Mueller Industries Shares Popped: What You Need to Know (MLI)

Mueller Industries Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Mueller Industries (NYSE: MLI ) are rocketing to a new 52-week high today after the company reported first-quarter results this morning that easily surpassed the lone analyst estimate.

So what: Mueller shares are up more than 10% currently -- and deservedly so -- following its first-quarter results. The company, which supplies copper, aluminum, plastic, and brass products, benefited from the increased average selling price of metals across the board. It reported a first-quarter profit of $0.89 per share -- backing out one-time insurance gains -- on revenue of $687.7 million. This compares almost comically to the one estimate calling for a profit of $0.46 on revenue of $549 million.

Now what: Despite hearing from the horse's mouth that its housing business is practically anemic, I'd be scared to see what this company could do in a robust economy. Every segment of Mueller's business was up more than double digits on the back of a 42% increase in year-over-year revenue. The strength in metal fabrication appears to be sectorwide with Valmont Industries (NYSE: VMI ) and Ladish (Nasdaq: LDSH ) reporting better-than-expected numbers within the past two weeks. But unlike these two, Mueller is incredibly cash-rich, and for that reason alone it just might be the most attractively priced company in this space.

Interested in more info on Mueller Industries? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

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Fool contributor Sean Williams does not own shares in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong.

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