Hot Trucking Companies To Buy For 2015

Hot Trucking Companies To Buy For 2015: Titan International Inc (TWI)

Titan International, Inc. (Titan), incorporated on March 21, 1983, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in the manufacturing of wheels and tires. The Company operates in three segments: agricultural, earthmoving/construction and consumer. Titan produces a range of specialty products to meet the specifications of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and aftermarket customers in the agricultural, earthmoving/construction and consumer markets. Titans earthmoving/ construction market includes wheels and tires supplied to the mining industry, while the consumer market includes products for all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and recreational/utility trailers. The Companys customers include AGCO Corporation, CNH Global N.V., Deere & Company and Kubota Corporation.

In August 2012, it acquired Planet Corporation Group (Planet). Titan acquired 56% of the Corporation. In December 2012, Titan acquired 100% (Titan Europe).

Agricultural market

Titans agricultural rims, wheels and tires are manufactured for use on various agricultural and forestry equipment, including tractors, combines, skidders, plows, planters and irrigation equipment, and are sold directly to OEMs and to the aftermarket through independent distributors, equipment dealers and Titans own distribution centers. The wheels and rims range in diameter from 9 to 54 inches. Titans agricultural tires range from approximately 1 foot to approximately 7 foot in outside diameter and from 5 to 49 inches in width. The Company offers the added value of delivering a complete wheel and tire assembly to customers.

Earthmoving/construction market

The Company manufactures rims, wheels and tires for various types of off-the-road (OTR) earthmoving, mining, military and construction equipment, including skid steers, aerial lifts, cranes, graders and levelers, scrapers, self-propelled shovel loaders, articulated dump trucks, lo! ad tran sporters, haul trucks and backhoe loaders. The earthmoving/c! onstruction market is often referred to as OTR, an acronym for off-the-road. The Company provides OEM and aftermarket customers with a range of earthmoving/construction wheels ranging in diameter from 20 to 63 inches and in weight from 125 pounds to 7,000 pounds. The 63-inch diameter wheel is the manufactured in North America for the earthmoving/construction market. Titans earthmoving/construction tires range from approximately 3 feet to approximately 13 feet in outside diameter and in weight from 50 pounds to 12,500 pounds. The Company offers the added value of wheel and tire assembly for certain applications in the earthmoving/construction market.

Consumer market

Titan manufactures bias truck tires in Latin America, provides wheels and tires and assembles brakes, actuators and components for the domestic boat, recreational and utility trailer markets. Titan also offers select products for all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), turf, and golf car applicat ions. Titan produces a variety of tires for the consumer market.

The Company competes with Carlisle Companies Incorporated, GKN Wheels, Ltd., Topy Industries, Ltd, Bridgestone/Firestone, Michelin, Pirelli, Berco and Caterpillar.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Vera Yuan]

  Among a few stocks that had negative returns in the quarter, Veeco Instruments (VECO) and Titan International (TWI) are also among the smaller positions in the portfolio. Titan, which declined 11.4% in the quarter and will be discussed later in this letter, is a relatively new stock in the portfolio and one that we added to as the share price declined.Among the stocks that we added to in the quarter were Atwood Oceanics (ATW) and Titan International (TWI).As mentioned above, Titan declined nearly 12% in the quarter and we added to the position as the stock weakened. As you may recall, we initiated the position in TWI in the fourth quarter of 2013 in the mid- te! ens. Desp! ite our additional TWI purchases, we do not yet own a full position in the stock. However, we have plenty of capacity to take the stock to a normal full position, which is 3%, but this assumes the company earns the right to have more of your capital allocated to the position.The primary reason why TWI share s sold off recently is that the wheel and tire markets for large construction and mining equipment remain depressed. Investors had hoped that the off-road, large construction equipment and mining business would see some acceleration after the very cold winter season, but that does not appear to be the case. Tire inventory levels for large, off-road equipment were too high for dealers to be aggressive and purchase tires en masse earlier this year. However, there is some recent evidence that much of the excess tire inventory has been reduced to levels that now support some restocking.Our investment thesis for TWI is not predicated on the wheel and tire market for large, off-road equipment to come roaring back to levels experienced before the financial crisis. Rather we believe the assets TWI has accumulated over the past decade can be managed more efficiently and, therefore, profit margins can improve without a huge increase in revenues. We recently visited one of TWIs Midw est tire facilities a

• [By Rich Duprey]

  It probably didn't help any when the French government approached the CEO of tire maker Titan International (NYSE: TWI  ) , Maurice "The Grizz" Taylor, to see if he would be interested in buying the plant and was greeted with a giant guffaw instead.

source from Top Stocks To Buy For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/hot-trucking-companies-to-buy-for-2015.html