Uniform and facility services provider Cintas (NASDAQ: CTAS) reported Q1 CY2026 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 8.9% year on year to $2.84 billion. The company expects the full year’s revenue to be around $11.23 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its GAAP profit of $1.24 per share was in line with analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Starting as a family business collecting and cleaning shop rags in Cincinnati, Cintas (NASDAQ: CTAS) provides corporate identity uniforms, facility services, and safety products to over one million businesses across North America.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul.

With $11.03 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Cintas is larger than most business services companies and benefits from economies of scale, enabling it to gain more leverage on its fixed costs than smaller competitors. This also gives it the flexibility to offer lower prices.

As you can see below, Cintas’s sales grew at an impressive 9.8% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This is a great starting point for our analysis because it shows Cintas’s demand was higher than many business services companies.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within business services, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. Cintas’s annualized revenue growth of 8.3% over the last two years is below its five-year trend, but we still think the results suggest healthy demand.

This quarter, Cintas reported year-on-year revenue growth of 8.9%, and its $2.84 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 0.8%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 7.2% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. We still think its growth trajectory is attractive given its scale and suggests the market is forecasting success for its products and services.

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Operating Margin

Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income - the bottom line - excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals.

Cintas has been a well-oiled machine over the last five years. It demonstrated elite profitability for a business services business, boasting an average operating margin of 21.6%.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, Cintas’s operating margin rose by 2.7 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.

This quarter, Cintas generated an operating margin profit margin of 23.2%, in line with the same quarter last year. This indicates the company’s overall cost structure has been relatively stable.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Cintas’s EPS grew at 15.6% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 9.8% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

Diving into the nuances of Cintas’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Cintas’s operating margin was flat this quarter but expanded by 2.7 percentage points over the last five years. On top of that, its share count shrank by 6.3%. These are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For Cintas, its two-year annual EPS growth of 14.3% was lower than its five-year trend. We still think its growth was good and hope it can accelerate in the future.

In Q1, Cintas reported EPS of $1.24, up from $1.13 in the same quarter last year. This print was close to analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Cintas’s full-year EPS of $4.75 to grow 10.8%.

Key Takeaways from Cintas’s Q1 Results

It was good to see Cintas narrowly top analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. This company also lifted its full-year revenue and EPS guidance. The UniFirst acquisition seems to be moving towards closing later in 2026. Zooming out, we think this was a decent quarter. The stock traded up 2.7% to $181.75 immediately following the results.

So do we think Cintas is an attractive buy at the current price? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).