Cummins Revving Back Up

Cummins (CMI), a very well-run manufacturer of engines and components for trucks and other commercial vehicles, is a case in point as to why I’m often critical of typical sell-side valuation methodologies. Despite the fact that Cummins has been through many up-and-down cycles in the past decades, analysts still manage to freak out during the downswings – slashing estimates, cutting price targets, and just about everything short of walking around lower Manhattan wearing sandwich boards proclaiming that the end is nigh. And when orders for trucks and other equipment start to bounce back and signs of margin leverage reappear, they show a level of excitement close to that of ferrets that have overdosed on Mountain Dew.

To that end, the sell-side’s fair value for Cummins is about 60% higher than it was when I last wrote about the company for Seeking Alpha (in late September of 2016) and the revenue estimate for 2017 is about 14% higher.

I still like Cummins as a company, but the stock is harder to love now. The shares already trade at more than 7x what I think will likely be mid-cycle EBITDA, and seem to be pricing in double-digit annualized FCF growth over the next decade – a number I think Cummins could hit, but that doesn’t leave much room to maneuver (or disappoint). To that end, I’m not all that worried about Cummins’s exposure/vulnerability to electrification in heavy vehicles or competition from vertical integration, but I’m concerned that valuation is back to that point where perceived missteps will be punished harshly.

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Cummins Revving Back Up