Tutor Perini, Other Builders Enjoy Post-Election Gains

The share price of Sylmar construction firm Tutor Perini Corp. has soared 32 percent since New York City real estate developer and President-Elect Donald Trump accepted the results of Tuesday’s presidential election with a speech that pledged rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. Construction firms across the country saw stock prices jump following Trump’s speech. The Republican promised to rebuild highways, bridges, airports, tunnels, schools, hospitals and infrastructure across the country, and employ millions of people. Share prices of engineering design and construction services firm Aecom in Los Angeles gained nearly 16 percent while shares of Pasadena’s Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. rose 11 percent between Tuesday’s and Friday’s closing share prices. Infrastructure was a priority topic during the election, with both Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton pledging large infrastructure plans. As a result, construction stocks were expected to jump regardless of the election’s winner. Repairing the nation’s aging Infrastructure has been a repeated campaign theme with limited results. In December 2015, Congress approved a $305 billion, five-year transportation improvement bill (FAST, or Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) funding repairs to roads, bridges, rail lines and federal highways, and reauthorized the Highway Trust Fund. While the bill was the largest budget allocation in 10-plus years, it was lower than President Barack Obama’s original $478 billion plan. Tutor Perini shares closed up Friday $1.35, or 5.2 percent, to $26.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.