AIT vs DXPE: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?
Last updated November 2026
Short answer
AIT is the larger of the two ($10.98B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (22.71x forward earnings, beta 0.86). DXPE is the smaller challenger ($2.71B), priced similarly on forward earnings (22.83x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.
AIT vs DXPE: the tie-breaker metrics
Same yardstick, side by side (as of November 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.
| Metric | AIT | DXPE | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $10.98B | $2.71B | Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove. |
| Forward P/E | 22.71 | 22.83 | Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up. |
| Trailing P/E | 26.63 | 30.79 | Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price. |
| Beta | 0.86 | 1.01 | Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through. |
| Price vs 52-week range | 46% of range | 73% of range | Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why. |
| Price / book | 5.84 | 5.02 | How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price. |
Before you buy: how AIT and DXPE affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. AIT and DXPE share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined AIT and DXPE exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) do?
Applied Industrial Technologies has been distributing bearings and power transmission components since 1923 (it traded as Bearings Inc. until 1997) and now operates in two segments. Service Center, about 66% of fiscal 2025 sales, is the maintenance, repair and operations business: a network of local branches across North America, Australia and New Zealand stocking bearings, motors, belting, drives, couplings, pumps, hoses and filtration for customers' existing equipment. Engineered Solutions, the other 34%, is the more technical half, covering fluid power systems, flow control, automation design and integration, and it carries higher growth and a different competitive set. The pitch to customers is expertise rather than price: engineers, fluid power specialists and fabrication shops that keep production lines running. Revenue is heavily domestic, with roughly $4.0 billion of fiscal 2025's $4.56 billion coming from the United States, and no single customer accounts for more than 5% of sales.
What does DXP Enterprises, Inc. (DXPE) do?
DXP Enterprises distributes maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products and engineers pumping systems for industrial customers, a business whose roots go back to 1908. It runs three segments. Service Centers is the branch network that sells bearings, seals, safety products, hoses and rotating equipment out of local locations, and it produced about $368 million of the $576.5 million booked in the second quarter of 2026. Innovative Pumping Solutions designs and fabricates custom pump packages and skids for water and wastewater, fire protection, data centers, HVAC and energy customers, and it contributed about $143 million. Supply Chain Services runs procurement and inventory programs inside customer plants and added about $66 million. The mix matters because the three lines have very different growth and margin profiles, and the fast-growing one is now the engineered-systems business rather than the branch network.
AIT vs DXPE: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- AIT drivers: Mix shift toward Engineered Solutions; Consolidating a fragmented market.
- DXPE drivers: The water and wastewater pivot; Innovative Pumping Solutions as the growth engine.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The business is cyclical in a way that no amount of execution removes: sales follow industrial production, capacity utilization and customer capital budgets, and end markets such as oil and gas, mining, primary metals and forest products can turn sharply. For DXPE, dXP sells into industrial capital and maintenance budgets, so revenue moves with the industrial cycle and with energy and petrochemical spending in particular.
AIT or DXPE: which should you pick?
Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick AIT if you believe its drivers more; DXPE if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the AIT and DXPE guides.
AIT vs DXPE: the full fundamentals
AIT. The multiple has come in since August even as the stock rose over the year: ~30 times trailing and ~25 times forward earnings, ~20 times EBITDA and ~2.5 times sales, because earnings caught up after the June-quarter beat. That is still a premium for a distributor that grew organically in the mid single digits for most of fiscal 2026. Fiscal first quarter 2027 results arrive October 27, 2026, with consensus at ~$2.89 of EPS on ~$1.29 billion of sales, and the six covering analysts carry a mean target near $398.
DXPE. At about $175, DXP trades near 31 times trailing earnings, about 23 times forward earnings and roughly 14.5 times enterprise value to EBITDA, well above where industrial distributors historically trade. That premium reflects organic growth in the low double digits, a margin structure improving with the engineered-systems mix, and an end-market shift toward water that carries lower cyclicality than DXP's energy-levered past. It also means the stock depends on the acquisition cadence and the pumping backlog holding up into the November 5 report, because the multiple no longer assumes a distributor's ordinary growth rate.
Headline figures (approximate, October 2026): AIT shows revenue (ttm, fiscal 2026) ~$4.97B, up ~9% for the year and ~10% in the June quarter, net income (ttm) ~$415M, ~8.4% net margin (~11.8% operating), diluted eps ~$11.02 trailing; June quarter $3.17 vs $2.92 expected, market cap ~$12.2B at ~$331 per share; DXPE shows revenue (ttm) ~$2.14 billion, q2 2026 sales growth ~15.6% year over year to ~$576.5 million (organic ~11.1%), adjusted ebitda (q2 2026) ~$70.4 million, a ~12.2% margin, up ~22.8%, diluted eps ~$1.76 in Q2 2026 vs ~$1.59 expected; ~$5.68 trailing twelve months.
The bottom line: AIT vs DXPE
AIT and DXPE are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined AIT and DXPE exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Wondering how AIT or DXPE 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 Applied Industrial Technologies with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how AIT 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 is the difference between AIT and DXPE?
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Applied Industrial Technologies has been distributing bearings and power transmission components since 1923 (it traded as Bearings Inc. DXP Enterprises distributes maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products and engineers pumping systems for industrial customers, a business whose roots go back to 1908. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is AIT or DXPE the better stock?
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Neither is universally better. AIT is the larger incumbent; DXPE is the smaller challenger and looks pricier on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, AIT or DXPE?
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On forward P/E (as of November 2026), AIT trades at 22.71x and DXPE at 22.83x, so AIT is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both AIT and DXPE?
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Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of AIT vs DXPE?
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AIT: The business is cyclical in a way that no amount of execution removes: sales follow industrial production, capacity utilization and customer capital budgets, and end markets such as oil and gas, mining, primary metals and forest products can turn sharply. Trade policy and tariffs are an explicit uncertainty management has folded into its outlooks, and they cut both ways, since inflation can help distributor revenue while compressing volumes. LIFO accounting on US inventories makes gross margin lumpy, with $5.6 million of LIFO expense in the March 2026 quarter against $2.2 million a year earlier. Valuation remains the most concrete risk: at roughly 30 times trailing earnings and ~20 times EV/EBITDA, with the shares up ~35% over the past year and within ~12% of the 52-week high of ~$375, the stock trades well above the multiple industrial distributors historically commanded, which leaves little cushion if organic growth reverts to the low single digits it ran at in fiscal 2024 and 2025. The next test is the October 27 report, where consensus looks for ~$2.89 of EPS. Acquisition-led strategies also carry integration and goodwill risk, and Applied carried ~$705 million of goodwill and ~$323 million of intangibles against ~$1.86 billion of equity as of spring 2026, while debt has since risen to ~$483 million. DXPE: DXP sells into industrial capital and maintenance budgets, so revenue moves with the industrial cycle and with energy and petrochemical spending in particular. The company's own filings flag that a meaningful portion of revenue depends on capital and operating expenditure in oil and natural gas, and the 2015 crude decline produced roughly $58 million of combined goodwill impairment across two reporting units, which is the historical template for how badly this can go. Goodwill and intangibles stood at about $575.9 million at the end of 2025, a large share of total assets, so the same impairment mechanism remains live if acquired businesses underperform. Total debt of about $842.5 million against $226.6 million of cash means acquisition capacity and interest costs both depend on continued EBITDA growth. The float is small (roughly 15.5 million shares outstanding), which makes the stock thinly traded and prone to sharp moves on modest volume. The shares have roughly doubled from a 52-week low near $84 to about $175 in mid-October 2026, after touching about $208, so a good deal of the operating improvement is already reflected in the price, and the November 5 report has to show the pumping backlog and acquisitions still carrying growth. Coverage is thin, with only two analysts in Yahoo Finance's consensus.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell AIT or DXPE; figures are approximate and dated (as of November 2026). Verify current data before investing.