Strong earnings fueled by solid 2006 construction activity and material and product pricing gains, coupled with two pending big-ticket mergers, have made public concrete, aggregates and cement companies Wall Street darlings for the second time in as many years. Vulcan Materials and five other industry heavyweights who trade on the New York Stock Exchange saw their shares hit 52-week highs in the days following Vulcan's Feb. 19 announcement of a friendly Florida Rock Industries takeover. After a negligible dip on Feb. 20 to $112, Vulcan shares spiked the following day to a $122 close and remained in the $121-$122 range through the Feb. 26 close of trading. Vulcan shares had rebounded this year from a 52-week trading low of $65.85 (Aug. 1). Shares of five other NYSE peers have trended similarly (Feb. 26 close, 52-week trading low): Cemex S.A.B., $36.54, $23.77 (June 13); Hanson Plc, $85.10, $55.97 (June 13); Martin Marietta Materials, $132.07, $74.05 (July 18); MDU Resources, $27.33, $21.87 (March 29); and, Texas Industries, $81.02, $43.39 (Aug. 14).

Another NYSE listing and one for whom Cemex has effected a takeover offer of $65/American depository receipt, Rinker Group, saw Feb. 26 trading close at $76.85. Its ADRs jumped about $3 following the Vulcan-Florida Rock announcement, and have inched toward a 52-week trading high of $83.46. In its late-October tender announcement, Cemex noted that the $65/ADR offer represented an 27% premium to what Rinker stock had been trading over the Oct. 27 opening. The NYSE-traded construction materials companies with the least movement around Vulcan-Florida Rock are CRH Plc and Lafarge S.A., whose ADRs had already been trading near 52-week highs prior to the announcement.