Construction & Engineering covers contractors, specialty trades and engineering firms building infrastructure, power, industrial and commercial projects. MoatScope covers 56 companies here. None has a wide moat; 23 have a narrow moat and 33 none.
How the industry makes money
Contractors earn a margin on projects, from power lines and data centers to highways, and the best of them win repeat work from the same customers. Project execution decides profitability, since fixed-price contracts turn overruns into losses.
Where the moats are
Expertise, licenses and safety records, counted as intangible assets, appear in 16 of the 23 moat-rated companies, and switching costs in 13, where customers rely on long-term service relationships.
The narrow-moat group includes Quanta Services, Comfort Systems USA, Ferrovial, EMCOR, MasTec, APi Group and Sterling Infrastructure. Companies without a moat include Arcosa, Granite Construction and Tutor Perini.
What wears moats down
Cost overruns, labor shortages and project delays hurt margins, and work dries up when customers cut capital spending.
What to watch
- Backlogs and new awards.
- Utility, data-center and infrastructure spending.
- Labor availability and costs.
Moat ratings and quality scores on this page update as companies report. Price versus fair value for every company in the industry is in the screener.