ACCO Brands (ACCO) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $304.78M
• Dividend Yield: 8.17%
• Average Volume (3M): 740.88K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 8.3
• Beta (1Y): 1.41
• Revenue Growth: -9.53%
• EPS Growth: N/A
• Country: US
• Employees: 5,000
• Sector: Industrials
• Sector Strength: 72
• Industry: Business Equipment & Supplies
• EPS (TTM): 0.38
• Shares Outstanding: 90,170,280
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 1,020,227
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 740,883
• PEG Ratio: -0.06
• Price to Book (P/B): 0.52
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.23
• P/FCF Ratio: 6.76
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 3.81
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 0.76
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 2.55
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 6.41
• 1Y Price Target: $7.00
• Price Target Upside: 107.10% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 2
• EPS Forecast (FY): 1
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $1.58B

• Rating: 61 Neutral
• Price Target: $4.00 ▲(18.34% Upside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 03/10/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 03/10/26

The score is driven primarily by improving fundamentals—profitability returning and sharply lower leverage—partly offset by multi-year revenue decline, thin margins, and weaker free cash flow. Technicals are the main drag (below major moving averages with negative momentum), while low P/E and a high dividend yield support the valuation case. Earnings call commentary was mixed: guidance held and cost actions are working, but demand softness remains a material risk.

Positive Factors

Balance Sheet Deleveraging

ACCO materially cut debt in 2025, lowering debt-to-equity to ~0.17 from a much higher level. This durable reduction improves financial flexibility, reduces interest burden, and increases capacity to fund strategic moves or weather cyclical downturns without immediate refinancing risk.

Sustained Cost Reductions & Margin Support

A multi-year cost program has generated material, recurring savings and helped gross margins improve (50 bps cited). Structural cost discipline can sustain profitability when volumes weaken, improving operating leverage and supporting cash generation over multiple quarters.

Portfolio Diversification via Acquisitions

The EPOS acquisition and prior Buro Seating integration broaden ACCO's exposure to higher-growth tech peripherals and seating. Diversifying beyond legacy stationery into premium audio and accessories can lift growth and margins if integration and cross-selling persistently scale.

Negative Factors

Multi-year Revenue Decline

Top-line has trended lower for several years, indicating shrinking underlying demand or loss of market share. Persistent revenue decline weakens operating leverage, constrains reinvestment, and makes sustained margin recovery dependent on reversing secular or competitive pressures.

Thin Net Margins

With net margins near mid-single digits, ACCO has limited tolerance for cost inflation, pricing pressure, or volume declines. Small adverse changes in input costs or sales mix can erase profits, making earnings and cash flow fragile despite gross-margin stability.

Declining Free Cash Flow Cushion

FCF is positive but materially down year-over-year, reducing the buffer for debt repayment, M&A, or dividends. Weaker cash conversion limits flexibility to invest in growth categories or absorb another downcycle without re-leveraging or cutting returns.

ACCO Brands Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

ACCO Brands Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets consumer, school, technology, and office products. It operates through three segments: ACCO Brands North America, ACCO Brands EMEA, and ACCO Brands International. The company provides computer and gaming accessories, calendars, planners, dry erase boards, school notebooks, and janitorial supplies; storage and organization products, such as lever-arch binders, sheet protectors, and indexes; laminating, binding, and shredding machines; writing instruments and art products; stapling and punching products; and do-it-yourself tools. It offers its products under the AT-A-GLANCE, Barrilito, Derwent, Esselte, Five Star, Foroni, GBC, Hilroy, Kensington, Leitz, Marbig, Mead, NOBO, PowerA, Quartet, Rapid, Rexel, Swingline, Tilibra, TruSens, and Spirax brand names. The company markets and sells its products through various channels, including mass retailers, e-tailers, discount, drug/grocery, and variety chains; warehouse clubs; hardware and specialty stores; independent office product dealers; office superstores; wholesalers; contract stationers; and technology specialty businesses, as well as sells products directly to commercial and consumer end-users through its e-commerce platform and direct sales organization. ACCO Brands Corporation was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Lake Zurich, Illinois.

How the Company Makes Money

ACCO Brands primarily makes money by selling branded physical products in office, school, and workspace-related categories. Revenue is generated from (1) wholesale sales to mass merchants, office products superstores, e-commerce retailers/marketplaces, and other retail chains; (2) sales through business-to-business channels such as office products dealers, contract stationers, wholesalers, and other commercial distributors supplying corporate, education, and government customers; and (3) international sales via regional distribution networks and local channel partners. The company’s earnings are driven by product volume, mix (higher-margin branded and value-added items versus commodity products), pricing and promotional activity, and its ability to manage manufacturing and sourcing costs (including a mix of owned manufacturing and third-party/global sourcing). Additional factors influencing profitability include seasonality (notably back-to-school demand), retailer inventory cycles, freight and raw-material costs, and currency movements for its non-U.S. operations. Specific significant partnerships: null.

ACCO Brands Financial Statement Overview

Summary

2025 shows a clear inflection with profitability returning (net income ~$41M) and a much stronger balance sheet as debt fell sharply (debt-to-equity ~0.17). Offsetting this, revenue has declined for multiple years (down to ~$1.52B in 2025) and net margins remain thin (~2.7%), while free cash flow fell versus 2024, leaving less cushion if demand stays weak.

Income Statement

Revenue has been shrinking for several years (down from $2.03B in 2021 to $1.52B in 2025), signaling a challenged top-line backdrop. Profitability, however, rebounded meaningfully in 2025 with net income turning positive ($41.3M) after losses in 2022–2024, and gross margin remaining relatively steady around ~33% in 2024–2025. The key weakness is that net margins are still thin (about 2.7% in 2025), leaving earnings sensitive to cost pressure and volume declines.

Balance Sheet

Leverage improved dramatically in 2025: total debt fell to ~$115M from ~$923M in 2024, driving debt-to-equity down to ~0.17 (from ~1.52). Equity is solid at ~$665M against ~$2.25B in assets, and returns turned positive in 2025 (~6% return on equity) after negative levels in 2022–2024. The main watch item is the company’s history of elevated leverage and volatile returns, which suggests balance-sheet risk can re-emerge if profitability weakens.

Cash Flow

Cash generation remains positive, with 2025 operating cash flow of ~$68.7M and free cash flow of ~$50.8M. Free cash flow covered a meaningful portion of net income in 2025 (about 74%), indicating earnings are supported by cash rather than accounting-only improvements. The downside is a notable drop in free cash flow versus 2024 (down ~29%), pointing to weaker cash conversion and less cushion for reinvestment, debt service, or shareholder returns if the top line continues to decline.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	1.52B	1.67B	1.83B	1.95B	2.03B
Gross Profit	454.90M	555.40M	598.30M	552.30M	614.90M
EBITDA	181.00M	38.40M	121.60M	139.90M	243.40M
Net Income	41.30M	-101.60M	-21.80M	-13.20M	101.90M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	2.25B	2.23B	2.64B	2.79B	3.09B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	64.40M	74.10M	66.40M	62.20M	41.20M
Total Debt	920.80M	923.00M	1.02B	1.09B	1.11B
Total Liabilities	1.59B	1.62B	1.86B	1.98B	2.23B
Stockholders Equity	664.60M	606.10M	787.00M	810.10M	864.80M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	50.80M	132.30M	114.90M	61.10M	138.40M
Operating Cash Flow	68.70M	148.20M	128.70M	77.60M	159.60M
Investing Cash Flow	-9.30M	-12.30M	-11.20M	-9.30M	-5.80M
Financing Cash Flow	-76.70M	-122.60M	-117.70M	-48.30M	-147.20M

ACCO Brands Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Negative
• Last Price: 3.38
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Positive
• RSI: Positive
• STOCH: Positive

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For ACCO, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 3.38 is below the 20-day moving average (MA) of 3.94, below the 50-day MA of 3.95, and below the 200-day MA of 3.74, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -0.14 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 23.90 is Positive, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 6.46 is Positive, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for ACCO.

ACCO Brands Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
EBF	76 Outperform	$534.94M	10.57	14.11%	5.53%	-2.66%	4.52%
AVY	70 Outperform	$13.13B	21.15	31.18%	2.04%	1.03%	5.52%
ACTG	67 Neutral	$470.80M	16.61	0.91%	―	71.28%	-89.20%
Sector *	63 Neutral	$10.79B	15.43	7.44%	2.01%	2.89%	-14.66%
HNI	63 Neutral	$2.89B	37.63	5.05%	3.20%	1.15%	16.20%
ACCO	61 Neutral	$304.78M	8.32	6.47%	8.17%	-9.53%	―