5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Ampco-Pittsburgh

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, cold-rolled steel equipment producer Ampco-Pittsburgh (NYSE: AP  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

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

Ampco-Pittsburgh facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Pittsburgh (1929)
Market Cap	$217.7 million
Industry	Industrial machinery
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$345.7 million
Management	Chairman/CEO Robert Paul CFO Marliss Johnson
Return on Capital (Average, Past 3 Years)	15.7%
Cash/Debt	$71 million / $13.3 million
Dividend Yield	3.1%

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

On CAPS, 97% of the 260 members who have rated Ampco-Pittsburgh believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include cdubey and TMFElleMoran.

A few months ago, cdubey listed several of Ampco-Pittsburgh's positives:

- Family owned.
- Good executive compensation practices.
- Low debt.
- P/S is low compared to the industry.
- Sales are growing.
- Holds a niche market of making custom engineered metal products.

Currently, Ampco-Pittsburgh even sports a cheapish price-to-sales ratio of 0.6. That represents a discount to much larger industrial plays like General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) (1.1), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX  ) (1.1), and ABB (NYSE: ABB  ) (1.3).

CAPS member TMFElleMoran expands on the Ampco-Pittsburgh outperform argument:

A well run business with a solid reputation. I don't expect high growth, but sustainable, predictable increases in sales as demand for steel increases worldwide. Compared to other companies in the steel industry, AP has the advantage of making a niche product -- cold-rolled steel -- in which they have developed a great reputation. The company is small enough to be agile, but dominant enough to call the shots. I like that combination.

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