Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation MIC currently boasts solid prospects on recovery of general aviation flight activity, growth capital projects and its shareholder-friendly policies.

Notably, the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a market capitalization of $3.4 billion. In the past three months, it has gained 23.1% compared with the industry’s growth of 7.1%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Let’s delve into the factors that make investment in the company a smart choice at the moment.

Business Strength: Macquarie’s Atlantic Aviation segment has been showing resilience, backed by recovery of general aviation flight activity and strong growth in tenant hanger rent. Notably, in the first quarter of 2021, flight activity at airports, wherein Atlantic Aviation operates, improved 5% year over year. The gradual rollout of coronavirus vaccines is expected to continue leading to a further recovery of general aviation flight activity in 2021, which is likely to be beneficial for the Atlantic Aviation segment. Also, the MIC Hawaii segment stands to benefit from the reopening of Hawaii to visitors, which is likely to result in higher gas sales.

Initiatives: The company has implemented several cost control measures in response to the pandemic-led challenges over the past few quarters. This enabled it to significantly reduce operating expenses in 2020. In the quarters ahead, its focus on cost-reduction initiatives, along with investments in growth capital projects, might act as tailwinds. Also, Macquarie’s divestment of its IMTT business (completed in December 2020) for a total consideration of $2.7 billion (including IMTT’s $1.1 billion of debt outstanding and cash) has improved its financial flexibility and strengthened balance sheet.

Rewards to Shareholders: It remains committed to rewarding shareholders through dividend payouts. In 2020, the company paid out dividends worth $87 million. However, dividend payments have been halted currently on account of the end-market uncertainties, owing to the pandemic.

Estimate Revisions: In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2021 earnings has trended up from $1.79 to $2.12 on one upward estimate revision against none downward. Also, the consensus estimate for 2022 earnings has gone up from $2.44 to $2.58 on one upward estimate revision versus none downward.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the same space are Griffon Corporation GFF, Crane Co. CR and ITT Inc. ITT, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Griffon delivered an earnings surprise of 50.00% in the last reported quarter.

Crane delivered an earnings surprise of 26.72% in the last reported quarter.

ITT delivered an earnings surprise of 21.84% in the last reported quarter.