Cash in on the rebuilding boom

Governments are allocating billions of dollars for the repair, renovation, and construction of bridges, roads, mass transit systems, and power grids. Here's a look at four promising infrastructure stocks.

Wesco
Finally, infrastructure investors may want to look at Wesco (WCC, $48), the nation's leading electrical supplies and equipment distributor. In this highly fragmented market, Wesco and its top three competitors account for only 20% of all sales, but Wesco's aggressive acquisition strategy (29 deals since 1995) has made it the only national player. It has a solid balance sheet and plans to continue buying up smaller rivals.

Because Wesco deals in building supplies, its stock was hammered amid the general worries about the housing slump. But it has limited exposure to the weak residential market.

"They distribute mainly to utilities, governments, and industrial companies - end markets that are still very attractive," says Kent Croft, president of investment firm Croft Leominster, which owns about 117,000 shares. The stock looks cheap, trading at just eight times next year's estimated earnings. Analysts surveyed by Capital IQ say that on average the company will increase earnings by 14% and revenue by 7% annually over the next three years.
Granite Construction General Cable Greenbrier Wesco
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.