It didn’t take long at all for Insteel (IIIN) to show some divergence from my expectations for fiscal 2019, as the company’s first quarter came in meaningfully lower than I expected on weather-related shipment weakness in the quarter. Even so, the conditions in the market remain quite challenging, and it sounds as though the company will be sacrificing margins to maintain volume with customers in 2019 and hoping for some tariff relief.
I’m still comparatively less bullish on non-residential construction in 2019 than many, and I think that presents some risks to volumes