Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has disclosed several new picks in its Q2 filings. In this article, we are going to focus on two non-AI stocks in which the fund opened new stakes in the June quarter.
Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) is the larger of the two. Bridgewater bought about 108,700 shares worth roughly $32.1 million, a 0.13% portfolio weight. Toy company Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) was another notable new pick as the fund bought a stake worth about $20.8 million in the company.
Let’s focus on VMC in this article and see whether the stock is a decent buy-the-dip opportunity. It’s down about 14% so far this year.
Vulcan Materials is a major producer of construction aggregates in the US. Aggregates are crushed stone, sand and gravel, the base material under roads, bridges, foundations and parking lots. Demand for these materials comes from public infrastructure, private non-residential and residential projects.
The bull case
Vulcan has a competitive and pricing advantage because it owns more than 400 stone plants spread across the fast-growing Sunbelt states, so it is usually the closest supplier to any given job site. It’s difficult for companies to get new stone plant permits in cities like Dallas and Atlanta. That means rivals cannot enter the market easily to challenge Vulcan.
Public spending is strong. Most of the money from the 2021 infrastructure law has still not been spent, and road and bridge work takes years to plan before any material gets used. Data centers and the power plants being built to run them are both starting to add demand. Bulls say sooner or later, the housing market would recover and that would help Vulcan as new home construction projects begin.
Valuation
Vulcan Materials trades near 28 times forward earnings against a materials sector median close to 15. Forward earnings multiples sit roughly 12% below the five-year average, and the shares have pulled back from their highs earlier in fiscal 2026.
Bearish Analyst Sentiment
Analyst sentiment toward VMC weakened recently. Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight, citing weaker government spending, elevated interest rates and soft housing demand. J.P. Morgan also expects construction-materials stocks to remain rangebound in the near term. The bank expects housing recovery to arrive in the second half of 2027.
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