Commercial Vehicle Skids On Surprisingly Weak Margins

The North American commercial truck market continues to improve and Commercial Vehicle Group (CVGI) had been having a great 2017 compared to other commercial truck suppliers like Cummins (CMI) and Allison (ALSN). Unfortunately, the company's efforts to restructure its operations (and reduce costs) and the recovery in off-road vehicle markets like construction have combined in an unexpectedly bad way, leading to meaningfully lower margins, a disappointing second quarter report, and a sharp drop in the stock.

The company's issues with its non-truck wire harness business aren't going to go away, and the company's 2017 margins are going to suffer for it. The bad news is that the company is going to miss out on some of the benefits of this recovery, and they're not going to get that money back. The better news is that the truck market is doing better than expected, the company is doing well in construction on a revenue basis, and the company has made good progress with operating cost reductions.

Commercial Vehicle's margin trouble does reduce the short-term fair value and likely will have the stock in the penalty box for a little while, but the decline does make the valuation more interesting again for investors with a longer-term orientation.

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Commercial Vehicle Skids On Surprisingly Weak Margins