Heavy Machinery Winners: Joy Global, Terex
MILWAUKEE (TheStreet) -- Investors bid up shares of Joy Global (JOYG) after the maker of underground mining gear offered up a batch of evidence pointing to sanguine prospects for 2010.
First, there was the
: The company tightened up its per-share target range for 2010, saying it now expects $2.85 to $3.05 on the bottom line. Previously, Joy was looking for $2.65 to $3.05 a share.
Then there was the sharp rise in new orders reported by the company during the quarter. Bookings for original equipment surged 52%, which means that Joy Global has been rushing to restart manufacturing lines idled during the recession.
As
RealMoney
contributor Gary Dvorchack
, half of those "new" bookings were actually old bookings. That is, customers are re-inking letters of intent for new equipment that they'd canceled last year as they freaked out about the recession.
In late trading Wednesday, Joy Global shares were trading at $54.55, up $3.06, or 6%, after earlier going as high as $56.39. Volume reached nearly 8 million shares, more than double the daily average over the last three months.
Crosstown rival
Bucyrus
(BUCY)
, which specializes in surface-mining equipment and made a
big move last year to purchase
the extraction-machinery segment of
Terex
(TEX) - Get Report
, saw its stock rise a much more modest 1.8%.
Shares of Terex, however, which now focuses solely on the construction-equipment business, surged nearly 6% on heavy volume, causing the
New York Stock Exchange
to contact the company regarding the unusual movement, which is often sparked by takeover scuttlebutt. Terex, citing company policy, had no comment for the NYSE.
Sure enough, it turned out that a
JP Morgan
(JPM) - Get Report
analyst suggested in a research note Wednesday that it might make sense for Terex to "seek a strategic buyer for its remaining businesses,"
Reuters
reported later in the session.
Terex shares were moving late Wednesday at $21.28, up 6.5%. Volume surpassed 7.6 million shares; average daily turnover is 2.4 million.
Among other manufacturers of rolling machinery, shares of big daddy
Caterpillar
(CAT) - Get Report
were up 1% to $58.64, while farm-tractor specialist
Deere
(DE) - Get Report
added almost the same to $58.75.
Defense contractor and construction-equipment maker
Oshkosh
(OSK) - Get Report
, meanwhile, has had a tough time of it since
Barron's
last weekend published an article arguing that the company could experience tougher times after its M-ATV contract with the Pentagon finishes up over the summer.
Shares of Oshgosh were trading lower by 1.4% to $36.56.
-- Written by Scott Eden in New York
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Scott Eden has covered business -- both large and small -- for more than a decade. Prior to joining TheStreet.com, he worked as a features reporter for Dealmaker and Trader Monthly magazines. Before that, he wrote for the Chicago Reader, that city's weekly paper. Early in his career, he was a staff reporter at the Dow Jones News Service. His reporting has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Men's Journal, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, and the Believer magazine, among other publications. He's also the author of Touchdown Jesus (Simon & Schuster, 2005), a nonfiction book about Notre Dame football fans and the business and politics of big-time college sports. He has degrees from Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis.
