Business Insider reports that as the construction of the AI data center continues to advance, U.S. industrial stocks related to energy, power transmission, and engineering construction are receiving more attention. Hennessy Cornerstone Growth Fund's fund manager, Josh Wein, believes that the improvement in earnings in this sector comes not only from AI infrastructure investments but is also driven by a rebound in manufacturing, the return of industries, and increased defense spending.
Filtering logic favors low valuations and profit recovery.
Unlike directly betting on popular topics, the Wein team adopts a top-down stock selection method, first filtering out companies that do not meet the criteria before forming a list of holdings. The first screening criterion is that the company's market value must be over $1.75 billion, and its price-to-sales ratio must not exceed 1.5 times.
He stated that this standard is not only about identifying companies with low valuations but also aims to narrow the focus to those with lower profit margins and companies that are easily overlooked by the market, thereby trying to avoid valuation bubbles in popular sectors. Subsequently, the team selects companies whose net profits have improved year-over-year; even if they have not yet achieved significant profit growth, they will still be included in their observation.
Wein believes that such companies are often in the early stages of operational recovery. If profit improvement is accompanied by a rise in stock prices, it indicates that the market is recognizing the fundamental changes, which helps to avoid falling into the "cheap but lacking momentum for recovery" value trap.
AI Construction requirements become a common backdrop
In his view, within the current industrial sector, companies in construction, engineering, power, and energy infrastructure are the most significantly benefited. The reason is that data center construction has a long cycle and involves large-scale projects, with orders typically being released gradually over time, rather than relying solely on short-term sales momentum.
The article mentions that about a quarter of the fund's assets are allocated to the industrial sector. According to Morningstar data, this fund has outperformed 98% of its peers over the past 5 years and 97% of similar products over the past 15 years.
Four companies were named
The four companies mentioned in Wein are all directly or indirectly related to the infrastructure expansion driven by AI.
- Centuri Holdings: Engaged in energy infrastructure business, benefiting from the renovation of natural gas pipeline equipment and the energy demand of data centers.
- Primoris: Building natural gas and power transmission and distribution systems is considered to be beneficial for the power expansion chain.
- MYR Group: Participates in power grid construction and also undertakes data center wiring projects.
- Tutor Perini: Mainly engages in large-scale construction projects, and its subsidiary Fisk Electric participates in the construction of manufacturing facilities for AI data center components.
Judging from their performance within the year, there is a clear differentiation among these stocks. MYR Group and Tutor Perini have risen by 29% this year, while Centuri Holdings and Primoris have fallen by 19% and 41% respectively. However, the article points out that these two stocks, which experienced a pullback, both saw significant upward movements between September 2025 and May 2026.
Overall, this comment suggests that the expansion of the AI data center is shifting market attention from chips and cloud computing to traditional industrial sectors such as power grids, gas, engineering construction, and manufacturing facilities.
