4 Stocks To Watch Amid Texas Winter Storms, Power Outages - Benzinga

Winter storms caused havoc on several states over the President’s Day weekend. One state hit particularly hard was Texas.

Around four million people were without power in the state of Texas, according to the Associated Press. Schools, grocery stores and airlines shut down operations.

Blackouts that are only typically seen with temperatures in the 100 degrees Fahrenheit range happened. Power companies encouraged limiting power usage to conserve the grid.

The Texas storms and power outages could produce some winners and losers in the stock market as well.

Generac: One stock that could benefit from the power outages and winter storms in Texas and other states is Generac Holdings Inc (NYSE: GNRC). One of the company’s main business lines is residential generators.

The company recently reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $761 million. Residential revenue was up 55% year-over-year to $499 million in the fourth quarter. The company is guiding for fiscal 2021 revenue to be up 25% to 30% as demand for home standby generators continues to rise.

Shares of Generac closed Tuesday up 7% to $350.53. Shares hit new 52-week highs of $360.18 earlier in the trading session.

Pioneer Power Solutions: Small cap Pioneer Power Solutions Inc (NASDAQ: PPSI) could benefit from a surge of generator sales. The company’s Pioneer Critical Power division sells generators, transfer switches and uninterruptable power supplies.

The company has a market cap of under $100 million and could be a strong play on the increasing demand for its power division items.

Shares were up 12% to $8.50.

NRG Energy: One of the leading energy companies could see losses from the winter storm in Texas. NRG Energy Inc (NYSE: NRG) shares were down 6% to $40.59 on Tuesday.

The company is a leader in integrated energy and home services. NRG Energy asked its customers to reduce energy consumption during the cold weather.

Seaport Global reiterated a Buy rating on NRG comparing the weekend’s event to an ice storm in February 2011. Seaport said it was too early to name winners or losers and temporary outages at NRG power plants won’t cause too much financial damage.

Vistra Corp: Electric utility company Vistra Corp (NYSE: VST) has a presence in 19 states and Washington D.C. Texas is one of the company’s important states with its ownership of TXU Energy, which powers the lives of more Texans than any other retailer.

Seaport reiterated a Buy rating for Vistra: “VST’s power plants seem to be running well,” the firm said.

Seaport said the resale of excess power from Vistra could provide incremental profits of around $150 million.

Shares of Vistra were up 3% to $21.91 on Tuesday.

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