Machinery Stocks That Have at Least Doubled

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Here are the three best machinery stocks, according to TheStreet's quantitative model, which evaluates financial fundamentals and stock performance. They are ordered by potential to appreciate, from worst to best.

3. Flowserve(FLS) makes industrial pumps used by companies in the oil-and-gas, power-generation and water-treatment industries. Its return on equity, a measure of profitability, beats the industry average as demonstrated in the chart above.

Quarter: Fourth-quarter profit declined 3.5% to $110 million, or $1.96 a share, as revenue inched up 2.6% to $1.2 billion. Flowserve's operating margin expanded from 13% to 16%. Its balance sheet stores $654 million of cash and $567 million of debt.

Stock: Flowserve has nearly doubled in the past year, outpacing U.S. indices. The stock trades at a price-to-projected-earnings ratio of 12, a 47% discount to its peer-group average. It's also cheap based on trailing earnings and sales per share.

Consensus: Of the 12 analysts covering Flowserve, 11 advise purchasing its shares and one recommends holding them. Stifel Nicolaus offers the loftiest price target, projecting the stock will climb another 35% to $140. RBC and Credit Suisse are also bullish.