Stocks finished Wednesday mixed, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.05%) recovering fully from what had been extensive declines earlier in the day. The latest minutes from the Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Committee confirmed that the central bank stands ready to fight inflation, and this reassured investors to some extent. Nevertheless, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.13%) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.04%) finished lower.
|
Index |
Daily Percentage Change (Decline) |
Daily Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
(0.16%) |
(55) |
|
S&P 500 |
+0.09% |
+4 |
|
Nasdaq |
(0.11%) |
(16) |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Some of the best-known growth stocks in the tech sector posted some significant declines even after the market bounced back. But a couple of stocks outside the traditional tech sector managed to deliver encouraging news to investors. Read on and find out why Generac Holdings (GNRC 0.32%) and Barrick Gold (GOLD -1.17%) were on the rise Wednesday.
Generac powers up
Shares of Generac Holdings soared more than 14% today. The move came as the backup-generator specialist announced fourth-quarter financial results that reassured shareholders that better times are coming.
Image source: Getty Images.
Some of Generac's numbers hit record levels. Fourth-quarter sales soared 40% to an all-time high of $1.07 billion. The company saw strength in both of its key segments, with residential product sales rising 42% and commercial & industrial products seeing revenue climb 43% year over year. Adjusted net income also hit record highs at $162 million, working out to adjusted earnings of $2.51 per share, topping investor expectations.
Moreover, Generac expects the good times to last. The company set guidance for 2022 to see net sales rise 32% to 36% from 2021 levels. Between 5 and 7 percentage points of that growth will come from acquisitions and foreign exchange impacts. But that still leaves as much as 25% to 30% of organic growth for the company and would be a strong follow-up to 2021's 50% top-line gains.
Generac has worked toward becoming more of a provider of energy tech solutions, with products like Internet of Things propane tank monitoring and smart-home energy devices. If it can stay on that path, then Generac could claw back much of the ground its stock has lost over the past few months.
Barrick pays off for shareholders
Elsewhere, mining giant Barrick Gold (GOLD -1.17%) saw its stock rise 7.5%. The miner's fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 financial report was solid, and a new capital policy should reward shareholders handsomely.
Barrick's key metrics for the full year were mixed. Gold and copper production were both down from 2020 levels during 2021, but realized prices for gold managed to inch higher. That helped boost adjusted net earnings for the year by about 1% to $2.07 billion. Free cash flow saw a substantial decline, though, in part due to an uptick in capital expenditures in 2021.
However, shareholders were pleased to see Barrick approve a $1 billion stock repurchase program that will allow for buybacks over the next 12 months. In addition, it established a variable dividend policy, with the potential to lift the company's current yield of less than 2% all the way to nearly 5% if fundamental performance meets certain threshold numbers for net cash available. In particular, if Barrick has more than $1 billion in net cash on its balance sheet, then the base quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share would get a $0.15 bump higher for a total of $0.25 per share.
Gold prices have moved higher on inflationary concerns, and Barrick is in a good place. Investors like what they're seeing from the miner, and further gains are definitely possible if the business keeps performing as well as it has lately.
