Quick Read
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Cummins (CMI) turned a $1,000 investment into $6,120 over 10 years, while its quarterly dividend grew from $0.175 to $2.20 across 17 straight years of increases.
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AI data center backup power demand drove Cummins’ Power Systems to a record $2.3 billion in Q2 2026 revenue, up 19% year over year.
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Risks include a $69 million Accelera segment quarterly loss, $458 million in hydrogen charges, and a trailing P/E of 28 against a forward P/E of 16.
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An Engine Company Most Investors Never Notice
Cummins (NYSE:CMI) designs and builds diesel and natural gas engines, power generation systems, filtration, components, and, through its Accelera segment, electrified powertrains and electrolyzers. Its customers are truck makers and fleet operators. That is why most people carry no mental picture of a $76.6 billion industrial headquartered in Columbus, Indiana.
The business also swings hard. Freight rates soften, fleets defer truck orders, engine shipments fall, and earnings compress. North America went through exactly that in 2025 before recovering in 2026 with, as management put it, “greater regulatory clarity in on-highway markets.” Meanwhile, AI-driven data center backup demand has become a genuine tailwind: Power Systems revenue reached a record $2.3 billion in Q2 2026, up 19%.
Your $1,000, Three Different Windows
Using split-adjusted prices through September 11, 2026:
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1-Year Return: $1,000 becomes roughly $1,374, a total return of 37.42%. S&P 500 comparison: not available in provided data.
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5-Year Return: $1,000 becomes roughly $2,676, a total return of 167.6%. S&P 500 comparison: not available in provided data.
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10-Year Return: $1,000 becomes roughly $6,120, a total return of 511.96%. S&P 500 comparison: not available in provided data.
Those figures exclude dividends, and the dividend is the stranger story. The quarterly payout climbed from $0.175 through the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis to $2.20 by August 2026. The board raised it during the crisis rather than cutting, held the raise, then kept lifting it through every truck cycle since. Q2 2026 marked the 17th straight year of dividend growth, funded by $2.39 billion of free cash flow in 2025 and a stated commitment to return roughly 50% of operating cash flow to shareholders. Total dividends paid grew from $66 million in 2006 to $1.055 billion in 2025. The share price whipsawed while the dividend checks kept climbing.
