Stanley Black & Decker Will Reward Long-Term Investors

Nobody said investing was easy. You might imagine tool maker Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) would be one of the easiest companies to analyze. However, thanks to a bewildering range of cost headwinds in the last few years it hasn't always been easy to see the underlying picture. Throw in the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's even more confusing. So let's try to sift through the weeds and outline why the stock deserves a close look for long-term investors.

The first place to start is with the $1 billion worth of external cost headwinds that the company suffered over the 2018-2020 period. To be fair, all companies are prone to suffering some sort of cost headwind in any given year, but a combination of unfavorable exchange rate movements, tariff costs, and raw material costs hit the company in a big way over a three-year period.

Image source: Getty Images.

Source Fool.com