How to buy L-BFoster Company stock

L.B. Foster Company is a railroads business based in the US. L-BFoster Company shares (FSTR) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. L-BFoster Company employs 1,330 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$561.8 million.

How to buy shares in L-BFoster Company

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for L-BFoster Company. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: FSTR. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until L-BFoster Company reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of L-BFoster Company, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of L-BFoster Company. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

L-BFoster Company share price

Use our graph to track the performance of FSTR stocks over time.

L-BFoster Company shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-27.

52-week range	USD$7.9601 - USD$20.51
50-day moving average	USD$14.7559
200-day moving average	USD$14.0889
Wall St. target price	USD$17.13
PE ratio	4.9362
Dividend yield	N/A (0%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$2.98

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Is it a good time to buy L-BFoster Company stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of L.B. Foster Company by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Is L-BFoster Company under- or over-valued?

Valuing L-BFoster Company stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of L-BFoster Company's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

L-BFoster Company's P/E ratio

L-BFoster Company's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 5x. In other words, L-BFoster Company shares trade at around 5x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

L-BFoster Company's EBITDA

L-BFoster Company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$29.3 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a L-BFoster Company's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

L-BFoster Company financials

Revenue TTM	USD$561.8 million
Operating margin TTM	2.22%
Gross profit TTM	USD$121.4 million
Return on assets TTM	2.01%
Return on equity TTM	30.98%
Profit margin	5.65%
Book value	$16.412
Market capitalisation	USD$158.1 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting L-BFoster Company shares

There are currently 182,878 L-BFoster Company shares held short by investors – that's known as L-BFoster Company's "short interest". This figure is 9.2% up from 167,493 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting L-BFoster Company shares can be evaluated.

L-BFoster Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

L-BFoster Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of L-BFoster Company shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of L-BFoster Company shares traded daily (recently around 33010.469314079). L-BFoster Company's SIR currently stands at 5.54. In other words for every 100,000 L-BFoster Company shares traded daily on the market, roughly 5540 shares are currently held short.

However L-BFoster Company's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of L-BFoster Company shares, or, against the total number of tradable L-BFoster Company shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case L-BFoster Company's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 L-BFoster Company shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0182% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable L-BFoster Company shares, roughly 18 shares are currently held short).

A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against L-BFoster Company.

Find out more about how you can short L-BFoster Company stock.

L-BFoster Company share dividends

We're not expecting L-BFoster Company to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.

L-BFoster Company share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, L-BFoster Company's shares have ranged in value from as little as $7.9601 up to $20.51. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while L-BFoster Company's is 1.1953. This would suggest that L-BFoster Company's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

L-BFoster Company overview

L.B. Foster Company manufactures and distributes products and services for the transportation and energy infrastructure worldwide. Its Rail Products and Services segment offers new rail to passenger and short line freight railroads, industrial companies, and rail contractors; used rails; rail accessories, including track spikes, bolts, angle bars, and other products; power rail, direct fixation fasteners, coverboards, and other accessories; and trackwork products, as well as engineers and fabricates insulated rail joints and related accessories. This segment also provides friction management products and application systems, railroad condition monitoring systems and equipment, wheel impact load detection, fire protection systems, rail anchors and spikes, wayside data collection and management systems, epoxy and nylon-encapsulated insulated rail joints, and track fasteners; and aftermarket services and engineered concrete railroad ties. The company's Construction Products segment sells and rents steel sheet piling, H-bearing pile, and other piling products; and bridge decking, bridge railing, structural steel fabrications, expansion joints, bridge forms, and other products for highway construction and repair. It also produces precast concrete buildings and various specialty precast concrete products; and fabricated steel and aluminum products. Its Tubular and Energy Services segment provides pipe coatings for natural gas pipelines and utilities; solutions for metering and injection systems for the oil and gas market; upstream test and inspection services; and precision measurement systems, and inspection and tubular integrity management services for the oil and gas market, as well as threaded pipe products for the oil and gas, industrial water well, and irrigation markets. The company markets its products directly, as well as through a network of agents. L.B. Foster Company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of L-BFoster Company is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 8.038% of L-BFoster Company shares are held by insiders and 73.576% by institutions.

• How many people work for L-BFoster Company?

  Latest data suggests 1,330 work at L-BFoster Company.

• When does the fiscal year end for L-BFoster Company?

  L-BFoster Company's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is L-BFoster Company based?

  L-BFoster Company's address is: 415 Holiday Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, 15220

• What is L-BFoster Company's ISIN number?

  L-BFoster Company's international securities identification number is: US3500601097

• What is L-BFoster Company's CUSIP number?

  L-BFoster Company's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 350060109