We recently published a list of the Jim Cramer’s Hidden Gems: 10 Undervalued Stocks You Need to Know. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) stands against other undervalued stocks you need to know according to Jim Cramer.
With the year coming to a close, Jim Cramer, like everyone else, has a couple of things on his mind. The tail end of December saw significant turmoil in markets as while the Federal Reserve did cut interest rates by 25 basis points, it took a hawkish approach for its 2-25 rate cut cycle. The central bank guided just two cuts in 2025 as opposed to the earlier four, which led to the flagship S&P index dropping by 2.95% on the day of its decision.
Yet, the close of the week would prove to be a boon for markets in the form of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index. The PCE is the Fed’s preferred inflation reading, and for November, it sat at 2.4% on an annualized basis. This was lower than the 2.5% that economists had predicted, and as a result, markets took a breather with the S&P closing 1.1% higher on Friday. However, while the flagship S&P index might have pared back some of its losses, the Russell index that tracks 2,000 small-cap stocks didn’t perform so well.
On the day the Fed announced its rate cut, this stock index sank by 4.39%. Yet, while the S&P surpassed a percentage point in gains on Friday, the Russel index lagged it to close 0.94% higher. The small-cap stock index also missed this week’s Santa Claus rally. From Monday to the close of trading on Christmas Eve, the S&P had gained 1.84% to nearly reverse all of its losses since the Fed’s meeting. However, the Russell index ended up 0.78% higher and is still down 3.18% from its Tuesday close before the Fed’s conference.
The fact that small-cap stocks fell sharply after the Fed’s ‘bullish bearishness’ and failed to regain momentum after the PCE data is unsurprising. These companies, due to their lighter balance sheets and localized presence, are more sensitive to economic slowdowns than large and mega-cap stocks. Their dependence on economic performance was clear after President-elect Donald Trump’s win in the November election following which the Russell index soared by 4%.
The last time the index had posted similar and stronger gains was in July when it had gained by 11.54% in the second week. As you’d expect, the bullishness was driven by none other than the economy. Small-cap stocks soared when the consumer price index dipped by 0.1% in June for its first such drop in more than four years. Gains made by small-cap stocks came right when investors had, for the time being, had enough with technology stocks. This was indicated by the broader NASDAQ index gaining just 0.43% while the Russell index had soared by 11.54%.
This searing performance by small-cap stocks didn’t go unnoticed by Cramer. In an episode of CNBC’s Mad Money, the host commented on recent small-cap stock performance trends. Cramer used the rally to highlight the importance of sticking to the stock market instead of just relying on day trading. He outlined that “When you get these kind of rallies, and you get them very rarely, it reminds you that you have to stay in this market to make big money. You can’t flit in, fled out!” Cramer added, “When I say stay in, I mean that you have to be as invested as you possibly can be so you don’t miss monster moves like the Russell 2000 up 3.5% today.”
Commenting on the reasons behind the small-cap stock rally, Cramer posited that “it started when we got that cool consumer price index reading we got last Thursday. No inflation in the month of June, that’s what triggered it!” According to him, the inflation reading was “the first prop of the small-cap rally.” Cramer shared that “Most people are surprised to see that the lowering of inflation could trigger a gigantic rally among so many small-cap stocks.” He dug deeper into the stocks that had gained and pointed out that risky loss-making firms reliant on low inflation and small and medium businesses that benefit from low interest rates were doing particularly well.
According to him “almost all [STOCKS MAKING GAINS] are biotechs” that are “losing money.” Cramer outlined that “If you look at the top 35 performers all of which are up more than 35% since a week, less than a week, including 11 that are up more than 50%, you’ll see that roughly half are biotechs and healthcare companies almost all losing money.”
Since Cramer’s remarks, the Russell index has essentially remained flat and gained a mere 0.90%. This time period has seen it soar after Trump’s election win and then sink after the Federal Reserve’s rate cut update.
Our Methodology
To make our list of Jim Cramer’s hidden gems, we scanned the stocks he mentioned in Mad Money and Squawk on the Street as far back as in August. Then, we picked out stocks with a market value lower than $6 billion, analyzed their performance, and ranked them by the number of hedge funds that had bought the shares in Q3 2024.
For these stocks, we also mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds invest in? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q3 2024: 26
Date of Cramer’s Comments: 8-19-24
Performance Since Then: 35.22%
Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) is an industrial products company that makes and sells electrical equipment. It is another strong-performing stock, as the shares are up 156% year-to-date. While on the surface the share price growth is stunning, digging into Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL)’s balance sheet makes it clear. The firm grew its revenue by a whopping 45% during its fiscal year 2024. The growth came on the back of growth in its energy and commercial markets. The latter market caters to data centers, and Cramer commented on its growth and noted how a strong order backlog is a key factor driving Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL)’s shares:
“Lately, the market has fallen in love with a particular kind of industrial stock. These are still smokestack stocks, but they also have powerful secular growth drivers, meaning they can thrive even if the economy doesn’t accelerate. Tonight, I have a smaller company that falls into the same category: Powell Industries. This company has been around since 1947 and went public decades ago. However, the stock has caught my attention over the past couple of years, skyrocketing from $20 in late September 2022 to $171 today—a gain of more than 700%. So, what does this company do, and how did the stock manage to catch fire like this? More importantly, can it keep running once the Fed starts blessing us with rate hikes?
Let’s start with the basics. Powell makes custom-engineered equipment that distributes, controls, and monitors the flow of electricity while also providing protection to all sorts of electrically powered hardware, like motors and transformers. If you want to know why the stock languished from 2014 through late 2022, it’s because of their exposure to the oil and gas industry. Even now, the fossil fuel industry accounts for 59% of Powell’s sales year-to-date. However, the stock’s spectacular breakout over the past couple of years has been driven by Powell’s success in new markets, namely utilities, transportation like light rail, metals and mining, pulp and paper, and of course, data centers. Everything really came together for Powell Industries last year, with these new businesses generating tremendous growth. After four years of being stuck in the $500 million revenue range, Powell posted 31% revenue growth in 2023, reaching total sales of just under $700 million.
Meanwhile, their earnings per share nearly quadrupled—from $1.15 in 2022 to $4.50 last year. It’s like hitting the lottery. Essentially, if their equipment can handle the petrochemical business, it can handle utilities, especially those in the Gulf Coast, where many of their petrochemical customers are located. Cope also mentioned data centers, electric vehicles, and semiconductors. When you put it all together, it’s easy to see how Powell’s orders grew by 94% last year, with their backlog increasing by 118% to $1.293 billion—the first time their backlog ever crossed the $1 billion mark.
These numbers are incredible, yet Wall Street continues to underestimate this company, allowing Powell to repeatedly blow away the estimates. It’s like the old days when companies were smaller, moving from midcap to large cap. When Powell reported at the end of January, they posted 53% revenue growth and earned $1.98 per share. Analysts were only expecting $0.84. Yes, that’s right—they more than doubled the analyst consensus, which is extraordinary.
When Powell reported again in early May, they delivered another monster revenue beat with a staggering $0.97 earnings beat, off a $1.78 estimate. That’s an upside surprise of almost comical proportions. Most recently, Powell delivered yet another stunning quarter at the end of July, with much higher-than-expected revenue, earning $3.79 per share. Wall Street had only expected $2.16. No wonder the stock has more than doubled in the past seven months—these beats are extraordinary.”
Overall, POWL ranks 4th on our list of undervalued stocks you need to know according to Jim Cramer. While we acknowledge the potential of POWL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than POWL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.