Plexus Corp. (PLXS) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Plexus Corp. (PLXS) currently trades at $153.65 with an enterprise value of $4.68B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Plexus Corp. at 91/100 (Grade: A+ · Elite SaaS Compounder). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 16.4% vs. historical growth of 22.7% (Fairly Priced to Fundamentals).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Plexus Corp. (PLXS) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Plexus Corp. (PLXS) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test PLXS's 5-year growth, target FCF margin, WACC, terminal methodology, and SBC/dilution friction in real time.
Split between 5-Year Explicit Cash Flows and Discounted Terminal Value
2D Institutional Valuation Sensitivity Heatmap
Implied share price & upside/downside spread across 25 valuation states (Current Price: $153.65).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $210.62 +37% | $223.08 +45% | $237.62 +55% | $254.80 +66% | $275.41 +79% |
| 9.3% | $190.41 +24% | $200.23 +30% | $211.50 +38% | $224.57 +46% | $239.91 +56% |
| 10.0% | $173.81 +13% | $181.70 +18% | $190.64 +24% | $200.86 +31% | $212.66 +38% |
| 10.8% | $159.93 +4% | $166.38 +8% | $173.62 +13% | $181.78 +18% | $191.08 +24% |
| 11.5% | $148.16 -4% | $153.51 -0% | $159.46 +4% | $166.10 +8% | $173.58 +13% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (91/100 · Grade A+)
Exceptional unit economics, disciplined equity dilution, and fortress balance sheet.
Elite deferred revenue float; FCF exceeds operating income by >20%
Standard software SBC dilution; modest equity transfer to employees
Elite Tier-1 SaaS compounder with high gross margin and superior Rule of 40
Zero-debt fortress balance sheet with abundant net cash liquidity
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- High-grade cash conversion: FCF is 520% of EBIT driven by upfront annual collections
- Top-quartile software unit economics: 81.0% gross margin and 46.6% Rule of 40 score
- Fortress capital structure: Zero debt and $476.8M in pure net cash
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into PLXS?
Market implies 16.4% annual revenue growth over next 5 years (27.9% dilution-adjusted), in line with company run-rate.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (13.5% of revenue) and annual share dilution (1.8%/yr). Accounting for both requires 27.9% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $153.65/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Plexus Corp. (PLXS) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $639.1M | $639.1M | $784.2M | $962.2M | $1.18B | $1.45B | $1.78B |
| Gross Profit | $517.7M | $517.7M | $635.2M | $779.4M | $956.3M | $1.17B | $1.44B |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $29.4M | $29.4M | $36.1M | $44.3M | $54.3M | $66.6M | $81.8M |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $86.3M | $86.3M | $105.9M | $129.9M | $159.4M | $195.6M | $240.0M |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $152.8M | $152.8M | $187.4M | $230.0M | $282.2M | $346.2M | $424.8M |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $66.5M | $66.5M | $81.6M | $100.1M | $122.8M | $150.7M | $184.9M |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -32.4 + 0.85 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 81%Stocks below the gold regression line trade at a discount relative to their Rule of 40 compounding efficiency.
| Company | Ticker | Market Cap | TTM Revenue | Gross Margin | FCF Margin | Rule of 40 | SBC % Rev | EV / Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plexus Corp. | PLXS | $4.15B | $639.1M | 81.0% | 23.9% | 46.6% | 13.5% | 5.8× |
| ServiceNow | NOW | $152.61B | $10.98B | 79.2% | 31.1% | 54.2% | 15.9% | 13.9× |
| Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $50.35B | $8.00B | 75.0% | 27.4% | 43.9% | 19.0% | 6.4× |
| Salesforce | CRM | $217.10B | $37.90B | 77.2% | 32.8% | 42.8% | 8.4% | 5.8× |
| Datadog | DDOG | $46.05B | $2.68B | 80.8% | 31.1% | 57.7% | 21.3% | 17.4× |
| Snowflake Inc. | SNOW | $71.79B | $3.63B | 66.5% | 25.2% | 57.7% | 40.8% | 20.0× |
| Hubspot | HUBS | $19.89B | $2.63B | 85.0% | 21.3% | 52.7% | 19.2% | 7.7× |
| Peer Cohort Median Benchmark (N=6) | 78.2% | 29.2% | 53.5% | 19.1% | 10.8× | |||
EV / Revenue Multiple Compression Stress Test
| Multiple Scenario | EV / Revenue | Implied Enterprise Value | Implied Equity Value | Implied Share Price | Delta vs Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Multiple | 5.8× | $3.68B | $4.15B | $153.65 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 4.6× | $2.94B | $3.42B | $126.45 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 3.7× | $2.39B | $2.87B | $106.04 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $3.20B | $3.67B | $135.83 | -13.1% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Plexus Corp. (PLXS) Valuation
What is Plexus Corp. (PLXS)'s intrinsic DCF valuation and implied share price?
Based on audited SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and a 5-year 3-statement discounted cash flow (DCF) model, Plexus Corp. (PLXS) has a Base Case implied value of $190.64 per share (with a Bear Case of $88.79 and a Bull Case of $336.86), compared to its current price of $153.65. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Plexus Corp. (PLXS)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Plexus Corp. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 46.6%, combining a 22.7% revenue growth run-rate with a 23.9% TTM free cash flow margin on $639.1M in trailing twelve-month revenue. In the Software & Cloud Services peer cohort, the median Rule of 40 benchmark is 53.5%.
What revenue growth rate is priced into PLXS stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $153.65 per share (Enterprise Value of $3.68B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 16.4%, compared to Plexus Corp.'s historical CAGR of 22.7%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Fairly Priced to Fundamentals".
How does Plexus Corp. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Plexus Corp. (PLXS) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 91/100 (Grade A+ — Elite SaaS Compounder). Across its Software & Cloud Services peer group (NOW, WDAY, CRM, DDOG, SNOW), the cohort trades at a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 10.8× and a median gross margin of 78.2%.
How does Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) impact Plexus Corp. (PLXS)'s valuation?
Plexus Corp. recorded $86.3M in TTM stock-based compensation (13.5% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Plexus Corp.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is 1.6%, scoring 16/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
