Bull Of The Day: MasTec (MTZ)

I've written about MasTec (MTZ) many times for the Bull of Day since this $3.75 billion E&C (engineering & construction) company for energy and telecom providers keeps popping up as a Zacks #1 Rank in the past year.

And MTZ is back to the top of the Zacks Rank ahead of its February 22 quarterly report because analysts are once again raising earnings estimates. In the past 30 days, the Zacks full-year consensus has risen from $3.12 to $3.25, giving MTZ an attractive P/E multiple of just 16X.

Here's what I wrote back in September...

A Great Year, Muted Expectations for the Next One

One investor concern might be that EPS estimates have not risen as dramatically for next year, currently showing a flat performance in the Zacks consensus. But this is most likely an effect of the relative uncertainty surrounding many of these major energy projects which represent 40-45% of MTZ business.

A generally positive market in telecom E&C projects from major builders like AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon also encourages analysts about the MasTech outlook.

But it's the energy sector that keeps them talking right now. FBR Capital raised their price target on MTZ to $66 from $57 this month. Here's what StreetInsider.com reported...

FBR Capital analyst, Alex Rygiel, reiterated his Outperform rating on MTZ shares and raised his price target to $66 from $57 after the company posted exceptional 2Q results. The analyst believes backlog continues to provide good visibility and is expected to grow through the rest of the year.

The analyst believes the Oil & Gas segment will be particularly strong through year end but management is even more positive on the 2018 outlook due to the current backlog, pipeline of projects and solid industry drivers across all of its segments.

(end of excerpt from my September report on MTZ)

The FBR team was clearly early and correctly bullish on MTZ shares as they broke through multi-year resistance at $47 and surged higher above $50 this year.

And here's been some of the analyst action lately since the end of 2017 as we anticipate the company's Q4 report...

1/2 Craig-Hallum: Buy Rating and PT from $57 to $64
1/3 Robert W. Baird: Buy Rating and PT to $56
1/16 Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn): Buy Rating and PT to $60
1/18 Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN): Outperform Rating PT from $58 to $69
1/26 Stifel Nicolaus: Buy Rating and PT from $60 to $63
2/6 Citigroup (NYSE:C): Buy Rating and PT from $62 to $68

I'm looking forward to the MTZ quarterly report in a couple of weeks, especially since I've been a shareholder since $40 and I'd love to see that move into the $60s on any whiff of Washington DC infrastructure plans!

Disclosure: I own shares of MTZ for the Zacks TAZR Trader portfolio.

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MasTec, Inc. (MTZ): Free Stock Analysis Report

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