TWST: Please give us an overview of your coverage universe.
Mr. Kasprzak: Our coverage universe includes some building materials and
engineering companies that either supply materials and/or products for
really all types of construction projects or actually perform the work
themselves on these various types of construction projects.
TWST: If you look at the space in general, how has it done from a market
perspective so far this year?
Mr. Kasprzak: From a stock market perspective, the stocks have done
well. The companies that we cover as of the date of this interview are
up on average 30% year to date, and the S&P 500 is up a little over 6%.
TWST: Why the strong performance?
Mr. Kasprzak: I think there are a few things going on here. First of
all, the overall economy is very strong. Starting really in the middle
of last year, we started to see a pickup in all types of construction;
to that point, housing had of course been very strong. But starting in
the middle of last year, we saw things like commercial construction and
public works, most notably road construction, start to pick up, and
those trends have only improved here into the first part of 2006. So you
have had a situation where all three main end markets for construction
demand ' housing, highways, and commercial ' are growing simultaneously.
Tickers included in this excerpt: EXP, MLM, VMC
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