MSC Industrial Supply Company on Thursday reported a double-digit jump in sales that company officials said set a new quarterly record.
The company’s operating income, operating margin and net income, however, were down compared to the same quarter last year.
MSC, the no. 9 distributor on ID’s newest Big 50 List, posted $1.08 billion in sales in its fiscal fourth quarter, up 10.3% year-over-year.
Its gross profit also increased to $438.6 million from nearly $395 million in its previous Q4, but operating income and net income fell to $72.8 million and $47.9 million, respectively — decreases of 13.6% and 15.2 % — and operating margin slid from 8.6% to 6.7% over that span.
MSC noted that operating income, net income and operating margin each rose on an adjusted basis — by over one-third, in the case of its net income total — and company officials said that the results exceeded its expectations for the final quarter of the year. MSC President and CEO Martina McIsaac credited the strongest growth in core customers in over three years, along with acceleration in its national accounts growth.
“These results provide further evidence that MSC is heading in the right direction, and that the changes we have made to drive profitable growth are taking hold,” McIsaac said in a statement.
McIsaac added that the distributor’s first quarter sales trends reflect “low double-digit growth to date;” the company’s outlook for the first quarter of its new fiscal year anticipated sales growth of between 9.5% and 10.5% on a daily average basis. MSC only issues fiscal-year forecasts for select metrics, including capital expenditures and free cash flow.
For MSC’s full 2026 fiscal year, the company reported just over $4 billion in net sales, an increase of 6.4% compared to fiscal 2025.
