Carpenter Technology top industrial gainer, while building stocks among losers

Top gainers for the week ending March 25 did not see extravagant gains like last week, while building products related stocks formed the majority of the worst five decliners.

S&P 500 closed north of its 200-day moving average and now hinges at its 100-day moving average, slightly above the 4,500 marker. The SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY) +1.84% was in the green for the second week in a row. YTD the ETF is -4.69%. Nine out of 11 sectors of the S&P 500 saw gains for the week. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI) +0.86% too saw green for the second straight week. YTD, XLI is -1.98%.

The top five gainers in the industrial sector (stocks with a market cap of over $2B) all gained more than +9% with the top 3 running neck to neck.

Carpenter Technology (NYSE:CRS) +11.96%. The specialty metals maker said at the start of the week that it would raise base prices by an average of 12% to 15% on new, non-contract orders across the majority of its specialty alloy products. Wall Street Analysts’ Rating is Buy with an Average Price Target of $44.67. YTD, the stock is up +45.87%.

AGCO (AGCO) +11.72%. The conflict in Ukraine has already led nations to reassess their energy security, but food security is also making waves. AGCO CEO Eric Hansotia recently said “This is a really big deal, because when that volume of calories comes out of the food chain, it triggers other things. Not only hunger, but unrest.” The agricultural equipment maker’s stock rose throughout the week. Wall Street Analysts’ Rating is Buy with an Average Price Target of $155.25.

The chart below shows 6-month total return performance of the top gainers and SPY:

First Advantage (FA) +11.62%. The stock surged following the company’s Q4 results, which beat analysts’ estimates.

Veritiv (VRTV) +10.06%. The packaging and facility solutions provider gained the most on March 24 (+7.55%). In the past one year the stock has risen +221.85%. The Wall Street Analysts’ Rating is Strong Buy with an Average Price Target of $160.

Chart Industries +9.48%. The maker of engineered equipment for the energy sector was back among the top five gainers after two weeks. YTD the stock has risen +16.92%.

The week’s top five decliners among industrial stocks (market cap of over $2B) lost more than -13% each.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (NYSE:ZIM) -19.05%. The shipping stock led the losers’ pack this week but was the #1 gainer over two months ago and had performed well in January. YTD the stock has grown +16.21%.

Building products related stocks – Installed Building Products (IBP) -17.77%, TopBuild (BLD) -17.55% and Trex (TREX) -14.20%, came in second, third, and fourth, respectively.

Both IBP and BLD stocks declined throughout the week. IBP fell the most on March 21 (-6.64%) after Jefferies analyst Philip Ng downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy. The analyst sees risk of further multiple compression in a rising interest rate environment. Ng noted that the company has a mixed track record in offsetting inflation.

The chart below 6-month total return performance of the worst five decliners and XLI:

YTD, Trex has fallen -48.93%, IBP is down -37.48%, and BLD has declined -30.78%.

TuSimple (TSP) -13.52%. The autonomous trucking company continued its volatility this week as well. The stock had pared off some losses last week by being in the top five gainers (+40.60%) but has been seeing red for quite some time now. TuSimple intends to explore certain transactions at a subsidiary level for its Asia-Pacific-focused businesses. YTD, the stock has declined -67.34%.