Electrical Stocks: Year-to-Date Performance

What a ride it’s been for the stock market. Back in mid-February when the market indices were hitting all-time highs, bullish investors were doing a happy dance and congratulating themselves for their savvy stock-picking acumen. One month later, they were flattened by March’s nauseating declines when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 10,000 points.

As we turn the page to the month of May, investors may be breathing a little easier because of the bounce-back  from  March’s lows. However, some financial analysts on CNBC’s Squawk Box and other media outlets believe investors should brace themselves for more volatility because of their concerns that in recent weeks the market has raced too far past actual market conditions, and that any economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis is still very much in the earliest of innings in a nine-inning game.

Electrical stocks are all very much a part of this volatile whirlwind. As you can see in the table below, only a handful of the stocks that Electrical Marketing’s editors track are currently riding above the market indices. Unfortunately, when you analyze these stocks by the year-to-date percent change of share prices, the performance of most of the publicly held electrical manufacturers, distributors and contractors is currently tracking well below the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite.

Also, of note is the fact that several key competitors to traditional electrical distributors are beating the three indices despite all this turmoil — Amazon (up +24% year-to-date); Home Depot (+1%); and Fastenal (-2%). Generac (+2%) and LSI Industries (-2%) are the only major electrical stocks beating the indices. The year-to-date performance through mid-day on April 29 of 30 of the stocks EM editors track is below that of the three indices, with WESCO (down -50%); GE (down -44%); Houston Wire & Cable (-43%); Mersen (-43%); and MasTec (-40%) currently suffering the most. Both WESCO and Mersen stock had been top electrical stocks in our previous market analyses over the past year or two, proving true the old Wall Street saying, “The market giveth, and the market taketh.”

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