Tempted To Buy US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ: USCR) At Its Current EV / EBITDA Ratio?


US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ: USCR), a materials company with a market capitalization of $958 million, currently trades at an EBITDA Multiple of 11.0x which is above the sector’s median multiple of 10.3x. Although this makes USCR look unattractive, investors may change their mind after reviewing the assumptions behind the EV / EBITDA ratio. In the post below, I calculate US Concrete’s fair value using an EBITDA Multiples valuation.

How To Interpret US Concrete’s EBITDA Multiple



Enterprise Value = EBITDA x Selected Multiple

The EV / EBITDA ratio by itself is not very helpful at all. It is only useful when comparing it to other companies that are considered similar to the subject company. The basic idea is that companies with similar characteristics should trade at similar multiples, all other things being equal. Therefore, we can come to a conclusion about the stock if the ratios are different. In the chart below, I compare US Concrete’s EV / EBITDA ratio to its peer group that includes Eagle Materials Inc (NYSE: EXP), Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC), Summit Materials, Inc.(NYSE: SUM) and Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE: MLM).

USCR EBITDA Multiple vs Peers Chartsource: finbox.io Benchmarks: EBITDA Multiples

Since US Concrete’s EV / EBITDA ratio of 11.0x is lower than the median of its peers (14.6x), it means that investors are paying less than they should for each dollar of USCR’s EBITDA. As such, our analysis shows that USCR represents an undervalued stock. Furthermore, finbox.io’s EV / EBITDA Ratio Model calculates a fair value of roughly $65.50 per share which implies around 13.5% upside.

USCR EV / EBITDA Valuation Calculation

I selected a fair multiple of 12.0x in my analysis by averaging US Concrete’s current EV / EBITDA ratio with its peer group and sector.

EBITDA Multiple Flaws

While this approach typically provides a reasonable valuation range, it is important to understand that our conclusion rests on some important assumptions. The first being that the selected peer group actually contains companies that truly are similar to US Concrete. The second important assumption is that the selected peer group stocks are being fairly valued by the market.

If the assumptions above do not hold to be true, then the difference in EV / EBITDA ratios could be due to a variety of factors. For example, if you accidentally compare US Concrete with higher growth companies, then its EBITDA multiple would naturally be lower than its peers since investors reward high growth stocks with a higher price.

USCR EBITDA Growth and Margins vs Peers Tablesource: EBITDA multiples model

Now if the second assumption does not hold true, US Concrete’s lower multiple may be because firms in our peer group are being overvalued by the market.

What To Do Next

As a current investor, you may have already conducted fundamental analysis on the company and its stock so its current undervaluation could signal a potential buying opportunity to increase your position in USCR. But keep in mind the EV / EBITDA ratio’s potential flaws when applying this valuation approach. It is important to note that there are a variety of other fundamental factors that I have not taken into consideration in this article. I highly recommend that you continue your research on US Concrete by taking a look at the following:

Valuation Metrics: what is US Concrete’s EBITDA less CapEx multiple and how does it compare to its peers? This is a helpful multiple to analyze when comparing capital intensive businesses. View the company’s EBITDA less CapEx multiple here.

Risk Metrics: what is US Concrete’s asset efficiency? This ratio measures the amount of cash flow that a company generates from its assets. View the company’s asset efficiency here.




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