The Infrastructure Holding Up

The weakness in the housing and financial sector terrorizes the markets. Fears of the economy already in recession causes most investors to stay on the sideline. So nowhere to put your money now? Can't find any sector that's growing?

In my little suburban town in Southern California where the epic center of the housing collapse is happening, I see something different that puzzles me. I actually see a lot of constructions going on. Are the builders crazy? No. Not them. We are talking about a different construction - the infrastructure, the roads, the highways.

To catch up with the booming population moving to the suburban area of Southern California for cheaper housing, local governments are leveraging the newly approved transportation fund as well as the increasing revenue from growing population to improve road condition, widening street and construct new highway exchange. So which companies are receiving the benefits from the infrastructure boom? Take a look at these ones:

• AECOM Technology Corporation (ACM): the Los Angeles based company helps plan and design construction of highways, airports, bridges, mass transit systems, government and commercial buildings. The revenue has been growing for the past three years with P/E ratio at a respective 26.73.
• Trinity Industries Inc. (TRN): the company's Construction Products group produces concrete, aggregates, and asphalt and makes beams and girders used in highway bridge construction. The stock is trading at a attractive P/E of just 9.02.
• Valmont Industries, Inc. (VMI): the Omaha based company makes steel and aluminum poles for lighting and traffic signal on streets, highways and parking lots.