Tigress Initiates Coverage On W.R. Grace & Co.

Tigress Financial Partners initiated coverage Wednesday on W.R. Grace & Co. GRA with a Buy rating.

Analyst Philip Van Deusen noted that “following GRA’s strong Q3 performance, we have increased conviction that growth initiatives will meaningfully contribute to the company’s top-line.

“All three of GRA’s segments added to its 11 percent top-line growth during Q3, and we are optimistic that the company’s market leading positions in Catalysts Tech, Materials Tech and Construction Products can be leveraged to generate future shareholder returns.”

According to Van Deusen, “management is focusing on product innovation to generate future growth. GRA is aiming for new technologies to represent 20-30 percent of revenues by 2018.

“W.R. Grace already has leadership positions across many of its product categories in all three of its operating segments.

“By investing in new product commercialization from a position of strength we believe GRA can maintain its leadership position while increasing top-line growth and margins over the long-term.”

The report concluded that “forecasts are calling for continued moderate improvement in domestic commercial construction over the next two years, but we see upside to these estimates and believe that the U.S. will increasingly be viewed as a safe haven for global commercial real estate investors benefiting W.R. Grace’s Construction Products division.”

W.R. Grace & Co. recently traded at $95.30, up 0.01 percent.