Based on the aggregated intelligence of 165,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, small-cap construction consultant Hill International (NYSE: HIL ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Hill's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Hill International facts
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Headquarters (Founded)
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Marlton, N.J. (1976)
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Market Cap
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$167.1 million
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Industry
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Research and consulting services
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Trailing-12-Month Revenue
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$363.8 million
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Management
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Founder/CEO Irvin Richter
CFO John Fanelli, III
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Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)
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14.5%
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Compound Annual Revenue and Net Income Growth (Over Past 3 Years)
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34.6% and 21.4%
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Cash/Debt
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$30.1 million / $35.1 million
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Competitors
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Fluor (NYSE: FLR )
Jacobs Engineering (NYSE: JEC )
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Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 97% of the 497 members who have rated Hill believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include tenmiles, the top-ranked member in all of CAPS, and TSIF, who is ranked in the top 1% of our community.
Two months ago, tenmiles highlighted Hill's first-quarter earnings miss as an opportunity to pounce: "Long term deep value long initiated today after market spanking; backlog still north of $500 million, despite some cancellations/delays. Looks like good value in the mid 4's for patient longs."
After that early May shellacking, Hill is down more than 30% year to date, while its bigger construction consulting brothers Fluor and Jacobs Engineering are flat over the same period. Of course, when you couple Hill's paltry forward price-to-earnings ratio of 8.6 (Fluor and Jacobs both have a forward P/E of around 13.7), with some positive signs that design and construction markets are slowly starting to bottom out, it's easy to understand Hill's five-star status in our community.
CAPS All-Star TSIF elaborates:
Hill International has had three solid years of increasing revenue and even during the worse of the recent crisis managed to book a profit and hold borrowing fairly stable. Profit and earnings were down about 40% yoy and backlog is down about 15%, but is still above half a Billion for a company with an average annual revenue of about $420 Million, so in other words, a years worth of backlog. ...
While Hill's overall outlook is pegged to an economic rebound, which is clearly tentative with Europes recent monkey wrench, Hill has proven that it can hold its own in the worst of times. Overall, with no economic recovery, Hill is a decent hold, but holds great potential when the economy performs a real rebound.
What do you think about Hill, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!
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