Mercury Systems Inc (MRCY) Stock Price & How to Invest

Mercury Systems, based in Andover, Massachusetts, designs and manufactures hardware, software, and integrated subsystems that sit inside US and allied defense platforms. Its portfolio spans radio-frequency and microwave components, digital signal processing boards, embedded and secure processing modules, and fully integrated sensor-processing subsystems used in radar, electronic warfare, signals intelligence, missiles, and unmanned systems. The company positions itself as a trusted, domestically sourced supplier of open-architecture processing, sitting one layer below the large prime contractors that build the finished aircraft, ships, and weapons.

The investment picture is a turnaround story. A leadership team brought in during 2023, led by CEO and Chairman Bill Ballhaus and CFO David Farnsworth, has focused on program execution, margin recovery, liquidity, and free cash flow after a stretch of cost overruns and write-downs. Fiscal 2026 has shown that shift taking hold: record quarterly bookings, a book-to-bill above one, a record backlog near $1.6 billion, and expanding adjusted EBITDA, even as GAAP results still hover around breakeven. For investors, MRCY is a defense name where the debate is whether the operational rebuild converts a strong order book into durable, cash-generative earnings.

Mercury is still early in a turnaround and has reported GAAP net losses as recently as fiscal 2025, so profitability remains inconsistent. Management has flagged supply-chain unpredictability, with suppliers sometimes signaling delays only on the day material was due, which can disrupt program deliveries and margins. Gross margin has been pressured by the conversion of lower-margin legacy programs, and any slippage on that mix shift could delay the earnings recovery. The business depends heavily on US defense budgets, program timing, and government contracting cycles, all of which can shift with politics and appropriations. As a mid-cap supplier concentrated in defense electronics, results can be lumpy quarter to quarter, and the stock has been volatile around that variability.

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

• Revenue (TTM): ~$943M
• FY2025 revenue: ~$912M (vs ~$835M FY2024)
• Q3 FY2026 revenue: ~$236M (+11.5% organic YoY)
• Backlog: ~$1.6B (record, +18% YoY)
• Q3 FY2026 adjusted EBITDA: ~$36M (+46% YoY)
• Market cap: ~$7B

Mercury trades at a rich multiple of revenue for its size, reflecting investor expectations that the turnaround converts a large backlog into higher-margin, cash-generative earnings rather than trailing profits, which have been near breakeven. GAAP results still swing around losses, so traditional price-to-earnings is of limited use and much of the valuation debate centers on adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. The stock traded roughly in the low-100s per share in mid-July 2026, well above its levels of a year earlier, with a reported beta below the market average near 0.84.

There are three common ways to get MRCY 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 basket, so MRCY sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the basket route. Describe a thesis where MRCY 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.

MRCY is a mid-cap defense-electronics turnaround where a record ~$1.6 billion backlog and improving margins are the bull case, weighed against a business that is only now returning to consistent free cash flow after several messy years.

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

For income investors, whether MRCY pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does MRCY pay a dividend?