ATS Corporation (ATS) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
ATS Corporation (NYSE: ATS, also TSX: ATS) builds custom factory automation systems for regulated manufacturers, mostly pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and it trades like a lumpy project business rather than a steady industrial compounder: roughly C$3.0 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue, a backlog that fell 8.7% year over year, and a share price near $21 after a roughly 23% single-day drop on August 6, 2026. Most investors hold it as a small or mid-cap industrial automation position sized for order-cycle volatility.
ATS stock price
As of 2026-08-06, ATS Corporation (ATS) last closed at $20.53, down 30.5% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $20.53 and $35.38.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or ATS Corporation's investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does ATS Corporation (ATS) do?
ATS Corporation, based in Cambridge, Ontario and founded in 1978, designs, builds, commissions and services automated manufacturing and assembly systems. The work is project-based: a pharmaceutical company that needs to fill and package a new auto-injector, or a utility running a nuclear refurbishment, hires ATS to engineer the line, integrate the robotics and vision systems, validate it against regulatory requirements, and then service it for years afterward. Fiscal 2026 (ended March 2026) revenue was about C$2.97 billion, up 17.4% reported and about 10.8% on an adjusted organic basis, with adjusted EBITDA of roughly C$413 million and free cash flow near C$372 million. Life sciences is the anchor market at roughly half of revenue, with energy (nuclear), food and beverage, and industrial and consumer making up the rest. The company listed on the NYSE in May 2023 and reports in Canadian dollars, so US investors carry a currency translation on top of the operating result.
The investment picture is about order timing and margin, not about whether the business works. Bookings are the leading indicator and they have been going the wrong way: Q1 fiscal 2027 (quarter ended June 28, 2026) order bookings were about C$656 million, down 5.3%, and backlog fell to roughly C$1,889 million from C$2,068 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 5.8% to about C$693.7 million, adjusted EBITDA margin slipped to 13.3%, and the company posted a small net loss of about C$0.3 million against C$24.3 million of income a year earlier. Alongside that, new CEO Doug Wright (in the seat since January 2026, after Andrew Hider's July 2025 departure) launched an 18-month Fixed Cost Transformation Program starting with European footprint consolidation, targeting roughly C$20 million of annual savings and described as about half of what is needed to reach a 15% long-term adjusted operating margin. Shares fell roughly 23% on the day. The tension is straightforward: the pipeline for nuclear and radiopharmaceutical work looks strong, GLP-1 related demand and legacy EV transportation work have both cooled, and the market is being asked to underwrite a turnaround that is still in its opening phase.
What's driving ATS Corporation (ATS)?
1. Life sciences as the durable franchise.
Roughly half of ATS revenue comes from pharmaceutical and medical device customers, where validated, regulator-audited production lines are expensive to switch away from and where ATS has decades of qualification history. Fiscal 2026 exited with a record life sciences backlog around C$1.2 billion, up sharply year over year on radiopharmaceuticals, auto-injectors, wearables and early surgical robotics work. Q1 fiscal 2027 life sciences revenue still fell about 8.7% to C$345.9 million on project timing and softer GLP-1 demand, which is the reminder that even the good market arrives unevenly.
2. Nuclear and energy as the fastest-growing line.
Energy revenue jumped about 68.9% to roughly C$59.8 million in Q1 fiscal 2027 on nuclear execution and a much larger opening backlog, with energy backlog up around 40% year over year. The work spans reactor refurbishment, life extension and new build programs across multiple reactor technologies, which are multi-year government-linked programs rather than corporate capex decisions. It is a small base today, so it changes the growth rate before it changes the profit mix.
3. The Fixed Cost Transformation Program.
The 18-month program announced in August 2026 begins with consolidating the European manufacturing footprint and targets roughly C$20 million in annual savings from that first phase. Management frames it as delivering about half the margin expansion required to reach a 15% long-term adjusted earnings from operations margin, against a Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.3%. Investors generally treat the announcement itself as an admission that the cost base outgrew the revenue base, and will watch quarterly margin rather than the target.
4. Services, repeat automation and acquired product lines.
ATS has spent years trying to soften the project cycle by adding recurring after-sales service, repeat automation and standalone equipment brands, including the 2024 acquisitions of Paxiom (packaging machines) and Heidolph (lab equipment). These lines book faster, carry different margins, and do not depend on winning a single large system award. Whether the mix shift is large enough to smooth reported results is still an open question, given how much a single delayed customer decision moved the June quarter.
What are the risks to ATS Corporation (ATS)?
ATS revenue is recognized on long-duration projects, so a handful of delayed customer awards can swing a quarter, and the June 2026 quarter is the live example: bookings down 5.3%, backlog down 8.7%, and a swing from C$24.3 million of net income to a small loss. Backlog decline is a forward problem, not a past one, because it sets the revenue available to the next several quarters (Q2 fiscal 2027 was guided to roughly C$660 million to C$700 million). End-market exposure is concentrated in capital budgets that have already proven cyclical: EV-related transportation work fell away sharply after 2024, and GLP-1 capacity spending has cooled from its peak. Net debt of about C$1.15 billion and leverage near 2.8x pro forma adjusted EBITDA leave less cushion if margins compress further while the restructuring is in flight. The company also reports in Canadian dollars while the NYSE line trades in US dollars, adding a currency layer, and a new CEO plus an 18-month cost program means execution risk sits with a team that has not yet been tested through a full cycle at ATS.
Is ATS a buy or a sell?
We give no verdict on ATS Corporation. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.
The case for buying. Life sciences as the durable franchise. Roughly half of ATS revenue comes from pharmaceutical and medical device customers, where validated, regulator-audited production lines are expensive to switch away from and where ATS has decades of qualification history.
The case against. ATS revenue is recognized on long-duration projects, so a handful of delayed customer awards can swing a quarter, and the June 2026 quarter is the live example: bookings down 5.3%, backlog down 8.7%, and a swing from C$24.3 million of net income to a small loss.
Read the full bull and bear case on ATS, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
How is ATS Corporation (ATS) valued? (approximate, August 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see ATS Corporation's investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (fiscal 2026, ended March 2026): ~C$2.97 billion, up ~17.4% reported and ~10.8% adjusted
- Q1 fiscal 2027 revenue: ~C$693.7 million, down ~5.8% year over year
- Order bookings / backlog: ~C$656 million booked in Q1 (down ~5.3%); backlog ~C$1,889 million (down ~8.7%)
- Adjusted EBITDA: ~C$413 million in fiscal 2026; ~C$92.9 million in Q1 fiscal 2027 at a ~13.3% margin
- Balance sheet: ~C$1.15 billion net debt, ~2.8x leverage, ~C$372 million fiscal 2026 free cash flow
- Market cap / multiples: ~$2.1 billion at ~$21 a share, ~10x EV/EBITDA and roughly the high teens on forward earnings
The August 2026 selloff reset the multiple more than it reset the business. Trailing GAAP earnings are small relative to the market cap (net income was about C$72 million in fiscal 2026, so trailing P/E screens in the 40s or higher), which is why ATS is more commonly valued on EV/EBITDA or free cash flow, where it sits near 10x EBITDA and around 8x to 10x trailing free cash flow after the drop. The gap between the trailing and forward earnings multiple is entirely a bet on whether the cost program and the nuclear plus radiopharmaceutical pipeline restore margin before backlog erosion shows up in revenue.
Who competes with ATS Corporation (ATS)?
Global automation platforms
Rockwell Automation, Siemens, ABB, Fanuc, Kuka and Teradyne (through Universal Robots) sell the control systems, robot arms and software layers that ATS integrates, and increasingly package more of the solution themselves. Their scale advantage is in hardware and software breadth, so ATS competes on systems-level complexity and on owning the whole validated line rather than on component pricing. Honeywell and Emerson overlap in the process and energy end markets.
Life sciences and pharma equipment specialists
Korber, Syntegon, IMA Group and Stevanato Group compete directly for pharmaceutical filling, inspection, packaging and containment awards, where regulatory qualification history and uptime guarantees decide who wins. This is the market where ATS earns its premium positioning and where the largest single contracts live. Competition here is less about price than about which vendor a customer's quality organization has already validated.
Regional and custom systems integrators
A long tail of private and regional integrators including Prodomax, Brock Solutions, Scott Automation and dozens of local engineering firms compete for individual project awards, particularly in food and beverage and general industrial work. They are rarely a threat on a multi-site global program but they set pricing on standalone jobs. This fragmentation is also the source of ATS acquisition activity, which has included Paxiom and Heidolph in 2024.
What stocks are similar to ATS Corporation (ATS)?
Other names that sit close to ATS: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.
How to invest in ATS Corporation (ATS)
There are three common ways to get ATS exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so ATS sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where ATS fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.
The bottom line on ATS Corporation (ATS)
ATS is a real automation franchise with a genuine life sciences moat, currently priced for a bookings trough and an unfinished margin repair job.
More on ATS Corporation (ATS)
Whether ATS is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is ATS a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the ATS stock forecast.
For income investors, whether ATS pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does ATS pay a dividend? And to weigh ATS against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: ATS vs ROK and ATS vs ABB.
Wondering how ATS fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in ATS Corporation with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how ATS fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What does ATS Corporation actually do?
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ATS designs, builds, installs and services custom automated manufacturing and assembly lines. A customer with a new product, such as a drug delivery device or a packaged food item, contracts ATS to engineer the production line, integrate robotics, vision and controls, validate it against regulatory standards, and then service it. Revenue is recognized over the life of these projects, and after-sales service plus standalone equipment brands make up a growing secondary layer.
Why did ATS stock fall so hard in August 2026?
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On August 6, 2026, ATS reported Q1 fiscal 2027 revenue of about C$693.7 million, down 5.8% and below consensus near C$724 million, with a small net loss of C$0.3 million against C$24.3 million a year earlier. Order bookings fell 5.3% and backlog fell 8.7%. Management simultaneously announced an 18-month cost restructuring program, which the market read as confirmation that margin repair is early rather than nearly done. Shares dropped roughly 23%.
Why does backlog matter more than revenue for ATS?
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Because ATS revenue is essentially backlog converted into work performed. Order bookings of about C$656 million in Q1 fiscal 2027 against roughly C$694 million of revenue means the company consumed more backlog than it replaced, and backlog fell to about C$1,889 million. That figure sets the revenue available to the next several quarters, which is why guidance for Q2 fiscal 2027 was a lower C$660 million to C$700 million. Investors typically track bookings and backlog first.
Is ATS a Canadian company, and does that matter?
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Yes. ATS is headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, reports in Canadian dollars, and is dual listed on the TSX and, since May 2023, on the NYSE under the same ATS ticker. The NYSE line trades in US dollars while the underlying results are Canadian dollar figures, so the US-listed return includes a currency translation. The company is a US domestic filer equivalent through Form 40-F under the multijurisdictional disclosure system.
What is the Fixed Cost Transformation Program?
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It is an approximately 18-month restructuring announced with Q1 fiscal 2027 results, beginning with consolidation of the European manufacturing footprint and targeting roughly C$20 million of annual cost savings from that first phase. Management described it as contributing about half of the margin expansion required to reach a long-term adjusted earnings from operations margin target of 15%. Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin was 13.3%, down about 47 basis points year over year.
Which end markets are growing and which are shrinking?
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In Q1 fiscal 2027, energy revenue rose about 68.9% to C$59.8 million on nuclear refurbishment and new build work, with energy backlog up roughly 40% year over year. Life sciences fell about 8.7% to C$345.9 million on project timing and softer GLP-1 related demand, food and beverage fell 15.5% to C$117.0 million, and industrial and consumer fell 4.6% to C$175.6 million. Legacy EV transportation work has been a multi-year drag since 2024.
How profitable is ATS?
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It depends which line you read. Fiscal 2026 produced about C$413 million of adjusted EBITDA and roughly C$372 million of free cash flow on C$2.97 billion of revenue, but GAAP net income was only about C$71.7 million (against a C$28.0 million loss the prior year), because amortization of acquired intangibles, restructuring and interest on roughly C$1.15 billion of net debt absorb much of the operating result. That gap is why the stock screens expensive on trailing P/E and reasonable on EV/EBITDA.
How does ATS tend to behave in a portfolio?
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Like a cyclical small or mid-cap industrial with project-driven earnings, not like a steady automation compounder. Beta runs around 1.2, the 52-week range spans roughly $19 to $36, and single-day moves above 20% on bookings or guidance have happened. Investors commonly size it as a satellite holding in an industrial automation, reshoring or nuclear-exposure sleeve, alongside larger names such as Rockwell, ABB or Siemens rather than in place of them.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with ATS Corporation's investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.