Water management company Northwest Pipe (NASDAQ: NWPX) reported revenue ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales up 19.1% year on year to $138.3 million. Its GAAP profit of $1.08 per share was 58.8% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Northwest Pipe? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free.

"We delivered a strong start to 2026 with first quarter results reflecting meaningful growth and margin expansion across both of our segments," said Scott Montross, President and Chief Executive Officer of NWPX Infrastructure.

Company Overview

Playing a large role in the Integrated Pipeline (IPL) project in Texas to deliver ~350 million gallons of water per day, Northwest Pipe (NASDAQ: NWPX) is a manufacturer of pipeline systems for water infrastructure.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Thankfully, Northwest Pipe’s 13.6% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was exceptional. Its growth beat the average industrials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a helpful starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Northwest Pipe’s annualized revenue growth of 9.3% over the last two years is below its five-year trend, but we still think the results suggest healthy demand.

This quarter, Northwest Pipe reported year-on-year revenue growth of 19.1%, and its $138.3 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 10.5%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 4.1% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. This projection doesn't excite us and implies its products and services will see some demand headwinds. At least the company is tracking well in other measures of financial health.

ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable.

These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE.

Operating Margin

Northwest Pipe has done a decent job managing its cost base over the last five years. The company has produced an average operating margin of 8.9%, higher than the broader industrials sector.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Northwest Pipe’s operating margin rose by 4.4 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.

This quarter, Northwest Pipe generated an operating margin profit margin of 9.2%, up 4.4 percentage points year on year. The increase was encouraging, and because its operating margin rose more than its gross margin, we can infer it was more efficient with expenses such as marketing, R&D, and administrative overhead.

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.

Northwest Pipe’s spectacular 15.4% annual EPS growth over the last five years aligns with its revenue performance. This tells us its incremental sales were profitable.

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

Northwest Pipe’s two-year annual EPS growth of 34.1% was fantastic and topped its 9.3% two-year revenue growth.

We can take a deeper look into Northwest Pipe’s earnings quality to better understand the drivers of its performance. Northwest Pipe’s operating margin has expanded over the last two yearswhile its share count has shrunk 2.5%. These are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth.

In Q1, Northwest Pipe reported EPS of $1.08, up from $0.39 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Northwest Pipe’s full-year EPS of $4.28 to shrink by 1.2%.

Key Takeaways from Northwest Pipe’s Q1 Results

It was good to see Northwest Pipe beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also excited its adjusted operating income outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. The stock traded up 1.7% to $87.62 immediately after reporting.

Northwest Pipe had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. 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).