Based on the aggregated intelligence of 165,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, construction aggregates producer Vulcan Materials (NYSE: VMC) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Vulcan's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Vulcan facts

Headquarters (Founded)

Birmingham, Ala. (1909)

Market Cap

$6.0 billion

Industry

Construction materials

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$2.6 billion

Management

CEO Donald James (since 1997)
CFO Daniel Sansone (since 2005)

Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)

4.1%

Cash/Debt

$40.0 million / $2.7 billion

Dividend Yield

2.2%

Competitors

Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE: MLM)
Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI)

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 91% of the 493 members who have rated Vulcan believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include deemre and tekennedy.

A few months ago, deemre touched on Vulcan's solid fundamentals: "Strong financials and dominant position in a business area that will have excellent growth as funds are placed in infrastructure."

With about 9% share of the market, Vulcan is, indeed, the largest producer of construction aggregates in the U.S. In fact, both Vulcan and Martin Marietta Materials, the second-largest player in the space, enjoy a firm foothold in the southeastern states due to their strategically placed quarries and well-developed transportation networks. But with its stock price lagging behind that of Martin Marietta, along with smaller aggregate producer Texas Industries, by nearly 20% over the past year, Vulcan is certainly worth looking into.

CAPS All-Star tekennedy elaborates on the bull case:

I enjoy the economics of the aggregate industry due to the low competition environment which they operate... Pricing historically has gone nowhere but up as they can continuously raise prices to the point where pricing plus transportation is just less than the next closest source. ...

From this point I see volumes rising significantly in the next 2 years from this unsustainable point and the company should become profitable again. Over the longterm I believe growth from pricing plus acquisitions of new aggregates companies should ensure the company grows faster than the S&P. Also its pricing compared with what I'd consider normalized earnings is either at or below the S&P in general.

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