2%, down 1.6 percentage points year on year. Since Manitowoc’s operating margin decreased more than its gross margin, we can assume it was less efficient because expenses such as marketing, R&D, and administrative overhead increased.

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.

Manitowoc’s EPS grew at an astounding 61.8% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 6.3% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

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 Manitowoc, its two-year annual EPS growth of 13.9% was lower than its five-year trend. We still think its growth was good and hope it can accelerate in the future.

In Q2, Manitowoc reported adjusted EPS at $2.80, up from $0.25 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Manitowoc to perform poorly. Analysts forecast its full-year EPS of $2.66 will hit $0.49.

Key Takeaways from Manitowoc’s Q2 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Manitowoc blew past analysts’ backlog expectations this quarter. We were also excited its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. On the other hand, its revenue missed and its adjusted operating income fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter. The stock remained flat at $12.51 immediately after reporting.

Big picture, is Manitowoc a buy here and now? If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.