Red Flag Alert – Ingersoll Rand's False Narrative

The numbers refute its claims of being a 'premier growth compounder'.

I first mentioned in late August that I was starting to take a look at Ingersoll Rand IR 0.00%↑ . As I wrote at the time, reflecting what many of you may think when you hear the name…

I hadn’t thought about Ingersoll Rand in years until a friend recently mentioned it. With the perception of big, boring and off most everybody’s radar – and way out of the headlines – it very well may be perfect for those looking for shorts that are not likely to kill their portfolios. Plus, with a $32 billion market cap, and enormous daily volume, it’s highly liquid. The appeal for longs is that Ingersoll Rand is no longer just an old-line manufacturer of air compressors.

Instead, it’s trying to become a competitor to the likes of Danaher and Thermo Fisher in equipment used in biopharma and biologic production. To get there, and as it reconstitutes itself, it has become a rollup. And based on organic growth, not a necessarily good one on that.

I have more work to do to see if I go the distance, so consider this a head’s up.

I’ve gone the distance and… oh, my! What a Wall Street classic. And at an absurdly high multiple, no less.