NEW YORK, May 29, 2026, 11:06 (EDT)
- Taylor Devices dropped 3.9% to $51.60 in quiet Nasdaq trading, trailing a wider Wall Street rally.
- The company logged all-time high nine-month sales in its most recent results, but its backlog was down from a year ago.
- Aerospace and defense still drive most sales, while structural and industrial demand stays soft.
Taylor Devices Inc. shares traded lower Friday morning while the rest of the U.S. stock market gained. Investors are watching the company’s order book.
The stock fell $2.10 to $51.60 after opening at $53.69. Shares traded were 6,940, putting the market value near $166.1 million. The shares hit a low for the day at $51.60.
That stands out now since the move went against the broader market. Wall Street’s top indexes climbed Friday, as tech stocks pushed the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow to new intraday highs, according to Reuters.
Taylor Devices (TAYD), out of North Tonawanda, New York, manufactures shock absorption, rate-control, and energy-storage products for vehicles and equipment, as well as structures. The company’s common shares trade on Nasdaq, according to a recent SEC filing.
Taylor Devices hasn’t posted another earnings release on its investor page since its third-quarter results from March 31. Investors are working with those numbers and watching the wider defense and industrial sector.
Taylor Devices posted third-quarter sales of $11.17 million, higher than $10.56 million last year. Net income increased to $2.50 million from $2.00 million. For the first nine months, sales came in at $32.70 million, a record for the period, the company said.
Chief Executive Tim Sopko said earnings got a lift from “higher sales volume and favorable sales mix.” But he pointed out weakness in structural and industrial markets. The company did secure its first Taylor Damped Moment Frame order for a medical building on the U.S. West Coast. PR Newswire
Backlog is the bigger issue — these are orders logged but not yet showing as revenue. Taylor Devices listed 116 open sales orders valued at $20.8 million as of Feb. 28 in its 10-Q, down from 146 orders totaling $33.3 million a year before. Most of that backlog is expected to turn into revenue in fiscal 2026 and 2027, the company said.
Aerospace and defense made up a bigger share of the company’s sales in the first nine months of fiscal 2026, rising to 66% from 58% in the same period last year. Structural fell to 24% from 31%, and industrial dropped to 10% from 11%. For the February quarter, aerospace and defense jumped to 77% of sales.
Taylor Devices trades with other defense-oriented stocks, but its market cap is much smaller. Kratos Defense dropped 5.1% Friday, while AeroVironment lost 7.3%. Those moves show what’s happening in the group, especially for the smaller aerospace and defense names.
The risk is clear. Without a rebound in backlog, Taylor Devices may have a hard time matching recent sales, particularly if demand in structural and industrial end markets remains weak or if aerospace-defense orders get pushed out. Earlier this month, Seeking Alpha contributor Fernanda Galvez Jalil said that a recovery in backlog is key to keeping a positive outlook on the shares.
For now, shares aren’t acting like those of a company with record nine-month sales. Instead, trading points to a stock where future moves may hinge on new orders. Investors are watching that number ahead of the next results.
