What happened
Shares of aggregate, cement, and asphalt producer Summit Materials (SUM -1.72%) rose as much as 12% in early trading on Wednesday. By roughly 11 a.m. EST today, the shares were still holding on to most of that gain, up roughly 11%. The big news driving that price advance came out of financial services firm Stephens.
So what
Stephens analyst Trey Grooms upgraded Summit from equal weight to overweight, and the stock's price target rose from $19 per share to $25. Investors tend to like it when Wall Street analysts upgrade stocks, so it's hardly shocking that Summit shares rose on the news.
Image source: Getty Images.
The rationale behind the upgrade was big-picture in nature and still a bit of an uncertainty. Grooms believes that a sizable infrastructure spending bill will be passed in 2021. This, in turn, will lead to increased demand for the types of products that Summit sells and, as you might expect, improved company performance.
Far from a short-term call, the analyst also believes that 2022 could be strong, as Grooms believes that robust residential construction markets in 2021 are likely to lead to an increase in nonresidential building in 2022. That would boost results in 2022, as well.
Now what
If the story that the Stephens analyst weaves plays out as projected, 2021 and 2022 could indeed bring good years for Summit. At this point, Grooms is simply making an educated guess at what the future holds, so while investors were excited by the upgrade, a grain of salt is still in order since there are no crystal balls on Wall Street. Bu all analyst calls should probably be taken with some salt -- just in case.
