12 Red Days In A Row: MasTec Stock Is Down 25%
Shares of MasTec (MTZ) have closed lower in each of the last 12 sessions, a cumulative decline of 24.9%. That erased about $4.4 billion from the company’s market value, which now stands at about $13.4 billion. The stock closed at $171.55 on Thursday, October 22, its lowest close of the past year.
MTZ Versus The S&P 500
Returns for MTZ and the S&P 500 over the streak and the periods around it, all ending Thursday, October 22 and including dividends:
| Return Period | MTZ | S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Day | -5.2% | -1.2% |
| 12 Days (Current Streak) | -24.9% | -2.0% |
| 1 Month (21 Trading Days) | -21.1% | -0.5% |
| 3 Months (63 Trading Days) | -49.2% | 3.7% |
| Year To Date | -21.1% | 13.0% |
| 1 Year (252 Trading Days) | -17.2% | 15.1% |
Is This Move About MasTec Or The Market?
Over the same 12 trading days, the S&P 500 returned -2.0% including dividends, so the slide is mostly MasTec’s own story rather than the market’s. Over the past three months the stock is down 49.2%, a window that includes the streak; over the other 51 sessions of that window it was down 32.4%.
Is The Business As Weak As The Stock?
On the fundamentals, revenue grew 23.5% over the last twelve months, against a median of 7.7% for S&P 500 Industrials stocks; its operating margin is 5.1%, versus a median of 17.6%; and the stock trades at 27.1 times trailing earnings against a median of 26.6. The read is mixed: revenue growth above the median on one side, margins below the median on the other.
If the drop has you weighing an entry, resist buying on price alone. Our Buy the Dip screen ranks the marked-down names where growth and cash generation still hold up.
Weakness In One Name Should Be Noise, Not News
For a diversified holder, a streak like this is a data point. For a concentrated one, it is a hole in the plan. The difference is never the stock; it is the portfolio built around it.
Building that portfolio is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does: roughly 30 businesses with the cash generation and balance-sheet strength to absorb a bad month, selected and rebalanced by rules. It has a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, and the Russell 2000. Make the next streak, in either direction, someone else’s drama.