Sample report · m&a

Top 100 Acquisition Targets

A real edition, 49 pages, generated from the live graph on September 29, 2026 for the brief below.

Download the sample PDF Order one for your brief, $2,500

The brief

Our thesis is founder-owned specialty manufacturing in the Midwest with $3M to $15M EBITDA. Find a hundred targets and tell us which ones show ownership change or refinancing signals.

targets ranked, every one checked by an analyst

105 of 175

flagged by their filings but already sold or owned

confirmed independent by a public source

1,509

Midwest manufacturers with a dated event, screened

The top five, as printed

Ranked on the owners' own filings, then checked by hand for a sale or a parent

#	Company	Fit	State	Modeled EBITDA	Strongest signal	Newest
1	D & D Tooling, Inc.	61.3	IL	$1.7M to $6.2M	final Form 5500 filed	2026-01-01
2	Geater Machining & Manufacturing Co	60.6	IA	$4.0M to $14M	final Form 5500 filed	2025-01-01
3	Sharpline Converting, Inc.	60.3	KS	$3.6M to $15M	final Form 5500 filed	2025-01-01
4	Applied Specialties Inc	60.2	OH	$1.4M to $5.8M	final Form 5500 filed	2026-01-01
5	Peerless Industries, Inc.	59.6	IL	$2.6M to $9.0M	final Form 5500 filed	2025-01-01

What was refused

1,274 manufacturers screened out, with reasons

Modeled EBITDA band or subsector outside the thesis (703 on size, 324 on sector)
Already sold or owned, found by the analyst review: 105 of 175 names checked (70 acquired, 23 subsidiaries, 12 sponsor owned), each with its source
Already transacted or sponsor-owned on the graph, identity uncertain, or a US subsidiary, plant or acquisition-vehicle filer name
No transaction signal beyond entry onto the filing record, outside the thesis on review (a wholesaler, a nonprofit, a holding company), or employee owned

What DFX cannot see, stated

The limitations are printed, not buried

EBITDA is modeled from employee counts (confidence 0.55), never reported; the band screens, it does not price.
The analyst review is a dated web check, not a graph read: 34 of the 57 are confirmed independent by a source, 23 show no parent or buyer, and a sale closed after 2026-09-29 is not in it.
A final Form 5500 more often trails a closed sale than precedes one: 105 of the 175 flagged companies checked were already sold or owned.
The list stops at 57 rather than 100: the 190 highest-scoring candidates were read and reviewed, and 178 lower-scoring ones were not, so no unchecked name is ranked.

Payment up front. If the report is not useful for your stage, sector or market when delivered, DFX refunds it in full. Order the same report for your brief: Top 100 Acquisition Targets, $2,500.

Every report has a sample

50 Best Investors for This Opportunity 38 pages
50 Best Lenders for This Financing 38 pages
50 Best Acquirers for This Company 26 pages
50 Best Allocators for This Fund 35 pages
50 Best Family Offices 38 pages
50 Best RIA Acquirers 46 pages
50 Best Advisor Recruiting Targets 45 pages
50 Best Real Estate Capital Sources 37 pages
Portfolio Risk Report 28 pages
Market Opportunity Report 76 pages
Competitor Intelligence Report 27 pages
Fundraising Intelligence Report 92 pages
Real Estate Capital Map 32 pages
Custom Anomaly Expedition 33 pages

Top 100 Acquisition Targets

Ranked on the owners' own filings, then checked by hand for a sale or a parent

#	Company	Fit	State	Modeled EBITDA	Strongest signal	Newest
1	D & D Tooling, Inc.	61.3	IL	$1.7M to $6.2M	final Form 5500 filed	2026-01-01
2	Geater Machining & Manufacturing Co	60.6	IA	$4.0M to $14M	final Form 5500 filed	2025-01-01
3	Sharpline Converting, Inc.	60.3	KS	$3.6M to $15M	final Form 5500 filed	2025-01-01
4	Applied Specialties Inc	60.2	OH	$1.4M to $5.8M	final Form 5500 filed	2026-01-01
5	Peerless Industries, Inc.	59.6	IL	$2.6M to $9.0M	final Form 5500 filed	2025-01-01

1,274 manufacturers screened out, with reasons

Modeled EBITDA band or subsector outside the thesis (703 on size, 324 on sector)

Already sold or owned, found by the analyst review: 105 of 175 names checked (70 acquired, 23 subsidiaries, 12 sponsor owned), each with its source

Already transacted or sponsor-owned on the graph, identity uncertain, or a US subsidiary, plant or acquisition-vehicle filer name

No transaction signal beyond entry onto the filing record, outside the thesis on review (a wholesaler, a nonprofit, a holding company), or employee owned

The limitations are printed, not buried

EBITDA is modeled from employee counts (confidence 0.55), never reported; the band screens, it does not price.

The analyst review is a dated web check, not a graph read: 34 of the 57 are confirmed independent by a source, 23 show no parent or buyer, and a sale closed after 2026-09-29 is not in it.

A final Form 5500 more often trails a closed sale than precedes one: 105 of the 175 flagged companies checked were already sold or owned.

The list stops at 57 rather than 100: the 190 highest-scoring candidates were read and reviewed, and 178 lower-scoring ones were not, so no unchecked name is ranked.