Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What is your recommendation on Cemex, the big Mexican cement maker? The stock is moving up again. Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (ADRs), $12.19, symbol CX on New York (ADRs outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $13.4 billion; www.cemex.com), is the largest cement maker in North America and the world’s third-biggest, after Lafarge of France and Switzerland’s Holcim. The stock is down from a 2007 peak of $37. However, it’s up from its low of $2.18 in October 2011. The Mexico-based company makes and sells cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates (sand and gravel) and clinker (powdered cement). It gets 28% of its sales from northern Europe, followed by Mexico (23%), the U.S. (21%), South America, Central America and the Caribbean (14%), Southern Europe (10%), and Asia (4%). In the three months ended December 31, 2012, Cemex’s sales were unchanged from a year earlier, at $3.7 billion (all amounts in U.S. dollars). If you adjust for foreign exchange rates and businesses that Cemex has sold in the past year, its sales would have fallen 1%. The company raised its prices, but that…