Is Oshkosh Truck
While top-line growth is certainly moderating, the company continues to post solid overall performance. Revenue rose about 8% this time around, as the company not only saw slower sales in the defense category, but was also up against a difficult year-ago comparison. Nevertheless, the company saw significant leverage on the gross margin line and preserved about two-thirds of that at the operating margin line, leading to operating income growth of 31% -- and that's on top of 28% growth last year.
Unlike what we've seen in many quarters, the non-defense businesses were the stallions this time around. Operating profits rose almost 29% in the fire/emergency business, and the commercial business saw a better than threefold jump in profits, as customers bought things like cement mixers and refuse trucks ahead of new diesel engine emissions standards. Results were also helped here by a reversal of a year-ago loss in Europe and the absence of a charge.
Whether it's truck makers like Navistar
Oshkosh is not terribly expensive on its own, but it does carry a higher multiple than most other truck and truck-related companies (like, say, Accuride
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).