Generac Generator (
)
Forget the iPad — the new must-have accessory is a home power generator.
With millions of East Coast residents left in the dark by Hurricane Sandy, stores that sell power generators are getting mobbed —and minting money.
“We have just sold out of the generators we received this morning,” a phone message yesterday told customers who were calling Mayberry Sales & Service, a Fort Murray, NJ, retailer.
“There is another truck on order from Chicago . . . but we are unsure as to when they will arrive.”
Legions of shoppers at home-improvement and hardware outlets have gotten the same disappointing news this week, despite dogged efforts by stores and suppliers to meet demand.
At a Home Depot in Vauxhall, NJ, this weekend, as Sandy aimed its 80-mph wind gusts at the Jersey Shore, cars lined up just to get into the already-filled parking lot, but the store’s shelves were long sold out of generators.
Employees broke the sad news to arriving shoppers: They did not know when a new delivery of generators would arrive.
In Waukesha, Wis., one company was as smoking hot as the shoppers were smoking mad — Generac.
The maker of generators — which controls a 70 percent market share — is perhaps the largest beneficiary of Sandy, the third huge storm to hit the Northeast in 14 months.
Generac shares soared 20 percent yesterday to an all-time high of $34 — on the first trading day since Sandy came to town — pushing 2012 gains to 61.6 percent.
Powering the jump, in part, was the move by the company to raise its fourth-quarter profit outlook while reporting strong third-quarter results — a three-month stretch that ended Sept. 30, well before word of Sandy began to spread.
Longer term, the company expects its momentum will continue, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld told The Post in an interview yesterday.
With power outages steadily increasing in recent years amid unruly weather and aging infrastructure, owning a power generator is becoming more mainstream, according to the exec.
“Before 2000, whether it was a bunker mentality or not, it was more of a self-sufficiency attitude” that marked a typical power-generator owner, Jagdfeld said.
But major events, beginning with the Y2K scare and including Hurricanes Katrina and Irene, have helped propel the niche to steady growth. During the past 12 years, Generac has averaged yearly sales gains of 17 percent.
That’s roughly in line with a 16 percent annual increase in power outages affecting more than 50,000 homes, according to the Energy Department.
While the run on Generac shares yesterday rivaled the scramble for its products, most Wall Street analysts are cautious about the prospects for the stock.
“The momentum in their business is as strong as you can imagine it being,” said Brian Drab, an analyst at William Blair, who rates the shares at market perform. “Where do we go from here?”
Drab estimates that Sandy and its aftermath will add as much as $150 million to Generac’s sales during the next two quarters. That could be tough to match next year without the help of more “significant weather events,” he said.
“You can actually imagine a scenario where revenue is down,” Drab said.
To reduce volatility, Generac is aggressively marketing power generators that are permanently installed in homes. This year, Jagdfeld expects those will account for as much as $500 million of its $1.1 billion business.