Gibraltar (ROCK) Trims 2017 View On Dismal Business Scenario

We issued an updated research report on premium steel & iron firm, Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROCK) , on Jun 19.

Over the last three months, this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) Gibraltar Industries’ shares incurred a loss of 14.49%, as against 0.30% growth recorded by the Zacks classified Building Products - Miscellaneous Peers industry.

Inside Story

Lackluster Industrial and Infrastructure Products segment’s business (as a result of divestiture of certain businesses and lesser sales volume) are expected to hurt Gibraltar Industries’ top-line performance in the quarters ahead. Notably, the company now anticipates generating revenues within the range of $970–$980 million (down 2–3% year over year) in 2017, lower than the prior estimation of roughly $1 billion.

Moreover, the company believes that poor volumes, backlog and escalating prices of raw materials might weigh over its margins and profitability, moving ahead. Gibraltar Industries trimmed its earnings guidance for full-year 2017 to the $1.57–$1.70 per share range, from the previous guidance of $1.75–$1.85 per share.

Furthermore, we predict that risk arising from issues like unfavorable government funding programs, sudden decline in market share might hurt the company’s near-term performance.

Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the stock moved south for both 2017 and 2018, underlining negative sentiments.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks in the industry are listed below:

Boise Cascade Company (NYSE:BCC) generated an outstanding average positive earnings surprise of 114.74% over the trailing four quarters and currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD) , which sports a Zacks Rank #1, pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 5.98% over the past four quarters.

EMCOR Group, Inc. (NYSE:EME) currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and has an average positive earnings surprise of 15.45% for the past four quarters.

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