Dover's Ability To Create Long-Term Value Still An Open Question

Dover (DOV) reported a good fourth quarter, with a very strong top-line organic growth figure and improved margins across the business. Guidance for 2018 was also pretty positive, and Dover will be moving forward with the spin-off of its energy business ("Wellsite") and a sizable share buyback. All of that is welcome, but it doesn't really mitigate a pretty mediocre long-term track record of value creation.

Perhaps the involvement of Third Point as an investor will spur more changes. Dover is certainly not "un-fixable", but the company does need to better manage the assets it has and come up with a better unified vision for where its expertise and focus will be in the future. Although I'm clearly not a huge fan of management, and the shares aren't cheap, the return expectations here seem more reasonable than for many other multi-industrials, so less valuation-conscious investors may still find some upside.

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Dover's Ability To Create Long-Term Value Still An Open Question