PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) Stock Price & How to Invest

PACCAR Inc designs and builds premium heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks under the Kenworth and Peterbilt brands in North America and the DAF brand in Europe, and it sells them across more than 100 countries. Beyond the trucks themselves, the company runs two structurally more profitable businesses: PACCAR Parts, which supplies aftermarket components across the installed fleet, and PACCAR Financial Services, which finances truck purchases for dealers and customers. This parts-and-finance layer generates recurring, higher-margin income that partly cushions the deep swings in new-truck demand.

The investment picture is one of a well-run, conservatively financed cyclical. PACCAR carries a strong balance sheet, pays a modest regular dividend plus a variable year-end extra dividend, and has consistently earned attractive returns on equity even through downturns. The trade-off is that truck deliveries, and therefore earnings, track the freight cycle closely, so results can fall sharply in soft years like 2025 and rebound as freight rates and orders recover. At about 23x trailing earnings but closer to 16x what analysts expect for the next twelve months, investors are effectively paying a premium on trough-year profits for durable execution, aftermarket annuity income, and disciplined capital returns, while accepting exposure to a boom-and-bust end market.

The second quarter of 2026 showed the cycle starting to turn: adjusted earnings of $1.43 per share beat the roughly $1.36 consensus and were the strongest quarterly result in a year. The stock has still given back ground since midsummer, down about 12% over three months, as the market weighs how quickly freight demand rebuilds and as at least one broker (Bernstein, which cut its target to $121 from $148 on October 14) trimmed expectations.

PACCAR's core end market is deeply cyclical, so a prolonged freight recession or a jump in customer financing costs can cut deliveries and earnings quickly, as the soft 2025 showed. The stock trades at about 23x trailing earnings, and the lower forward multiple of about 16x depends on a recovery that analysts already model as strong (EPS growth of about 34% expected in the third quarter alone), so a stall in orders would hit both earnings and the multiple. The October 27 report is the next test. Tariffs, steel and component costs, and supply-chain disruptions can pressure margins, and heavy competition from Daimler Truck, Volvo, and Traton limits pricing latitude. The transition to electric and alternative-fuel trucks carries execution and capital-return risk, and PACCAR Financial adds credit exposure if fleet customers face rising defaults in a downturn.

16 analysts publish price targets on PCAR, averaging $133.38 against a $110.82 price as of October 2026, or +20.4%. The published targets run from $107.00 to $162.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 9 buy, 10 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 8 raises and 4 cuts 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 PCAR 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 PACCAR Inc.. 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. Freight cycle recovery. After a weak 2025, sentiment across the heavy-duty truck sector has been improving as spot freight rates and load volumes firm up. The most optimistic published target, $162.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. PACCAR's core end market is deeply cyclical, so a prolonged freight recession or a jump in customer financing costs can cut deliveries and earnings quickly, as the soft 2025 showed. The most pessimistic target, $107.00, is roughly what PCAR is worth if this bites instead.

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

Yes. PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) has had one share split in the last 10 years:

• 3:2 on February 8, 2023, so every share held became 1.5 shares.

A split changes the share count and the price per share and leaves the value of a holding unchanged. Someone holding $1,000 of PCAR the day before the 3:2 split held $1,000 the day after, in more shares at a proportionally lower price. Historical prices from before the date are normally shown split-adjusted, which is why a long-run chart shows no cliff.

Splits matter mainly because they make older price figures confusing to compare by hand, and because a board choosing to split is usually signalling that the price has run up far enough to feel awkward for smaller buyers. Neither is a reason to buy or sell.

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

• Revenue (TTM): ~$27.8B
• Revenue growth (latest qtr, YoY): ~0.5%
• Net income (TTM): ~$2.5B (9% margin)
• Operating margin: ~12%
• P/E (trailing / forward): ~23x / ~16x
• Dividend yield: ~1.3% (plus variable extra)
• Market cap: ~$59B

PACCAR earned about $2.5 billion over the trailing twelve months on roughly $27.8 billion of revenue, still near the bottom of the truck cycle after a 2025 in which revenue fell to about $26.2 billion. At about $111 a share the market cap is near $59 billion and the trailing P/E is about 23x, but on analysts' forward EPS of roughly $7.16 the multiple drops to about 16x, so the valuation leans on a recovery in deliveries. Analysts' mean price target is about $133, and the company also pays a variable year-end extra dividend on top of the regular one.

Other names that sit close to PCAR: 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 PCAR 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 PCAR sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

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

PCAR pairs best-in-class truck margins and a growing high-margin parts and finance annuity with the hard reality of a cyclical end market, so the story is quality-at-a-price rather than a smooth compounder.

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

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