Wall Street analysts touted three Club industrial stocks in a Monday research note, forecasting more upside for Eaton , Dover , and Honeywell . We’re not entirely convinced about one of the calls. The news Citi raised its Eaton price target to $440 per share from $390 — implying nearly 19% upside from Friday’s close. Analysts think the power systems company is “well positioned to benefit” from megatrends such as increased electrification. ETN YTD mountain Eaton YTD “We remain confident that the company is in an extended period of accelerated organic growth accompanied with ongoing margin expansion potential and capital deployment tailwinds that should lead to outsized earnings growth over the coming years,” wrote Citi, which reiterated its buy rating on Eaton. The stock was down modestly Monday — only about 4% below its all-time high of nearly $380 on Nov. 26. DOV YTD mountain Dover YTD Citi hiked its Dover price target to $236 from $226. That represents a 17% premium to Friday’s close. The analysts said the company’s orders are expected to increase as customers near the end of their destocking process, signaling that their next step may be to place new orders. Citi also wrote that Dover’s “potential for margin expansion and disciplined capital allocation, in our view, is underappreciated by the Street and could combine to drive solid EPS growth and margin expansion.” Citi maintained its buy rating on Dover shares, which rose Monday and were less than 3% away from their all-time high of $208 on Nov. 27. HON YTD mountain Honeywell YTD Citi raised its Honeywell price target to $268 from $244 — implying more than 18% upside from Friday’s close. Analysts cited an “increased potential” for Honeywell to deliver better organic revenue growth over time if management continues to reshape its portfolio of far-flung businesses to focus on more profitable segments. “The company, we note, has made good progress in reshaping its portfolio toward secular trends (across aero, automation, and energy transition),” the analysts wrote. City reiterated its buy rating on shares, which fell Monday. The stock was 7% off its all-time high of $242 on Nov. 12. “As shorter-cycle end markets recover/inflect, we view HON as well positioned to deliver more consistent organic growth and margin expansion.” Big picture The Citi research comes as industrials have recently cooled off after surging in November after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Year to date, Eaton is up more than 50%, and Dover is up over 30%. They’re beating the overall S & P 500 ‘s 27% gain year to date, and the industrials sector index ‘s 22% advance over the same stretch. .SPX .GSPI YTD mountain S & P 500 vs. industrials sector YTD Honeywell has been the laggard — up only about 7.5% in 2024. Shares did surge in mid-November after activist investor group Elliott Management started a more than $5 billion position and called for a breakup. Central to the hedge fund’s vision is splitting Honeywell’s aerospace and automation businesses into standalone companies. Bottom line Eaton and Dover are each stellar industrial names, so we’re glad Citi is giving them the recognition they both deserve. They are both good ways to play the AI boom in the industrial sector. Compared to Citi, our price targets on Eaton and Dover are a little more conservative. Like Citi, we see Eaton as a major beneficiary of increased electricity usage. Eaton sells electrical products that are needed to operate data centers so they can handle huge artificial intelligence workloads. After a mixed earnings report on Oct. 31, we kept our 2 rating but boosted our Eaton price target to $375 per share from $350. As for Dover, it makes thermal connectors used in liquid cooling of AI servers. We see sales continuing to rise as a result. Citi also mentioned Dover’s disciplined capital allocation, which we like, too. In July, Dover announced the sale of its Environment Solutions Group business to Terex in a $2 billion all-cash deal. Despite a noisy quarter on Oct 24, we reiterated our 1 rating and price target of $200. Then, there’s Honeywell. Citi analysts cheered Monday for management’s efforts to refocus its sprawling portfolio, but we don’t think the company has come far enough yet. It’s hard to imagine the stock running that much higher long-term without aggressive divestitures. Jim Cramer called for Honeywell to follow Elliott’s recent recommendation to break up. “It’s time for them to redress the way they run the company,” he said Monday. Last week, CEO Vimal Kapur responded to the activist stake, saying Honeywell is “engaged” with Elliott. “We’ll constructively work with them and find the right outcome, which is good for our shareholders and good for our company,” Kapur said at Goldman Sachs’ Industrials and Materials Conference on Thursday. Before Elliott’s stake was known, Honeywell shares pulled back after quarterly results were released. At the time, we reiterated our 1 rating and $235 price target, which is more pessimistic than Citi’s new target. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long ETN, HON, DOV. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. 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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 29, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
