MTZMasTec, Inc.

MasTec builds infrastructure under contract: power lines, pipelines and communication networks.

The company does not own what it builds — it hires out crews and equipment. Demand is set by other people's capital programmes: utilities hardening networks, carriers laying fibre, producers laying pipe. The order backlog therefore says more about the future than current revenue does.

A shortage of skilled crews is the industry's main constraint and simultaneously its barrier: a team of high-voltage line technicians cannot be assembled quickly. Risks: executing fixed-price contracts, where an estimating error consumes the margin entirely; weather that pushes schedules; and permitting delays at the customer. The company pays no dividend.