Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, construction and engineering specialist Chicago Bridge & Iron
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Chicago Bridge's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Chicago Bridge & Iron facts
| Headquarters (Founded) | The Hague, Netherlands (1889) |
| Market Cap | $2.66 billion |
| Industry | Construction and engineering |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $2.1 billion |
| Management | CEO Philip Asherman (since 2006) CFO Ronald Ballschmiede (since 2006) |
| Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) | 14.4% |
| Cash/Debt | $360.87 million / $120.53 million |
| Competitors |
Fluor KBR Jacobs Engineering |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 98% of the 1,379 members who have rated Chicago Bridge believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include BIGMNEYDF and TMF10KChallenge.
This past summer , BIGMNEYDF summed up Chicago Bridge in simple bullish terms: "This company is well run, conservative, has an establish name and reputation and lots of cash to invest. That's all I need to know."
Chicago's Bridge's wide geographic reach, focus on energy-related projects, and cheapish valuation continue to fuel a perfect five-star rating. Currently, Chicago Bridge sports a forward P/E of 11.6, representing a discount to fierce engineering foes Fluor (15), KBR (13.2), and Jacobs (15.3), as well as energy infrastructure giants like ABB
With such a strong reputation in the industry, TMF10KChallenge thinks Chicago Bridge is a relatively attractive bet:
Although it is definitely a competitive space, not just anybody can show up and start building nuclear containment vessels or LNG regasification terminals. The buyers of these products are very concerned with the reputation of the builder, and justly so -- the failure of one of these products is a huge deal. [Chicago Bridge] undertakes infrastructure projects in a number of sectors -- oil, natural gas, nuclear, petrochemical, refining -- shielding it from any huge downturn in one of them. And even if such a downturn where to take place, say in oil or natural gas prices, the effects wouldn't be as significant on [Chicago Bridge] -- expansionary plans might get put on hold, but infrastructure stills needs to be maintained, replaced, or updated.
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