Seems like everywhere you look, there's solid industrial activity. Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR) is selling more construction equipment, Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) is selling more heavy machinery, Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) is selling more welding equipment, Joy Global (NASDAQ:JOYG) is selling more mining equipment, and today's hero, Manitowoc (NYSE:MTW), is selling a lot more cranes.
Revenue in the first quarter jumped 24% as the company saw 33% higher sales of its assortment of cranes. Like other industrial equipment makers, this higher sales base is leading to better operating efficiency and stronger operating leverage -- to the tune of a nearly two-and-a-half-point improvement in gross margins and better than a three-point improvement in operating margins. As for earnings per share, they were up about, oh, 150%.
Cranes are the story here, but Manitowoc does more. It's also a leading food-service company with a big presence in ice-making machinery, and its marine business builds and repairs ships. While I don't mean to denigrate these units' performance, the crane segment out-earns them (on a segment operating basis) by more than 3.5-to-1.
Much like aerial work platform specialist JLG (NYSE:JLG), Manitowoc is benefiting from a replacement and expansion cycle in the rental market; about two-thirds of the company's sales go to rental operators. That, in turn, may stem both from a pickup in the economy and an expectation of more business in coming years, whether it's from Gulf Coast reconstruction, highway work, power plants, or office buildings.
Like any hot cyclical story, there's a worrying chance that the stock price will get unstuck from the company's long-term value. Since this stock has risen more than 200% from its lows, that's a valid concern. You've got to assign robust growth to future cash flows to come up with an attractive target, but comparing Manitowoc to other firms like Joy Global or Ingersoll-Rand suggests that both better growth and margins are possible.
For more heavy lifting:
Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
