Guide4 min read
Quarries, railroads, contractors and water utilities earn money differently. Which multiple fits each, with dated examples from our data.
Infrastructure stocks share a theme, not a business model. A quarry, a railroad, a contractor and a water utility earn money in different ways, so the same multiple can say different things about each.
Pick the measure that matches the economics, then compare the company with its own history on that measure. The table is a starting point, not a rule.
| Business | How it earns money | Start with | Then check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction materials | Price per ton from local quarries and cement plants | EV/Sales, then P/E | Price increases against shipped volumes |
| Contractors and engineers | Thin margins on large project revenue | EV/Sales and P/E | Backlog and margin on new work |
| Equipment rental | Rental rates on a fleet that wears out | EV/EBITDA and P/E | Fleet spending and used-equipment prices |
| Railroads | Freight rates on a network that is hard to copy | EV/EBITDA and P/E | Volumes and the share of revenue kept as profit |
| Water utilities | An allowed return set by state regulators | P/E | Pending rate cases and investment plans |
At our October 23, 2026 review (latest weekly observation from the week of October 19), Vulcan Materials (VMC) traded at 4.7x EV/Sales, the 43rd percentile of its own five-year range. Its P/E of 31.2x sat at the 3rd percentile. Trailing revenue was up 7% from a year earlier while trailing earnings per share rose 18%, so the earnings denominator grew faster than the sales denominator.
Neither number is the right one. The sales rank says the market pays about its usual amount for each dollar of revenue. Read together with the low earnings rank, it says profit per dollar of revenue is higher than in most of the last five years. Whether those margins hold is the question to research. The EV/Sales and EV/EBITDA guide walks through the arithmetic.
The same review shows a wide split. Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern sat between the 88th and 91st percentiles on EV/Sales, and CSX at the 98th on P/E. United Rentals sat at the 96th on all three measures. On the other side, Xylem, which sells pumps, meters and treatment equipment to water utilities, sat at the 4th percentile on EV/Sales and the 3rd on P/E.
| Company | EV/Sales | Percentile | P/E | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNP | 8.0x | 88th | 23.8x | 86th |
| CSX | 7.6x | 91st | 29.7x | 98th |
| URI | 4.9x | 96th | 26.4x | 96th |
| AWK | 8.2x | 25th | 24.7x | 46th |
| XYL | 3.0x | 4th | 25.9x | 3rd |
Water shows why a layer is not one business. American Water Works is a regulated utility whose earnings depend on the returns state commissions allow. Xylem sells equipment and competes for orders. A percentile compares each one only with its own past.
CRH moved its primary listing to New York in 2023, and our ranked history for it starts in November 2024. Jacobs merged part of its government business into Amentum in 2024, so we rank it only on the period after the separation. Both ranks rest on about two years or less. Martin Marietta and AECOM were under data review at the same review and do not count toward any layer median. The spin-off and new-listing guide and the missing-percentile guide explain each case.
Searches for infrastructure stocks often mean chips, servers and data centers. Those companies sit in AI Infrastructure, and power and grid equipment sits in AI Power. The Infrastructure theme covers roads, rail, water and the materials and contractors behind them. The infrastructure screen lists the same companies with a switch for each measure.
Compare roads, rail, water and materials companies with their own history, one measure at a time.