Why You Should Hold on to Manitex (MNTX) Stock for Now

Manitex International, Inc. MNTX is likely to benefit from accelerating recovery in its markets, improving orders and growing backlog levels. Currently, the manufacturer of engineered lifting and loading products carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Here's why investors should hold on to the stock at present.

The Zacks Consensus for fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019 has gone up 15% and 2%, respectively, over the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings for fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019 reflects year-over-year growth of 215% and 89%, respectively.

The company outperformed the industry it belongs to in the past year. The stock has gained 44% while the industry grew 25%.

The company currently has a VGM score of A. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum. The score is a weighted combination of these three scores. Such a score allows you to eliminate the negative aspects of stocks and select winners. The VGM Score of A along with some other key metrics makes the company a solid choice for investors.

The company has an impressive earnings history having outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the preceding three quarters, with an impressive average beat of 194%.

The company is witnessing accelerating recovery in its markets since the beginning of 2017. A growing backlog and improving order levels will boost results. Continued strengthening of the straight-mast crane market has led to a year-over-year surge of 71% in industry orders in the fourth quarter of 2017. Manitex continues to enhance production and deliveries for its primary product groups to meet rising demand in the future.

Investors might want to hold on to the stock at present as it has ample positive prospects of outperforming peers in the near future.

Some better-ranked stocks in the sector include Dover Corporation DOV, Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. AIT and Graco Inc. GGG. While Dover sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Applied Industrial Technologies and Graco carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Dover has a long-term earnings growth rate of 13%. The company’s shares have been up 32% during the past year.

Applied Industrial Technologies has a long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. Its shares have gained 15%, over the past three months.

Graco has a long-term earnings growth rate of 11%. The stock has gained 50% in a year’s time.

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