Roper Technologies (ROP) said at Citi's 2026 Global TMT Conference that it expects to deploy $5 billion or more in acquisitions over the next 12 months if conditions allow, marking one of the most aggressive capital-deployment plans the vertical-market software maker has outlined.
The company reported annual revenue of about $8.5 billion, EBITDA margins of roughly 40%, and free-cash-flow margins near 30%. It holds an investment-grade rating and targets leverage between 3x and 3.5x, with borrowing costs around 5.5% — about half the rate cited for private-equity competitors at roughly 10%.
Roper anticipates collecting approximately $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter from the Indicor minority investment and the sale of its flow-control instrumentation business. Shares trade at a P/E of 16.5 and a PEG ratio of 0.23.
On M&A pricing, executives noted that past acquisitions such as a church-management platform and an autism-therapy business were purchased at about 22 times next-12-month EBITDA and underwritten to roughly 9 to 10 times year-five EBITDA. Future deals are being underwritten to 6x to 8x year-five EBITDA, reflecting a 20% to 40% discount relative to prices seen 18 months earlier.
"Capital allocation is simply a math exercise. There's no emotion tied to this in any capacity," said executive Neil during the conference.
On the organic side, Roper expects a baseline contribution of 6% to 7% growth, with a target of high-single-digit expansion.
The company also highlighted its AI ambitions, noting that an internal accelerator team grew from two people in October of the prior year to approximately 30. Agentic products are now live across 12 to 15 of its 21 software businesses. "I've never been more excited than I have in my career about that opportunity in front of us with AI… We're literally delivering a button that when you press it, magic happens," Neil said.
Roper provided several specific return-on-investment examples for its agentic tools. In pharmacy automation for long-term care and skilled nursing, manual pharmacist verification runs $1 to $2 per prescription; the agentic tool brings that cost to about $0.30. At DAT, which organizes a North American spot market of roughly 750,000 unique loads brokered or advertised daily, broker labor costs of $100 to $200 per transaction are being reduced to $40 to $60 through agentic matching and closing.
Strata, its utility tax-accounting software, helps investor-owned utilities manage tax accounting and asset placement in service, targeting billions in stranded capital.
Neptune, the water-meter solutions business, is navigating post-pandemic normalization as customers transition from mechanical to static meters. DAT continues operating through a freight recession lasting three to four years. Deltek, which faced pressure in 2024 from agency cuts, a prolonged government shutdown, and DOGE-related disruptions, saw conditions improve in 2025 as appropriations flowed. Deltek announced it will end support for its on-premises Costpoint product in the first quarter of 2028.
Roper employs about 20,000 people globally, with a corporate center of roughly 130. Its Gallup employee-engagement score has climbed from the mid-50s to the mid-70s, achieving top-quartile status. Talent reviews are conducted twice yearly across all 29 portfolio businesses, and four of the last six to seven CEO promotions or hires were internal.
