Illinois Tool Works Finding It Harder To Clear A Rising Bar

The great post-election melt-up has continued, but the pace seems to be slowing and expectations have risen to a level that many companies are finding more challenging to satisfy. Illinois Tool Works (ITW) has seen its share price rise about 3% since my last update, lagging the S&P 500 only slightly, and keeping pace with most of its large peers (Honeywell (HON), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), and 3M (MMM)) apart from Dover (DOV).

As I see it, the story on Illinois Tool Works remains more or less the same. The company is unquestionably a high-quality industry conglomerate, but it's not heavily leveraged to recovering markets like oil/gas and important end-markets like autos are slowing. A very strong operator already, I think Illinois Tool Works will be hard-pressed to drive substantial additional restructuring benefits, but management isn't going to stop trying. In a “gotta buy something” market, I suppose Illinois Tool Works isn't the worst idea, but it's hard for me to like the share price outside of a relative value approach.

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Illinois Tool Works Finding It Harder To Clear A Rising Bar