Electrical Stocks Snap Back After Forgettable 2022 with Solid Mid-Year Gains

Comparing 2023 stock prices with last year's wreckage on Wall St. is a bit tenuous because 2022 was at the bottom of the most recent bear market, but it’s still impressive how many of the stocks that Electrical Marketing’s editors track are up +20% and even 30% over last year's performance (see chart). Through mid-June, more than half of the stocks in EM’s stocks index are beating the year-to-date returns of both the S&P 500 (+15%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+3.9%), and a few companies are even topping the NASDAQ’s impressive +30.3% increase at mid-year: Hubbell (+34%); WESCO (+32.7%); W.W. Grainger (+32.3%): and Federal Signal (+31.2%).

Hubbell’s year-over-year (YOY) returns are equally impressive and from June 30, 2022 to June 16, 2023 the stock is up +33%. Joining Hubbell at these lofty heights of YOY gains are EMCOR (+44.6%); Mersen (+39.6%); Atkore (+38.5%); Belden (+36.9%); Encore Wire (+33.7%); GE (+32%); Siemens (+31.9%); Federal Signal (+31.5%); and Rockwell Automation (+30.3%).

Few companies have seen their share prices decline significantly since the start of 2023. MDU Resources, a publicly owned utility with a large contracting business is down -32.2% and two lighting companies are lagging the field through June 16— Dialight with a -24.9% decline and Signify with a -16.9% decrease. Generac, a former Wall St. darling, has seen its share price cut in half since June 2022, but the company is clawing back some of that lost ground and is up +16.7% year-to-date.

Click here to download a spreadsheet of Electrical Marketing's Electrical Stock Index Mid-Year Review