Stockchase Opinions

Frank Holmes Vulcan Materials Co. VMC-N BUY Nov 18, 2016

A very well run company with quarries around San Antonio. When prices fell, they used technology to reduce production. They will do exceptionally well.

$128.200

Stock price when the opinion was issued

cement concrete
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TOP PICK
Top Short North America's largest aggregates producer. Largely just crushing rock, which is a difficult, low margin business. This last quarter they lost another $0.13 and recently cut the dividend. He recently added a short at $31-$32.
TOP PICK

She likes materials as a sector because they have one of the highest earnings projections for next year and this company has a lot of highway projects where the government is spending a lot of money and it could go two or three years out. (Analysts’ target: $141.50).

WAIT
It does well during housing booms. It's slipped recently and could continue to, so maybe wait a week before buying.
BUY
They make materials for building roads, so obviously it benefits from the infrastructure bill that was just signed. It's up 29% year to date, so he was worried that the bill was already baked into the stock. However, retail investors didn't know this and they bought it up today. Trading around 35-40x earnings.
BUY ON WEAKNESS
Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research

VMC pays a decent yield of 0.8%, and analysts expect earnings and sales to grow nicely in the coming years. It has reasonable debt levels, good profit margins, a somewhat high valuation (31.3X forward P/E), but it generates good free cash flows and has been reducing some of its debt recently. Growth rates are good, and we think as part of a long-term hold, it is a solid name, although it has seen a strong run recently and we might expect a slight pullback.
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TOP PICK

Excellent business that is very stable.
Road building company that provides essential service for infrastructure spending. 
Large US Federal contracts. 
Stable revenue streams.
High barriers to entry. 

BUY
MLM and Vulcan were both downgraded today.

These are two of the better names in this space. Performance so far this year has been strong in earnings and balance sheet. Disagrees with that downgrade and he continues to hold.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Jul 17/23, Up 21%)

They make concrete and have a lock on the US South. It's an election play, building infrastructure (roads) and Americans need to spend on this. He sold it because it had a good run and this sector may not be as robust as he thought.

BUY

Likes this space. Demand for construction will still increase; these stocks have done little in the past 2 years. There's no other competition. Earnings will rise.