Oshkosh (OSK): Buy, Sell, or Hold Post Q2 Earnings?

Radek Strnad Wed, September 30, 2026 at 12:29 PM EDT 3 min read **

• ^GSPC
• OSK

Oshkosh (OSK): Buy, Sell, or Hold Post Q2 Earnings? Oshkosh has been treading water for the past six months, recording a small loss of 4.4% while holding steady at $131.59. The stock also fell short of the S&P 500's 21.1% gain during that period.

Is there a buying opportunity in Oshkosh, or does it present a risk to your portfolio? Get the full stock story straight from our expert analysts, it's free.

Why Is Oshkosh Not Exciting?

We don't have much confidence in Oshkosh. Here are three reasons why OSK doesn't excite us, plus one stock we'd rather own.

1. Backlog Declines as Orders Drop

We can better understand Heavy Transportation Equipment companies by analyzing their backlog. This metric shows the value of outstanding orders that have not yet been executed or delivered, giving visibility into Oshkosh's future revenue streams.

Oshkosh's backlog came in at $14.75 billion in the latest quarter, and it averaged 3.3% year-on-year declines over the last two years. This performance was underwhelming and shows the company is not winning new orders. It also suggests there may be increasing competition or market saturation.

Oshkosh Backlog

2. Low Gross Margin Reveals Weak Structural Profitability

At StockStory, we prefer high gross margin businesses because they indicate the company has pricing power or differentiated products, giving it a chance to generate higher operating profits.

Oshkosh has bad unit economics for an industrials business, signaling it operates in a competitive market. As you can see below, it averaged a 16.3% gross margin over the last five years. Said differently, Oshkosh had to pay a chunky $83.70 to its suppliers for every $100 in revenue.

Oshkosh Trailing 12-Month Gross Margin

3. EPS Took a Dip Over the Last Two Years

Although long-term earnings trends give us the big picture, we like to analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

Sadly for Oshkosh, its EPS declined by 11.9% annually over the last two years while its revenue grew by 1.2%. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

Oshkosh Trailing 12-Month EPS (Non-GAAP)

Final Judgment

Oshkosh isn't a terrible business, but it doesn't pass our bar. With its shares trailing the market in recent months, the stock trades at 10.2× forward P/E (or $131.59 per share). While this valuation is fair, the upside isn't great compared to the potential downside. We're fairly confident there are better investments elsewhere. We'd suggest looking at one of Charlie Munger's all-time favorite businesses.

Stocks We Would Buy Instead of Oshkosh

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