Trimble Inc. (TRMB)

Trimble measures position to the centimetre — for construction machinery, tractors and surveyors.

An ordinary satellite receiver is out by metres, while a bulldozer cutting to a design needs centimetres. The company achieves that with corrections from ground stations and its own signal processing, then links the precise position to the project's model of the site.

Instruments used to be the sale; increasingly it is a subscription to software and corrections, and that changes the accounts: revenue becomes recurring. Customers are construction, agriculture and surveying, where precision directly saves fuel, materials and time. Risks: the construction and agricultural cycles and competitors moving to the same model. The company pays no dividend.