{"id":34549,"date":"2026-05-04T11:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/?p=34549"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:12:17","slug":"weekly-radar-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/2026\/05\/04\/weekly-radar-week-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Radar &#8211; Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>KEYENCE<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong><br><strong>KEYENCE: THE UNCONVENTIONAL LEADER IN AUTOMATION<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>On April 24, 2026, Keyence reported strong annual results<\/strong> for the fiscal year ended March 20, 2026: <strong>revenue of $7.8 <\/strong>billion, <strong>up 13% in U.S. dollars<\/strong>, operating income of <strong>$3.9 billion, up 11%,<\/strong> and an operating margin of <strong>51%<\/strong>. The fourth quarter was particularly strong, with operating income up 15% in U.S. dollars compared to last year. <strong>After three years of stability, fiscal year 2026, and even more so the fourth quarter, marked a strong recovery<\/strong>: annual operating income in U.S. dollars exceeded that of the fiscal year ending in March 2022 by 6%, and operating income for the fourth quarter of 2026 surpassed the previous record set in September 2022 by 13%. All of its markets are experiencing strong growth in local currency terms: Japan +9%, the Americas +17.5%, Asia +18.4%, and Europe +11.5%. <strong>Investors have reacted very positively to this earning report<\/strong>; the stock price has risen 24% in USD terms since April 24 and remains 30% below its September 2021 high in USD terms. Investors also welcomed the fact that the group will propose an amendment to its articles of association at its June general meeting, <strong>allowing it to repurchase its own shares.<\/strong><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Founded in 1972 by <strong>Takemitsu Takizaki (80<\/strong>) under the name Lead Electric, the company was renamed <strong>Keyence in 1986<\/strong>, a contraction of \u201c<strong>Key of Science<\/strong>\u201d, and went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1989. Fifty years later, Keyence serves 350,000 customers worldwide. Keyence is a leading specialist in sensors, vision systems, laser printing, and measurement and metrology instruments essential for the automation of production lines. Its founder still controls approximately 18% of the company\u2019s capital, and his foundation holds 4.6% of the capital. Since the end of 2025, <strong>Tetsuya Nakano (45),<\/strong> who has been with the company since 2004, has served as the new CEO. With a market capitalization of nearly $120 billion, the company ranks among the top 20 listed Japanese companies and is regularly featured in Forbes\u2019 list of the most innovative companies.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>This company\u2019s business model is quite unusual.<\/strong> Although it designs all of its products and is heavily involved in organizing their production, it is a <strong>fabless company<\/strong>, that is, the entire production of its electronic products is outsourced, allowing it to focus its resources on R&amp;D and marketing. <strong>Next, direct sales and consulting<\/strong>: its sales representatives are Keyence employees and are engineers trained in consulting, which allows them to quickly identify factory needs and propose customized solutions. <strong>Finally, same-day shipping <\/strong>for the majority of the catalog is a standard service that justifies premium pricing. <strong>With a gross margin of over 80% and an operating margin of over 50%<\/strong>, Keyence\u2019s added value lies both in the quality of its products and its ability to support its customers in automating their production lines. 10 to 20% of sales come from products launched less than two years ago, and 70% of Keyence\u2019s new products feature novel characteristics or are being used for the first time in a specific industry. The tribolite and ammonite fossils decorating their offices serve as a reminder to stakeholders that rapid innovation is essential for success.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>According to Keyence, the international potential remains significant. Management estimates that the addressable market is <strong>4.2 times larger than Japan\u2019s in the Americas, 3.0 times larger in Europe, and 9.0 times larger in Asia<\/strong>, while Keyence\u2019s sales in those regions represent only 0.6, 0.4, and 0.7 times those in Japan, respectively.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The stock is expected to <strong>further benefit from three factors<\/strong> in the coming months and years:<strong> <\/strong>1) accelerating earnings growth. Operating leverage should come into full play with the return to revenue growth: while revenue increased by only 15% in $ between FY2022 and FY2026, the number of employees rose by 42% over the period to nearly 13,000. It is likely that the operating margin will exceed its record levels of nearly 56% in 2018.<br>2) <strong>Second, Keyence has an enormous net cash position<\/strong> at the group level (~$20 billion), which is expected to be reinvested in share buybacks following the June AGM.<br>3) Finally, the stock is trading at <strong>a valuation that remains reasonable<\/strong>: 31x its 2027fy earnings, adjusted for cash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KEYENCE: THE UNCONVENTIONAL LEADER IN AUTOMATION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-macro-markets"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34550,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549\/revisions\/34550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.banquerichelieu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}