Ducommun Incorporated (DCO) Stock Price & How to Invest

Ducommun Incorporated is a Santa Ana, California supplier of engineered products and manufacturing services to aerospace and defense customers. It runs two segments. Electronic Systems, the larger one at roughly 58% of second-quarter 2026 revenue, makes circuit card assemblies, wire harnesses and cable, radar and microwave subsystems, and printed circuit boards for missiles, radar, avionics and space hardware. Structural Systems makes metal and composite airframe structures, engine components and titanium parts. The company is one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in California, founded in 1849, and it sits a tier below the primes: it sells to Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Airbus, Northrop Grumman, Spirit AeroSystems and the engine makers rather than to governments or airlines directly. A deliberate shift over the past few years has been toward proprietary engineered products and aftermarket work, which reached about 23% of revenue over the trailing year versus roughly 15% in 2022.

The investment picture is a small-cap industrial being repriced as a defense electronics compounder. Revenue is about $865 million on a trailing basis, second-quarter 2026 revenue hit a record $224.5 million (up about 12% year over year), gross margin reached 28.0% and adjusted EBITDA margin reached 17.1%, within reach of the 18% target management set under its Vision 2027 plan. Remaining performance obligations hit an all-time high near $1.2 billion on a 1.4x book-to-bill, with military and space accounting for about 62% of that backlog and commercial aerospace about 36%. The market has paid for this: the stock went from roughly $137 in early May 2026 to about $201 in August, and at a ~$3.0 billion market cap it trades near 3.5x trailing sales, a multiple that leaves no slack. Cutting against the story, Ducommun disclosed in May 2026 that a stock-based compensation timing error made its 2024 and 2025 financial statements unreliable, restated them, and reported a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting, which drew law-firm investigations.

Program concentration is the structural risk: a handful of platforms (the 737 MAX, the A320, PAC-3, SM-6, the F-15) drive a large share of revenue, and Ducommun does not control the build rates on any of them. Its customer list is short and includes Boeing, whose production has been unsteady, so a rate cut, a strike or a program termination flows straight through. The accounting is a live issue: the company said in May 2026 that its 2024 and 2025 statements should no longer be relied upon because of a stock-based compensation timing error, restated them, disclosed a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting, and at least two plaintiffs' firms opened investigations, which raises the odds of litigation and of further remediation cost. Defense revenue depends on appropriations and on continued urgency around munitions restocking, both of which are political rather than commercial variables. Finally, at roughly $3 billion of market value on about $865 million of sales, the shares already price the Vision 2027 margin outcome, so a missed quarter on Structural Systems or a slip in the margin trajectory has more room to hurt than to help.

5 analysts publish price targets on DCO, averaging $197.80 against a $201.39 price as of August 2026, or -1.8%. The published targets run from $150.00 to $222.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 4 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 10 raises and 1 cut among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full DCO forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Ducommun Incorporated. 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. Missile and defense electronics demand. Electronic Systems grew about 20% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, led by missile programs including PAC-3 and SM-6 plus F-15 work. The most optimistic published target, $222.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Program concentration is the structural risk: a handful of platforms (the 737 MAX, the A320, PAC-3, SM-6, the F-15) drive a large share of revenue, and Ducommun does not control the build rates on any of them. The most pessimistic target, $150.00, is roughly what DCO is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on DCO, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Ducommun Incorporated's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$865 million
• Q2 2026 revenue: ~$224.5 million, up ~12% year over year
• Gross margin (Q2 2026): ~28.0%, a record
• Adjusted EBITDA margin (Q2 2026): ~17.1%, versus the ~18% Vision 2027 target
• Remaining performance obligations: ~$1.2 billion, book-to-bill ~1.4x
• Market cap / price to sales: ~$3.0 billion at ~$201 a share, ~3.5x trailing sales

Ducommun is priced like a defense electronics grower rather than a build-to-print machine shop, which is the whole argument of the mix shift. Trailing earnings-based multiples are high (in the 40s range) because GAAP net income is still small against a $3 billion market value, and the bull case rests on that gap closing as the 18% EBITDA target lands and engineered products pass a quarter of sales. Debt of about $276 million against roughly $40 million of cash is not a constraint at current EBITDA, but the valuation assumes the margin plan finishes on schedule.

If you want DCO exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

Other names that sit close to DCO: 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.

There are three common ways to get DCO exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (ROKT), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so DCO sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where DCO 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.

Ducommun is a defense-weighted aerospace supplier midway through a margin plan (Vision 2027) that has been working, so the stock now carries a growth multiple on a business whose revenue still depends on a short list of customer programs and whose internal controls were found deficient in 2026.

Whether DCO 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 DCO a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the DCO stock forecast.

For income investors, whether DCO pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does DCO pay a dividend? And to weigh DCO against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: DCO vs CW and DCO vs ATRO.