ROP

What You Should Know

Roper Technologies is a US diversified software and application-specific products company organized around four reporting segments: Application Software (Aderant, Deltek, PowerPlan, Vertafore, Strata Decision, ConstructConnect), Network Software (DAT Solutions, Foundry, iPipeline, MHA, SoftWriters), Test & Measurement (Neptune water meters, Verathon medical, Northern Digital, Cornell Pump), and Process Technologies (Roper Pump, Hansen Technologies). The vertical-market software businesses are mission-critical to their end customers in legal, government contracting, utilities, insurance, healthcare, and freight logistics, and the products are general-purpose software-and-services rather than financial products. The software and instrumentation business is unambiguously permissible at the activity level. Roper has historically been a serial acquirer financed in part with debt, and the debt-to-market-cap ratio has at times approached the 33% Sharia threshold. Management has consistently prioritized debt paydown after large acquisitions, so the ratio swings with the acquisition cycle. Muslim investors should verify the current ratio at their preferred screening platform. The qualitative screen passes cleanly across major Sharia advisory boards.