StandardAero, Inc. (SARO) Stock Price & How to Invest

StandardAero (NYSE: SARO) runs engine maintenance, repair and overhaul shops for fixed and rotary wing aircraft, serving commercial airlines, business jet operators and militaries from roughly a dozen countries with about 8,000 employees. The business is organised into two reporting segments. Engine Services, which produced $5.35 billion of the $6.06 billion of fiscal 2025 revenue, takes whole engines through scheduled and unscheduled shop visits, provides on-wing and field support, and manages engine assets for lessors and operators. Component Repair Services, at $708.6 million in 2025, repairs the individual blades, vanes and cases that pass through those shops and through other people's shops, and it earns far better margins for it, 28.6% on an adjusted EBITDA basis last year against 13.2% for Engine Services. Access to the work depends on paper as much as on tooling: StandardAero holds exclusive or semi-exclusive OEM licences on platforms including the Rolls-Royce RB211-535, AE 1107, AE 2100 and AE 3007, the Honeywell HTF7000 and the Safran Arriel, and it was the first independent CFM International LEAP-1A and LEAP-1B Premier MRO provider in the Americas. By end market in 2025, commercial aerospace was $3.61 billion, business aviation $1.17 billion and military and helicopter $1.07 billion.

What drives the numbers is fleet utilisation and fleet age. Engines come off wing on cycles and calendar limits, and when new aircraft deliveries slip, operators fly older airframes harder and send engines in more often, which is why the current supply-constrained delivery environment has been good for aftermarket volumes. Pricing power comes from the OEM licences and from turnaround performance, since an engine sitting in a shop is an aircraft not earning money. The market is presently paying about 1.3 times sales and roughly 12 to 13 times trailing EBITDA for that, near the low end of the range since the October 2024 IPO at $24.00 per share. Two things complicate the headline. Management is deliberately removing $300 million to $400 million of low-to-no-margin material pass-through revenue from restructured contracts during 2026, so reported growth of 4.6% in the second quarter understates volume while flattering margin, which reached a record 14.4%. And the equity still carries an ownership overhang: Carlyle held about 25.4% of the shares at the April 2026 record date, down from roughly 45.6% before a 50 million share secondary in January 2026 at $31.00, with registration rights intact. Leverage is the other permanent feature of the story: net debt of $2.18 billion against $838.4 million of trailing adjusted EBITDA, improved but not resolved.

The most concrete governance problem is disclosed in the company's own filings. Management concluded that internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2025, citing unremediated material weaknesses across the control environment and monitoring, period-end financial reporting and significant account balances, segregation of duties, and IT general controls. PwC audited that conclusion. The weaknesses produced immaterial corrections and unrecorded errors rather than a restatement, and a separate set identified in the 2024 annual report was remediated during 2025, but management gives no date for full remediation. Concentration cuts two ways. The top four OEM customers were about 36% of 2025 revenue, down from 41% and 43% in the two prior years, and the four largest parts suppliers accounted for a substantial majority of parts purchases, so the same handful of engine makers can squeeze either end of the P&L. Losing or failing to renew an OEM authorisation would remove a platform outright. Cash conversion is lumpy and currently negative in the first half: operating activities used $47.2 million through June, with contract assets at $1.20 billion and contract liabilities down $99 million, so the guided $270 million to $300 million of adjusted free cash flow depends heavily on a second half swing. Leverage of 2.6x is manageable but the debt is floating and hedged only in part. Carlyle retains roughly a quarter of the shares, the right to designate six of nine directors until it drops below 25%, and registration rights that make further supply a live possibility. Military and helicopter revenue fell 2.6% in the quarter. A new chief executive, Paul McElhinney, takes over on October 1, 2026 as Russell Ford retires. There is no dividend.

14 analysts publish price targets on SARO, averaging $35.81 against a $25.06 price as of August 2026, or +42.9%. The published targets run from $30.00 to $42.40, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 11 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 3 raises and 5 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 SARO 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 StandardAero, 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. LEAP and CFM56 Dallas reached profitability. The two newest engine lines have been a drag on Engine Services margin for two years while they came down the learning curve. The most optimistic published target, $42.40, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The most concrete governance problem is disclosed in the company's own filings. The most pessimistic target, $30.00, is roughly what SARO is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on SARO, 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 StandardAero, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$6.32 billion for the twelve months to June 30, 2026, up ~12.6%, against $6,062.5 million in fiscal 2025 (+15.8%), $5,237.2 million in 2024 and $4,563.3 million in 2023. Second quarter 2026 revenue was $1,599.7 million, up only 4.6%, because management is stripping out $300 million to $400 million of low-to-no-margin material pass-through revenue on restructured contracts across the year. Underlying end markets grew 5.7% in commercial aerospace and 5.6% in business aviation, while military and helicopter fell 2.6%.
• Earnings and margins: Trailing twelve month net income of ~$324.0 million and diluted EPS of ~$0.97, against $277.4 million and $0.83 in fiscal 2025 and just $11.0 million in fiscal 2024, when interest expense on the pre-IPO capital structure absorbed most of operating income. Second quarter net income was $97.3 million, up 43.7%, on a 6.1% net margin. Adjusted EBITDA was $229.9 million in the quarter, a 14.4% margin and a company record, versus $808.2 million and 13.3% for full year 2025. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.40 against $0.32.
• Segments and operating mix: Engine Services delivered $1,405.1 million of second quarter revenue and $204.2 million of segment adjusted EBITDA at a 14.5% margin, up 130 basis points. Component Repair Services delivered $194.6 million and $51.2 million at 26.3%, down 270 basis points on weaker military volumes. Full year 2025 split the same way: Engine Services $5,354.0 million of revenue and $706.9 million of EBITDA, CRS $708.6 million and $202.7 million. By end market in 2025, commercial aerospace was $3,607.3 million, business aviation $1,173.6 million, military and helicopter $1,065.0 million and other $216.7 million.
• 2026 guidance: Raised on August 6, 2026 to revenue of $6.375 billion to $6.5 billion (Engine Services $5.6 billion to $5.7 billion, CRS $775 million to $800 million), adjusted EBITDA of $885 million to $910 million, adjusted diluted EPS of $1.50 to $1.57, and adjusted free cash flow of $270 million to $300 million. The revenue figure is stated after the pass-through elimination. The adjusted EPS definition was broadened in the second quarter to exclude non-cash amortisation of all intangible assets, including licence intangibles, not only acquired ones, so the measure is not directly comparable with prior guidance.
• Cash flow and balance sheet: Operating activities used $47.2 million in the first half of 2026 against $21.1 million used a year earlier, with capital expenditure of $36.6 million; the second quarter alone generated $50.2 million of free cash flow. Fiscal 2025 operating cash flow was $316.7 million on $82.4 million of capex. Gross debt was $2,355.1 million at June 30, 2026 (term loans of $2,216.3 million due October 2031, $120 million drawn on a $750 million revolver, finance leases), cash $179.1 million, net debt $2,176.0 million and net debt to adjusted EBITDA 2.6x, improved from 3.0x. Goodwill is $1.71 billion and stockholders' equity $2.75 billion.
• Market pricing: About $25.06 per share for a market capitalisation near $8.29 billion, against a 52-week range of $23.83 to $34.48 and an October 2024 IPO price of $24.00. Shares outstanding were 330.9 million at June 30, 2026 with a free float near 222 million, since Carlyle and the GIC investor hold roughly 104 million between them. The stock changes hands at about 25.8 times trailing GAAP earnings, roughly 16 times the midpoint of guided 2026 adjusted EPS, ~1.3 times sales, and an enterprise value near $10.5 billion, or roughly 12.5 times last-twelve-months adjusted EBITDA of $838.4 million. No dividend is paid; a $450 million buyback is the return mechanism. Short interest ran about 5% of shares outstanding.

The multiple sits below the aftermarket-heavy aerospace names investors usually anchor to, and the gap is mostly explained by three things the comparables do not carry: floating-rate leverage from the buyout, unremediated material weaknesses in financial reporting, and a private equity holder with registration rights and a quarter of the shares. Earnings quality is also a live question, because the adjusted EPS bridge now excludes amortisation of licence intangibles that the company pays real cash for, such as the $180 million fee signed in the second quarter. Read on adjusted free cash flow instead of adjusted EPS and the picture is less flattering, since the first half consumed cash and the full year target implies a large second half swing.

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

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

As of August 2026, SARO is a leveraged aftermarket engine services operator trading near the bottom of its post-IPO range at roughly 12 to 13 times trailing EBITDA, with record segment margins, net leverage down to 2.6x, and a Carlyle stake of about 25% still hanging over the float.

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

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