What Happened?
Shares of civil infrastructure company Construction Partners (NASDAQ: ROAD) jumped 3.2% in the afternoon session after Baird upgraded the stock to Outperform from Neutral, raising its price target to $122 from $112. Baird pointed to the infrastructure construction company's recent acquisitions in Texas and Tennessee performing better than expected, alongside strong organic growth, as key reasons for the bullish turn. The firm also noted improving free cash flow and raised its estimates "well above consensus." This positive sentiment was echoed across Wall Street, with Raymond James also boosting its price target to $120.00 and reiterating a "strong-buy" rating. DA Davidson increased its target to $110.00 as well. These analyst actions follow the company's strong fiscal third-quarter results, where it reported an 80% year-over-year increase in Adjusted EBITDA and a record project backlog of $2.94 billion, signaling a robust outlook.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $115.90, up 3.3% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Construction Partners’s shares are very volatile and have had 22 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 6 months ago when the stock gained 8% on the news that the company reported strong fourth-quarter results, which blew past analysts' sales and EPS expectations. In addition, its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street's estimates by a wide margin. Guidance was also encouraging, with the company lifting full-year revenue guidance. The growth outlook was informed by strong industry tailwinds in some of the company's operating regions. The company is also benefiting from tuck-in acquisitions which drove the larger portion of the 42% y/y growth during the quarter. Zooming out, we think this quarter featured some important positives.
Construction Partners is up 32% since the beginning of the year, and at $115.90 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Construction Partners’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $5,361.
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