How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT Quick QuoteAIT - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to AIT for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Applied Industrial Technologies' Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Applied Industrial Technologies' main business drivers.

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. is a distributor of value-added industrial products — including engineered fluid power components, bearings, specialty flow control solutions, power transmission products and miscellaneous industrial supplies. These products are mainly sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) customers in Australia, North America, Singapore and New Zealand.

The company is also well known in the market for its engineering, design and systems integration services, as well as its inventory management solutions and maintenance training services that boost the value of end users in the market. The company, founded in 1923, is currently headquartered in Cleveland, OH.

Applied Industrial has operations in the United States, Canada and other countries (Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore), generating 88%, 6%, and 6% of fiscal 2024 revenues, respectively. Exiting fiscal 2024, the company had an employee base of 6,500 people.

Applied Industrial reports revenues under two business segments. A brief discussion on the segments is provided below:

Service Center Based Distribution (68% of net revenues in fiscal 2024) segment offers different types of industrial products majorly through service centers in New Zealand, Australia and North America. Some of the products offered by the segment include industrial bearings, motors, belting, drives, couplings and pumps.

This segment also provides services in the oil and gas industry as well as includes operations of fabricated rubber shops (regional) and rubber service field crews. Service offerings of Applied Maintenance Supplies & Solutions come under the ambit of this segment.

The Engineered Solutions segment (formerly Fluid Power & Flow Control) (32%) includes specialized regional businesses that offer fluid power components, assembling and designing of fluid power systems, and equipment repairing services. These products and services are traded to the end-users directly in the absence of any service centers. In addition, the segment offers integration of flow control systems, pump repair and other services.

Bottom Line

Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Applied Industrial Technologies, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in July 2015 would be worth $6,179.18, or a gain of 517.92%, as of July 3, 2025, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

The S&P 500 rose 199.86% and the price of gold increased 176.71% over the same time frame in comparison.

Analysts are forecasting more upside for AIT too.

Applied Industrial is benefiting from strength in technology-related fluid power end market within the Engineered Solutions segment. Acquired assets are another positive factor driving the company’s top line. Strength across the technology, food & beverage, pulp & paper, aggregates and transportation end markets sparks optimism. Pricing actions and freight savings, among a host of other factors, are improving its profitability. Applied Industrial has built a sound liquidity position that supports its shareholder-friendly policies. However, there remain some pockets of weakness in the Service Center segment, owing to decreasing MRO spending and capital maintenance projects. The rising expenses, due to the higher costs associated with acquired businesses, pose a threat to the bottom line. Forex woes are weighing on its top line.

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 6.97%, and there have been 1 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2025 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.