BN · rank #10 · 2026-07-20
HO
PARIS · EUR · $52.44B (USD)
The exact numbers the algorithm saw.
| Composite score Z-score blend of the factors below; drives the rank. | -0.23 |
|---|---|
| Forward revenue growth Consensus forward revenue growth. | +8.3% |
| Forward net margin Consensus forward net margin. | +8.0% |
| Net margin TTM Trailing twelve month net margin. | +7.6% |
| Margin expansion Forward minus trailing net margin (percentage points). | +0.5% |
| Forward PEG Forward P/E to growth. Below 1 is cheap for the growth. | 1.76 |
| Debt / FCF Net debt relative to free cash flow. Lower is safer. | 1.35× |
| Analyst upside Spread between the consensus 12m target and the current price. | +29.3% |
| Last EPS surprise Most recent reported EPS versus consensus. | — |
| Market cap (USD) | $52.44B |
The AI research card
Independent qualitative review of each pick before the order is placed. On the rare day the research service is unavailable, the paper book trades on the quant ranking alone and no card appears here.
Summary
Thales S.A. (HO@PARIS) is Europe’s largest defense technology group, supplying air-defense, secure communications, sensing and cyber systems across Defense, Aerospace and Cyber & Digital.
Rationale
The bottleneck_solvers setup fits because Thales sits in program-critical, hard-to-replace capacity with visible backlog and named long-term contracts like SAMP/T NG and IRIS², supporting ~8.3% forward revenue growth and margin expansion.
Material risks
- 1Defense order intake can be lumpy and Q1 2026 already showed orders missing consensus, so a slowdown in major contract awards could weaken the bottleneck thesis.
- 2Higher French taxation, including the temporary additional corporate tax and Naval Group-related EBIT hit, can compress net margin and free cash flow versus the model.
AI verdict council
Each pick is reviewed independently by 3 models before any order. 1 of 3 voted to proceed.