Electrical Contractor Stocks Outpace Major Wall Street Equity Indices at 2025 Mid-Year

2025 has been a wild year for the stock market, but it’s hitting the half-way mark in surprisingly good shape. When you consider that Wall Street investors have had the stomach for potential tariffs, the Israel-Iran war, concerns over the federal debt and some queasiness over the direction of the overall U.S. economy, the current gains in stock prices look pretty darn good. The major market indices are only up marginally so far in 2025, but year-over-year (YOY) through June 24 they are showing solid double-digit gains: NASDAQ Composite (+12.32%); S&P 500 (11.63%); and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+10.22%).

One link between the leading stocks in share price gains in 2025 appears to be how closely they are perceived to be tied into the electrification macrotrend, particularly the need to build out or retrofit the electrical grid, supply or build data centers or the renewed interest in nuclear as a primary power source. Of the major publicly owned electrical manufacturers, distributors and contractors that Electrical Marketing tracks  (see table on page 2), GE Vernova is having the best year so far with a +54.9% increase in its shares, followed by electrical contractor IES Holdings (+44.2%); Quanta Services (+17.2%); 3M (+16.2%); Legrand (+15.6%); Rockwell Automation (+14%); Siemens (+13.3%); and Federal Signal (+13.1%). As a group, contractor stocks did the best, as along with IES and Quanta, MasTec (+24.8%); and EMCOR (+10.4%) were also up double digits.

Oh, what a year

GE Vernova, which went public with an IPO in April 2024 after spinning offer from GE, logged the best YOY performance with a +197% increase in its share prices, followed by IES Holdings (+107.9% YOY) 3M (+46.8% YOY); Quanta (+45.8% YOY); and EMCOR (+37.3%).

Remember 2020?

While it’s impossible to think of any single year or era as a “normal” period for the stock market, in general it’s been a particularly wild ride since the Covid epidemic hit in March 2020. When you look at where electrical stock prices were in Jan. 2020 before Covid, you see some tremendous increases for some stocks, particularly compared to the market indices. Since Jan. 2, 2020 and through June 24, 2025, the S&P 500 is up 87.1% in total and roughly +17% annually. The NASDAQ Composite is up +119.1% in total and +23.8% annually and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up +49.4% in total and +9.9% annually since then.

Three contractor stocks mentioned earlier have been up way over these marks and top all other electrical stocks that EM tracks. IES Holdings is up +210% annually; Quanta has surged +160.3% annually; and EMCOR is currently running at a +95.8% annual growth rate. Of the major electrical manufacturers, Eaton is up the most at +257.5% over the past five years and WESCO takes top honors for distributors with its share prices up +215.1% since Jan. 2020.