TriMas (TRS) Hits 52-Week High: What’s Driving the Stock?

Shares of TriMas Corporation TRS crafted a 52-week high of $29.95 during intra-day trading, finally closing lower at $29.30 on Jun 4.

The company has a market cap of $1.3 billion. Over the past three months, its average volume of shares traded has been approximately 137K.

Also, TriMas surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 3.97%.

Price Performance

Notably, the stock has rallied 35% in a year’s time, higher than the S&P 500’s gain of 12%. Also, TriMas has outperformed the 6% loss recorded by the industry during the same time frame.

Investors are optimistic on this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, backed by its focus on leveraging the TriMas Business Model, segment restructuring, and a strong pipeline of product as well as process innovation.

In addition, TriMas has an impressive VGM Score of B. In this, V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum, and the score is a weighted combination of these three scores. Such a score eliminates the negative aspects of stocks and selects winners. However, it is important to keep in mind that each Style Score will carry a different weight while arriving at a VGM Score.

Our research shows that stocks with Style Scores of A or B, when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3, offer the best investment opportunities.

What Led to the 52-week High?

TriMas will continue to focus on leveraging the TriMas Business Model in order to drive the company’s performance. Its innovative solutions through product, process or service, as well as extensive resources will help strengthen business. Thus, by refocusing on these efforts under the business model, TriMas will continue to recognize synergies which will aid results.

Further, the company realigned its reporting structure in first-quarter 2018 by combining its Engineered Components and Energy segments into a single reporting segment — Specialty Products. The Specialty Products segment, which accounted for around 36% of total revenues in the first quarter, posted 13% year-over-year sales improvement primarily driven by higher sales levels of all brands stemming from refocused commercial efforts and capturing increased end market demand. TriMas expects the new segment to attain sales growth of nearly 5% in 2018.

Additionally, TriMas remains committed to exploring options in order to improve its manufacturing footprint and strategies. In the Packaging segment, the company has invested in technical and manufacturing capacity to launch a line of e-commerce lotion pumps and trigger sprayers. Further, its Rieke business has developed a unique and innovative locking technology. It also consolidated 13 facilities which will further develop production efficiency and customer support.

TriMas estimates its organic sales to be up 3% and operating margin to be nearly 10-12% in 2018. General industrial activity levels have improved, particularly in the United States, which bodes well for TriMas. Moreover, the company is well positioned to take advantage of the incremental volume opportunities and continues to capitalize on its internal sales growth programs.

Upward Estimate Revisions

TriMas’ positive estimate revisions reflect optimism in the company’s potential, as earnings growth is often an indication of robust prospects. Estimates for the company moved up over the past 60 days, reflecting analysts’ bullish sentiments. The earnings estimate for 2018 has gone up 1.2%, while that of 2019 climbed 2.3%.

The above-mentioned tailwinds have raised investors’ optimism in the stock and are anticipated to drive the company’s share price in the days ahead.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Axon Enterprise, Inc AAXN, Caterpillar Inc. CAT and Terex Corporation TEX. All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Axon Enterprise has a long-term earnings growth rate of 25%. Its shares have appreciated 171%, over the past year.

Caterpillar has a long-term earnings growth rate of 13.3%. The company’s shares have been up 45% in the past year.

Terex has a long-term earnings growth rate of 21%. The stock has gained 19% in a year’s time.

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