I’ve never hid the fact that Dover (DOV) is not among my favorite companies, and over a longer-term holding period, you’d still have done better with names like 3M (MMM), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Fortive (FTV), Danaher (DHR), and Ingersoll-Rand (IR).
That said, Dover shares have been performing meaningfully better on a
relative basis over the past couple of years, first with the recovery in
the energy sector, then the spin-off of Apergy (APY), and what I believe is building optimism about what a change at the top (a new CEO) could mean in terms of self-improvement.
My
complaints about Dover have largely centered around low
margins/elevated expenses, weak returns on capital, and a collection of
businesses with iffy long-term strategic value. New CEO Richard Tobin
seems eager to start work on the expense side of the equation, and I
wouldn’t rule out the possibility of management shuffling the deck a
little further down the road (selling some businesses and perhaps buying
some new ones). While I’m warming up to Dover from a strategic
perspective, the valuation still isn’t all that enticing to me, though a
longer run of this industrial up-cycle could certainly generate some
upside to my expectations.
Follow this link to the full article:
Dover's Core Doing Okay And New Management Brings New Options
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