Electrical Stocks Turn in Decent Stock Performance in 2Q 2024 Report

It was an interesting quarter for electrical stocks. Eighteen of the electrical manufacturers, distributors and contractors EM’s editors track (see chart below) outpaced the S&P 500’s growth in 2Q 2024 of +15%, but 30 publicly held companies — including some former high-flyers well under that mark with double-digit share price decreases since January were under that mark. 

Contractors

Owners of contractor stocks had the most to cheer about, with all of the major publicly traded contractors outpacing the S&P. EMCOR led the parade, with its share up almost +72% since January. Quanta, which had turned in stellar results the past few quarters, slipped in 2Q with a -2% decline, but its share are still up more than +20% for the year. IES Holdings, which hadn’t previously been counted amongst the top gainers, had a great quarter with a share price gain of almost +14% had a terrific quarter and is up almost +78% of the quarter.

Manufacturers

Leading the pack with a +20.8% quarterly gain was a new name, GE Vernova, which  the GE parent company spun off on April 2 along with the GE Aerospace division.
Dialight (+39.8%); nVent Electric (+31.4%); Nexans (+31.3%); Eaton (+31.21%); ABB (+27.8%); Schneider Electric (+25.9%); and Acuity Brands (+18.9%) topped the S&P 500 with some very handsome returns Lagging were Signify (-22.8%); Atkore (-17.4%);  Mersen (-12.5%); and Rockwell Automation (-10.2%); with double-digit declines. Atkore and Mersen had been standouts in recent quarters.

Distributors

It was a quiet quarter for distributor stocks, with no companies beating the S&P. Grainger had the biggest YTD gain at +10.2%, but it’s down -10.6% for the quarter. WESCO was off, too, with a decline of -9.7% for the quarter. It’s down almost -9% in 2024.