Construction Stocks, an Alternative to Home Builders

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The construction sector is the most overvalued of the 16 sectors covered by www.ValuEngine.com. The construction sector is 14.9% overvalued with the building -- residential/commercial industry 29.11% overvalued. Compare this to the building production-wood industry at 18.7% overvalued, the building -- heavy construction industry at 12.3% overvalued, and the engineering -- R&D services industry 13.2% undervalued.

On Monday, we learned that construction spending rose by a better than expected 1.4% in October, as the construction sector is becoming a bright spot for the U.S. economy. Compare this to manufacturing. Also on Monday we learned that the national reading of the ISM Manufacturing Index unexpectedly contracted to 49.5 in November.

Today I profile 14 construction stocks and five of them being upgraded this morning, four to buy from hold and one from sell to hold.

On Nov. 28 I wrote Homebuilders Are Risky Bets Despite Positive Data and six of the eight home builder stocks profiled had triple-digit gains of 120.7% to 325.6% over the last 12 months. For the 14 construction stocks only two had triple-digit gains of 119.1% and 148.9%.

Investors who want exposure to the construction sector should consider the stocks in today's table. Upgrades and underperformance are two reasons to consider buy-and-trade strategies in construction stocks after booking profits on the home builders.

Reading the Table

OV/UN Valued: Stocks with a red number are undervalued by this percentage. Those with a black number are overvalued by that percentage according to ValuEngine.

VE Rating: A "1-engine" rating is a strong sell, a "2-engine" rating is a sell, a "3-engine" rating is a hold, a "4-engine" rating is a buy and a "5-engine" rating is a strong buy.

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