Hensoldt's Order Book Tops €10 Billion — And a Talent Pipeline From Germany's Auto Industry
Published on 08/10/2026 at 12:51 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The defense electronics group that has become one of Europe's most closely watched military suppliers is now running a two-pronged growth strategy: one that pairs a record influx of Bundeswehr contracts with a systematic poaching of engineering talent from Germany's beleaguered automotive supply chain.
Hensoldt's first-half figures, published on 31 July, showed order intake more than doubling year-on-year to €2.8 billion, lifting the book-to-bill ratio to 2.4 and pushing the order backlog past the €10 billion mark for the first time. Revenue climbed 24 percent to over €1.1 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose 29 percent to €137 million — marginally shy of the €139 million analysts had penciled in. The adjusted margin widened by half a percentage point to 11.8 percent.
The share price response was muted at first. In US ADR trading, the stock slipped 3.31 percent to $81.20 as investors weighed the strong operational showing against management's cautious language on the second half. The company reiterated its full-year guidance of around €2.7 billion in revenue, an adjusted EBITDA margin between 18.5 and 19.0 percent, and cash conversion of roughly 50 percent. But the tone from the executive suite suggested a deliberate cooling of expectations: growth is expected to slow as pass-through revenues taper off and one-off effects from 2025 fail to repeat.
A Backlog Built on Big-Ticket Programs
The order surge was driven by a cluster of major programs — the Puma and Schakal infantry fighting vehicles, Eurofighter ECRS Mk1 radar orders, the Mephisto program, and additional business for the TRML-4D air defense radar. Warburg Research calculates the backlog now stands at roughly 3.7 times expected 2026 revenue, giving the company unusually high visibility for the years ahead.
CEO Oliver Dörre used the earnings call to address two specific items in the pipeline. The halt of the F-126 frigate program, worth around €130 million in orders, carries no material financial impact and leaves guidance unchanged, he said. On the U212CD submarine program, Hensoldt sees a chance worth roughly €200 million after TKMS was selected as preferred bidder. The LUVUS program, meanwhile, could push the order at the top end of its corridor to a multi-billion-euro level, with a tender expected in August.
Days after the results, on 4 August, the company announced another contract: the Bundeswehr's procurement office tasked Hensoldt with equipping Joint Fire Support Teams. Hensoldt takes on the role of prime contractor, handling not just equipment procurement but the full integration work and software development for digitally supported close air support.
The Auto Industry Connection
That software expertise is precisely what the company is now importing from an unlikely source. Hensoldt has signed a cooperation agreement with Bosch to lease vacant space at a Bosch site in Leinfelden-Echterdingen near Stuttgart, where it plans to build a development center for software-driven defense with around 300 jobs. The space is expected to be occupied by the end of the year, with all positions filled by the end of 2027.
The logic is straightforward: Bosch has announced up to 22,000 job cuts in its automotive supply division, and Hensoldt sees an opportunity to redirect that talent pool toward defense. Former Bosch employees are explicitly invited to apply for the new positions. The center will focus on developing the MDOcore software suite, with Hensoldt aiming to transfer automotive industry development processes to defense technology.
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The arrangement mirrors a similar deal struck in March with Aumovio, the former automotive arm of Continental, covering sites in Ulm, Markdorf and Lindau with around 600 affected employees. The company plans to hire roughly 1,600 new staff by the end of 2026 — a headcount increase of more than 16 percent, funded directly by the surge in orders.
Analysts Split on Valuation
The stock closed the week at €90.66, up more than 22 percent over 30 days, though still around 23 percent below its 52-week high of €117.70 reached on 6 October 2025. That rally has sharpened a debate among analysts over whether the defense electronics specialist has run ahead of itself.
The ratings landscape is unusually fragmented. Warburg Research's Christian Cohrs raised his price target from €91 to €94 on Thursday while keeping a buy rating. Jefferies took the opposite tack on Wednesday, downgrading from Buy to Hold but simultaneously lifting its target from €94 to €98 — a signal that the valuation looks stretched after the rally, even if the potential isn't exhausted. Bank of America and DZ Bank have held buy ratings with targets between €90 and €92.50, citing solid operational execution and results that came in above expectations.
JPMorgan sits neutral with an €85 target, praising the strong quarter but noting Hensoldt carries the highest valuation premium among the defense names it covers — the bank prefers Renk Group instead. The most bearish voice remains Kepler Cheuvreux, whose sell rating and €62 target reflect a view that the market is pricing in a very long-term growth scenario that's hard to justify even with the record backlog. Research-Hub, an independent house, echoed that skepticism at the end of July, pointing to a valuation of 13.4 times EV/EBITDA and 26 times consensus earnings for 2028.
On the ownership front, BlackRock disclosed via a threshold notification that it holds 2.75 percent of voting rights directly and a further 2.24 percent through instruments, totaling just under 5 percent as of 14 July.
Hensoldt's next quarterly figures are due on 4 November, when investors will see whether the order momentum — and the talent acquisition strategy — continues to deliver.
