For some time we have been talking about how expensive the coatings space is in the US. The stocks have done very well and the multiples are very high – too high in our opinion as they discount earnings growth
All of the economic signals we see in the market today support the idea that demand growth is slow and is slowing globally. China appears to be at a standstill, despite recent stimulus moves and slowly companies are realizing that
In recent work on gross margin trajectories for US Industrials and Basic Industries, we can’t help but be impressed by the positive and stable growth in gross margins for the Industrials group. We were less impressed (but not surprised) by
The ISM numbers today again support our view that slowing demand is likely to cut significantly into second half earnings and in many cases drive some significant surprises or revisions. Given that this coincides with a period of very high
In recent work we have looked at the M&A landscape for industrials and concluded that we expect to see a sharp increase in the number of deals and an increase in the values paid. This week we saw Hertz agree
Gone are the days when it was necessary to travel back to the place of your birth in order to vote in elections, but given the outperformance of the Transport sector in the US in the September/October prior to an
In our recent research we have talked about demand risk in Europe for the Industrials space in general and for the Chemicals sector in more detail. This is not a new subject and it is discussed in the media every
In our initiation of coverage of the transport space – June 15th – we wrote about the improved nature of the rail industry and that how, following a period of terrible returns, the industry restructured and has seen improving returns
As a stock research analyst I covered PPG for 7 years (from 1997 to 2004) and the one word that I would have used then to best describe the company and the management style was “sensible”. Not flamboyant, or aggressive,
On Friday, we published a comprehensive analysis of current consensus expectation for the third quarter for the US Chemical Industry. We believe that consensus is far too optimistic and are suggesting that earnings estimates may come down by as much
