Is CRH (CRH) The Best Under-The-Radar AI Stock?

Kathryn Thompson, CEO of Thompson Research Group, said in a latest program on CNBC that CRH PLC (NYSE:CRH) is among the top AI derivative plays to benefit from the AI boom impacting various industries.

“The thing is that there’s been a lot of talk about AI for the past couple of years, but the first companies to see it are actually the heavy material companies, and we’ve already been seeing it. CRH PLC (NYSE:CRH) CEO explained this.

During an earnings call in August, CRH PLC (NYSE:CRH) CEO Jim Mintern talked about the boost the company is expecting because of the data center boom.

“In our international markets, we expect a robust demand in infrastructure to continue, supported by significant investments from government and EU funding programs. In nonresidential, we expect continued positive momentum across our key markets, supported by large-scale manufacturing and data centers. In the residential sector, we expect new build activity in the U.S. to remain subdued, while repair and remodel remains resilient. In our international markets, we expect the residential sector to stabilize with structural demand fundamentals supporting a gradual recovery. As we have said in the past, we believe the long-term fundamentals for residential construction remains very attractive, supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of underbuild.”

Read the full transcript of the call here.

Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

“CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) is the largest building materials company in both North America and Europe and supplies products for construction and infrastructure projects such as roads, highways, bridges, and commercial and residential buildings. Its products include materials such as aggregates, cement, asphalt, and concrete, as well as critical utility infrastructure and outdoor living solutions. CRH is currently trading at 8.7 times 2025 estimated cash flow, while vertically integrated construction materials peers, who are not as big as CRH and do not have the same track record of consistent performance, have traded as high as 13 times cash flow. Aggregates focused peers with similar construction project exposure trade at approximately 16 times cash flow.”

While we acknowledge the potential of CRH as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.