UniFirst (UNF) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $4.61B
• Dividend Yield: 0.71%
• Average Volume (3M): 358.27K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 21.9
• Beta (1Y): 0.50
• Revenue Growth: 0.20%
• EPS Growth: 2.72%
• Country: US
• Employees: 16,000
• Sector: Industrials
• Sector Strength: 72
• Industry: Specialty Business Services
• EPS (TTM): 1.98
• Shares Outstanding: 14,521,268
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 732,536
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 358,272
• PEG Ratio: 7.87
• Price to Book (P/B): 1.46
• Price to Sales (P/S): 1.30
• P/FCF Ratio: 22.40
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.05
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 1.97
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 5.40
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 14.80
• 1Y Price Target: $228.00
• Price Target Upside: -14.12% Downside
• Rating Consensus: Hold
• Number of Analyst Covering: 4
• EPS Forecast (FY): 7.04
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $2.49B

• Rating: 78 Outperform
• Price Target: $294.00 ▲(10.73% Upside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 03/11/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 03/11/26

UNF’s score is driven primarily by strong underlying financial stability (especially the conservative balance sheet) and bullish technical momentum. The pending Cintas acquisition is an additional positive factor. Offsetting these are a less-compelling valuation (low dividend yield with a mid-range P/E) and a mixed earnings-call picture with near-term margin and cash-flow pressure despite reaffirmed full-year guidance.

Positive Factors

Conservative balance sheet

UniFirst’s extremely low leverage and substantial equity provide durable financial flexibility, reducing refinancing and solvency risk during cycles. This conservatism supports capital allocation optionality for capex, M&A or returns, and protects operations from macro shocks over the next 2–6 months.

Recurring route-based business model

The route-based rental model drives high revenue visibility and long customer lifecycles, enabling steady cash flows and efficient incremental margins as routes scale. Cross-selling facility and first-aid services to existing customers strengthens retention and revenue resilience.

Strategic acquisition with expected synergies

The agreed Cintas acquisition is a structural change that should consolidate scale, combine route and processing capacity, and deliver substantial cost synergies. Board approvals and voting agreements reduce execution risk and create a clearer strategic path for UniFirst employees and customers.

Negative Factors

Margin compression vs prior peak

Sustained margin erosion signals structural cost pressure or weaker pricing power in core services. If higher claims, energy, or labor costs persist, profitability and cash flow generation could remain subdued absent meaningful pricing or efficiency gains, limiting return improvement.

Weakening free cash flow conversion

Lower cash conversion and negative recent FCF growth indicate more working-capital intensity and reinvestment needs. This reduces financial flexibility, constrains organic or buyback funding, and heightens sensitivity to timing of collections and vendor payments over the medium term.

Multi-year ERP/Key Initiative execution costs

Ongoing ERP and operating-transformation costs create near-term margin drag and execution risk. Delays or higher-than-expected expenses could prolong profitability pressure and working-capital strain, slowing the timing of the anticipated margin inflection in 2027–2028.

UniFirst Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

UniFirst Corporation provides workplace uniforms and protective work wear clothing in the United States, Europe, and Canada. The company operates through U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing, Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning, and First Aid segments. It designs, manufactures, personalizes, rents, cleans, delivers, and sells a range of uniforms and protective clothing, including shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, and aprons; and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments. The company also rents and sells industrial wiping products, floor mats, facility service products, and dry and wet mops; restroom and cleaning supplies comprising air fresheners, paper products, gloves, masks, sanitizers, and hand soaps; and other textile products. In addition, it provides first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies; decontaminates and cleans work clothes, and other items that is exposed to radioactive materials; and services special cleanroom protective wear and facilities. Further, it offers a range of garment service options, including full-service rental programs in which garments are cleaned and serviced; lease programs in which garments are cleaned and maintained by individual employees; and purchase programs to buy garments and related items directly. The company serves automobile service centers and dealers, delivery services, food and general merchandise retailers, food processors and service operations, light manufacturers, maintenance facilities, restaurants, service companies, soft and durable goods wholesalers, transportation companies, healthcare providers, government agencies, research and development laboratories, high technology companies, and utilities operating nuclear reactors, as well as others who require employee clothing for image, identification, protection, or utility purposes. UniFirst Corporation was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

How the Company Makes Money

UniFirst primarily makes money by providing recurring, route-based service programs to businesses. Its largest revenue stream comes from uniform and protective garment programs in which UniFirst supplies uniforms (and certain other garments), picks up soiled items on a regular schedule, launders and maintains them, and returns clean garments to customer locations; customers pay ongoing service fees (typically tied to the number of wearers, garments, and service frequency), which creates largely recurring revenue. The company also generates revenue from facility services and product add-ons delivered through the same service infrastructure, such as floor care items and other workplace supplies, where customers pay for products and related service. A second meaningful stream is First Aid and Safety Services, where UniFirst provides workplace safety products and services—commonly via scheduled restocking/servicing and direct product sales—earning revenue from service charges and product sales. UniFirst also earns revenue from direct sales channels (including its own selling efforts and e-commerce) for work apparel and related items, where revenue is recognized at the point of sale. Additional factors supporting earnings include multi-year customer relationships driven by service reliability, a dense delivery route network that can improve unit economics as routes scale, and cross-selling of additional products/services to existing uniform customers.

UniFirst Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Financials are solid overall, led by a very strong balance sheet (very low leverage) and consistent profitability/operating cash flow. Offsetting factors are margin compression versus 2021 and recent softness in free-cash-flow growth and cash conversion.

Income Statement

UNF shows a solid top-line trajectory over the last several years (revenue rising from ~$1.83B in 2021 to ~$2.45B in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months)). Profitability is positive and fairly steady in recent periods, with TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) net margin around 5.7% and EBITDA margin around 13.3%. The key weakness is margin compression versus 2021 (when net margin was ~8.3% and EBITDA margin ~16.6%), suggesting higher costs and/or pricing pressure. The TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) revenue growth figure is unusually high relative to the recent annual trend, which adds some uncertainty around near-term growth momentum.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a clear strength: leverage is very low with debt-to-equity around 0.03–0.04 across periods (TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) ~0.036). Equity is substantial (~$2.16B TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months)) against total assets (~$2.75B), supporting financial flexibility and downside protection. Returns on equity are moderate (TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) ~6.5%), down from stronger levels in 2021 (~8.1%), indicating that while the company is conservatively financed, profitability is not translating into top-tier shareholder returns.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is generally healthy with operating cash flow of ~$252M in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) and free cash flow of ~$132M, showing the business can consistently fund itself. However, cash conversion is not best-in-class: free cash flow is only about half of net income in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) (~0.52), implying meaningful reinvestment needs and/or working-capital swings. Free cash flow growth in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) is negative, signaling some recent softening after improvements from weaker cash flow levels earlier in the cycle.

Breakdown	TTM	Aug 2025	Aug 2024	Aug 2023	Aug 2022	Aug 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	2.45B	2.43B	2.43B	2.23B	2.00B	1.83B
Gross Profit	894.39M	749.60M	847.60M	751.75M	694.37M	684.94M
EBITDA	326.49M	337.88M	325.01M	262.03M	244.10M	302.76M
Net Income	139.53M	148.27M	145.47M	103.67M	103.40M	151.11M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	2.75B	2.78B	2.70B	2.57B	2.43B	2.38B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	129.53M	209.17M	175.08M	89.60M	376.40M	512.87M
Total Debt	76.94M	72.44M	68.81M	64.76M	51.67M	43.17M
Total Liabilities	590.10M	609.20M	587.90M	566.01M	512.10M	508.11M
Stockholders Equity	2.16B	2.17B	2.11B	2.00B	1.92B	1.87B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	92.77M	141.36M	134.85M	43.77M	-21.67M	78.66M
Operating Cash Flow	252.44M	295.71M	295.27M	215.76M	122.65M	212.30M
Investing Cash Flow	-169.69M	-155.05M	-162.24M	-487.65M	-186.51M	-141.47M
Financing Cash Flow	-126.50M	-99.99M	-50.36M	-25.84M	-69.44M	-34.26M

UniFirst Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 265.50
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Positive
• 200DMA: Positive
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For UNF, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 265.5 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 252.07, above the 50-day MA of 228.20, and above the 200-day MA of 186.78, indicating a bullish trend. The MACD of 13.33 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 64.92 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 61.84 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for UNF.

UniFirst Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
UNF	78 Outperform	$4.61B	21.89	6.45%	0.71%	0.20%	2.72%
CTAS	76 Outperform	$72.71B	37.57	41.07%	0.88%	8.60%	11.45%
ARMK	68 Neutral	$10.29B	25.02	10.17%	1.14%	6.35%	24.07%
ABM	64 Neutral	$2.19B	17.89	8.80%	2.20%	4.62%	102.72%
Sector *	63 Neutral	$10.79B	15.43	7.44%	2.01%	2.89%	-14.66%
CBZ	60 Neutral	$1.47B	27.64	6.21%	―	59.19%	-35.47%
BV	59 Neutral	$1.11B	-19.84	2.88%	―	-3.40%	-51.58%

UniFirst Corporate Events

UniFirst Agrees to Be Acquired by Cintas in Merger

On March 10, 2026, UniFirst entered into a definitive Agreement and Plan of Merger under which it will be acquired by Cintas in a two-step merger, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary and ultimately merging into a Cintas subsidiary. UniFirst shareholders will receive $155 in cash and 0.7720 Cintas shares per UniFirst share, valuing the deal at about $310 per share and implying an enterprise value of roughly $5.5 billion, with no separate consideration for Class B shares.

Equity awards for UniFirst employees will be converted into cash, Cintas equity-based awards or canceled according to type, with many continuing awards rolling into Cintas instruments under similar terms, preserving incentives for key personnel. The boards of both companies unanimously approved the transaction, which is subject to UniFirst shareholder approval, multiple regulatory clearances including Hart-Scott-Rodino review, listing and registration of new Cintas shares, and the absence of material adverse changes.

The merger agreement includes customary covenants on UniFirst’s interim operations, non-solicitation of competing bids, and mutual best-efforts obligations to secure approvals, alongside detailed termination rights and reverse-termination provisions with breakup fees of $213.3 million for UniFirst and $350 million for Cintas under specified scenarios. Voting and support agreements signed on March 10, 2026 with UniFirst shareholders affiliated with the Croatti family effectively lock up about two-thirds of UniFirst’s voting power in favor of the deal, significantly reducing execution risk on the shareholder vote.

In a joint press release on March 11, 2026, the companies highlighted that combining their complementary processing capacity, route networks, supply chains and technology is expected to generate approximately $375 million in operating cost synergies within four years. Cintas expects the acquisition to enhance its competitive position against both large uniform and facility service rivals and alternative procurement models, be accretive to earnings by the end of the second full year post-closing, and provide expanded career opportunities for most UniFirst employees, while transaction closing is targeted for the second half of 2026.

The most recent analyst rating on (UNF) stock is a Hold with a $284.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on UniFirst stock, see the UNF Stock Forecast page.

UniFirst Announces Retirement of Executive Vice President of Operations

On December 29, 2025, UniFirst Corporation announced that David DiFillippo plans to retire from his role as Executive Vice President of Operations, effective January 5, 2026. The company highlighted that DiFillippo’s operational responsibilities have been gradually transitioned over the past year in preparation for his departure, signaling a managed leadership change intended to minimize disruption and acknowledging his many years of service and contributions to the organization.

The most recent analyst rating on (UNF) stock is a Hold with a $182.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on UniFirst stock, see the UNF Stock Forecast page.

UniFirst affirms leadership continuity with new board chairman

At UniFirst Corporation’s annual shareholders’ meeting held on December 15, 2025, investors re-elected Joseph M. Nowicki and Steven S. Sintros as Class II directors for three-year terms extending to the 2029 annual meeting, approved on an advisory basis the company’s executive compensation program, and ratified the selection of Ernst & Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending August 29, 2026. The following day, on December 16, 2025, the board of directors elevated Nowicki to chairman, signaling continuity in the company’s governance structure and reinforcing shareholder support for the existing leadership and oversight framework.

The most recent analyst rating on (UNF) stock is a Sell with a $145.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on UniFirst stock, see the UNF Stock Forecast page.

UniFirst Announces Preliminary 2026 Shareholder Meeting Results

On December 15, 2025, UniFirst Corporation announced the preliminary voting results from its 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, revealing that Steven Sintros and Joseph Nowicki were re-elected to the Board of Directors. The Board expressed gratitude for shareholder engagement and emphasized its commitment to enhancing shareholder value. Final election results will be certified and reported in a Form 8-K filing with the SEC.

The most recent analyst rating on (UNF) stock is a Sell with a $145.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on UniFirst stock, see the UNF Stock Forecast page.