Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima ADS (LOMA) : juste valeur

Thèse ACCE

Loma Negra makes cement, ready-mix concrete, lime and aggregates, with most of its volume sold into Argentina and a smaller Brazilian cement business. Its moat is physical: cement is heavy and expensive to ship, so a plant near a city has pricing power that imported material can't easily erode, and the company sits on limestone reserves that would take years to replicate. The near-term story is operating leverage on a recovering Argentine construction market, though 2.1% revenue growth and a 6.8% operating margin show that recovery has not yet reached the top line in any meaningful way. The valuation is the interesting part: trailing P/E of 32.4 compresses to a forward P/E of 9.9, which implies the market expects earnings to roughly triple, a bet that depends heavily on peso stability and on margins expanding from a 21.3% gross level. With ROE at 3.8% and a composite score of 57/100, the business is not yet earning its keep, so this name merits a deeper look at the earnings bridge rather than a conclusion either way.