Broad-based market sell-offs are often great times to initiate long-term investing positions. In fact, they can give investors just the nudge they needed to buy stocks that already looked like great values before the market declined. With the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 2.38%) falling into correction territory, I think blue-chip industrial conglomerate Honeywell International (HON 0.32%) and advanced materials company Hexcel (HXL 2.16%) are terrific stocks to buy now.
Honeywell International
Having already announced plans to spin off one segment, Honeywell management went a step further last month and said the company would split into three separate businesses, all of which will be publicly traded. There's a case for all of them to outperform in the future as individual companies -- not based on a sum-of-the-parts evaluation, but because some of Honeywell's peers have already set a profitable example.
NASDAQ: HON
Key Data Points
With the advanced materials spinoff already announced, the focus is on the two other businesses, Honeywell Aerospace and Honeywell Automation. Management names GE Aerospace, RTX, and TransDigm as its peers, and it's noticeable that all three have undergone significant corporate activity in recent years. GE Aerospace became an independent company last year, and RTX's commercial aerospace businesses are the result of mergers of the former United Technologies aerospace business, Rockwell Collins, and the commercial aerospace businesses of Raytheon. TransDigm's business model relies heavily on its strategy of acquiring other companies.
As a stand-alone company, Honeywell Aerospace will have much more flexibility to pursue acquisitions that will build scale like its peers. As such, it can add complementary solutions to its portfolio of aerospace solutions, including avionics, auxiliary power units, communications, and propulsion systems.
Image source: Getty Images.
It's a similar story with Honeywell Automation, a combination of industrial automation and building automation. Emerson Electric, pure-play automation company Rockwell Automation, and Johnson Controls are cited as peers. Emerson has been fundamentally restructured in recent years to focus on automation and adjacent markets in industrial software and automated test and measurement. Management sold its climate technologies business, acquired NI (test and measurement systems) in 2023, and will acquire the remaining shares it doesn't own in industrial company AspenTech this year.
In building automation, Johnson Controls is selling its residential and light commercial HVAC business to Bosch as it looks to focus on its core commercial HVAC and building controls business.
The pattern is clear, and Honeywell's big breakup will create an opportunity for each new company to have its own access to capital and management resources, so its leadership can create more focused companies in the manner of their peers without being encumbered as part of a conglomerate. The sell-off in the stock gives investors a better opportunity to buy into the long-term value creation opportunity.
Hexcel stock looks like a great value
Speaking of Honeywell Aerospace and potential acquisition targets, I've long felt that the aerospace-focused advanced materials company Hexcel would be an ideal fit for Honeywell. That said, the stock is highly desirable to buy in its own right.
NYSE: HXL
Key Data Points
It's no secret that Hexcel's advanced graphite composites (lighter and stronger than traditional materials like aluminum) are the future of the aerospace industry. Each generation of new airplanes developed by Boeing, Airbus, and other airplane manufacturers (including business jets) has more composite content.
Consequently, Hexcel has long-term growth prospects from an increase in the number of new airplanes produced and the increasing composite content on every newer plane. It's a compelling mix, and it's also why Hexcel stock has historically tended to command a valuation premium.
However, it's been a difficult few years for the company as both Boeing and Airbus have fallen behind their intended production schedules. This has hit Hexcel's revenue and margin lines precisely at a time when the company was gearing up to increase production.
Image source: Getty Images.
As CEO Tom Gentile noted on the recent earnings call, "production levels in 2024 were only 68% of 2018 levels." That said, this is a temporary delay, and Boeing and Airbus will do everything they can to ramp up production over time. Moreover, the decline in the valuation is such that investors can buy into the stock at 19 times its estimated 2025 free cash flow -- an excellent valuation for a company with such superb long-term growth prospects.
