Photo credit: Flickr user jasonwoodhead23
Governments and businesses spend trillions of dollars each year on infrastructure spending. That number is only expected to grow over time as infrastructure spending is expected to grow from $4 trillion in 2012 to an estimated $9 trillion by 2025.
There are several ways investors can cash in on global infrastructure spending. I've already detailed the three best stocks to invest in infrastructure spending by looking at the leaders in owning and building energy infrastructure, global trade infrastructure and communications infrastructure. Today, I want to look at three more interesting stocks that can go on an investor's infrastructure spending watch list.
1. Valmont Industries (VMI 2.61%)
In a sense, Valmont Industries is the quintessential infrastructure spending stock. The company is a global leader in designing and manufacturing products that support global infrastructure development. Valmont makes highway safety equipment like roadside barriers, street and area lighting as well as traffic lights, and it builds wireless towers and utility structures. In a sense, Valmont Industries manufactures the products needed to develop backbone global infrastructure projects.
Valmont's operates four divisions to capture growth by providing solutions to infrastructure issues around the globe, which are noted on the following slide.
Source: Valmont Industries Investor Presentation
For example, the company's engineered infrastructure products division will benefit from the fact that 2.5% of global GDP will be spent each year on infrastructure investment. Meanwhile, its coatings division will capture a slice of the $277 billion that will be spent each year just to fix corrosion issues. Suffice it to say, growing infrastructure spending is right in Valmont's wheelhouse.
2. Lindsay Corporation (LNN 1.23%)
Lindsay Corporation is like Valmont Industries in many ways. Not only do both manufacture infrastructure products, but both also manufacture irrigation products, which is where Lindsay really excels. That said, infrastructure is an important segment for the company as it offers a number of solutions to improve road safety and ease road congestion in addition to selling railroad products likes signals, junction boxes, and lights.
The company's core solution is solving the problem of congestion and safety on the highway. Each year $121 billion is wasted through traffic congestion in urban areas as 5.8 billion hours are lost sitting in traffic, which wastes 2.9 billion gallons of fuel. To address the problem, Lindsay developed the Road Zipper, which is a movable barrier that enables a highway to move a median to better cope with commuter traffic flows. With energy efficiency growing in importance, Lindsay's solution to cut congestion will be an important component of future infrastructure spending by governments.
3. Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR)
Quanta Services is the largest specialty contractor in North America for both electric transmission and distribution as well as pipelines. Basically, it's the company that builds and maintains the backbone of North America's energy infrastructure.
Quanta benefits both from maintenance spending as well as new project spending. For example, its electric power business is driven by the need to repair, upgrade, and maintain transmission and distribution infrastructure in North America while growth is being driven by the changing generation mix as more renewables and natural gas generation are entering the mix. Meanwhile, its oil and gas infrastructure business is being largely driven by the need for new pipelines as a result of growing production from shale plays and the Canadian oil sands as well as growing demand for these resources by customers. As a result America's insatiable demand for energy, the company expects to enjoy double digit growth for the foreseeable future.
Investor takeaway
With trillions of dollars being spent on infrastructure each year, and more expected in the future, there are a lot of ways investors can profit from this growing trend. Lindsay, Valmont, and Quanta Services directly benefit from the spending on actual infrastructure projects as they provide the products or services needed to get projects built, or running at full capacity. It's why all three are great stocks to watch as global infrastructure spending heads higher.
