What Happened?

Shares of workplace uniform provider UniFirst (NYSE: UNF) jumped 18.4% in the afternoon session after the company confirmed it had received an unsolicited, non-binding acquisition proposal from Cintas Corporation for $275.00 per share in cash. 

The offer valued UniFirst at approximately $5.2 billion. This bid represented a significant 64% premium over the company's 90-day average closing stock price as of December 11, 2025. Following receipt of the proposal, UniFirst's Board of Directors stated it had engaged independent financial and legal advisors to carefully review the offer. The company noted that the board was evaluating the proposal to determine the course of action it believed was in the best interests of its shareholders and other stakeholders.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

UniFirst’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 6 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for UniFirst and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 9 months ago when the stock dropped 13.7% on the news that Cintas terminated talks to acquire the company (UNF) in a deal that would have been worth $275 per share in cash. The offer price represented a premium of 46% over the stock's average trading price before the news of the offer was made public.

UniFirst is up 17.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $200.79 per share, it is still trading 12.9% below its 52-week high of $230.50 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of UniFirst’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $974.19.

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