A Member of Pat McKeough’s Inner Circle recently asked for his advice on an infrastructure and agriculture engineering products company.
Pat likes the solid track record of rising revenues and earnings and the company’s diversity across key sectors and services. Its latest acquisition looks promising but will have to perform well to meet growth targets.
Valmont Industries Inc. (Symbol VMI on New York; www.valmont.com), is a leader in designing and manufacturing highly engineered products and services for the global infrastructure development and agriculture industries.
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Large-scale agriculture outfits use the company’s irrigation equipment and services to improve farm productivity while conserving their freshwater resources. Valmont’s infrastructure products serve highway, transportation, wireless communication, electric transmission, industrial construction and energy markets.
In addition, the company provides coating services that protect steel and other metal products against corrosion. That extends the usable life of these metals, which cuts the user’s long-term costs.
On May 5, 2021, Valmont announced it would acquire Prospera Technologies, a privately owned artificial intelligence (AI) company based in Israel. Valmont will pay $300 million in cash.
Prospera is a developer of machine vision technologies that continuously monitor and analyze plant development, health and stress. The company uses artificial intelligence-based sensors and in-field cameras to help farmers monitor crops. It then analyzes the data to identify pests and diseases, monitor agro-technical activities and record crop yields. All this is aimed at helping farmers find new ways to achieve higher crop yields using less land, water, chemicals, fertilizers, fuel and time.
Valmont and Prospera have partnered for the last two years on developing real-time crop analysis and anomaly detection solutions. Their AI systems currently monitor more than five million acres, 400% higher than the partnership’s initial goals. They aim this year to double the number of growers they monitored in 2020.
Inner Circle: Revenue and earnings growth is impressive
Over the last five years, Valmont’s revenue has increased slowly but steadily, rising 14.8%, from $2.52 billion in 2016 to $2.90 billion in 2020. Earnings are up 1.2%, from $173.2 million, or $7.63 a share, in 2016 to $175.3 million, or $8.18 a share, in 2020.
The company raised its quarterly dividend by 11.1% with the April 2021 payment, to $0.50 from $0.45. The shares now yield 0.9%.
Recommendation in Pat’s Inner Circle: Valmont Industries Inc. is a hold.
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