EMCOR spent $1.6 billion on electricians and issued no press release

A spree without a press release

EMCOR Group▲+1.44% — EMCOR Group, up 1.44 percent today has spent roughly $1.6 billion buying electrical contractors since February 2025: $876.8 million for Miller Electric, then about $750 million this year for five shops, B&B, Sidney, Giles, Schmidt and Connelly Electric ¹²⁶. Not one of the 2026 purchases has drawn a press release ³. Miller got two, an agreement notice and a closing notice, in January and February 2025 ³.

The 2026 newsroom holds dividends, earnings dates and investor events ³. EDGAR shows no 8-K since July 31, 2026↗, and that filing reported a mine-safety order at a Texas subsidiary ⁴⁵. The spree lived in a footnote ⁶.

The filings do the announcing

The July 30 quarterly report↗ carries what the newsroom skipped: two electrical contractors closed in July, two more under signed agreement in Texas and the Midwest, roughly $700 million upfront across the four, after $99.8 million for four smaller deals in the first half ⁶. Nine other 2025 deals cost $182.3 million ⁶.

The five 2026 shops carry about $750 million upfront against $625 million of trailing revenue and $105 million of EBITDA to June 2026, guided to add $250–275 million of second-half revenue while intangible amortization mutes near-term earnings ¹. Anthony Guzzi called them "recent and pending" on July 30↗ ⁷.

Seven times in, twenty-six times out

On those figures the 2026 deals cost about seven times trailing EBITDA, against a stock at 25.7 times trailing earnings and 22.4 times 2027 estimates ². The bases differ: EBITDA sits before depreciation and tax, earnings after both, so the true spread is narrower than the headline. The direction survives: at $789.45 a share on the 44.1 million shares the July filing counts, the market values EMCOR near $35 billion ⁶⁹.

Rivals are bidding for the same crews

The crews are the scarce input. Microsoft▲+2.33% — Microsoft, up 2.33 percent today president Brad Smith put the national need near half a million new electricians over a decade ⁸. The auction has other bidders: Quanta Services, already holding Cupertino Electric, has added Phalcon and Enerfab; Comfort Systems bought Hunt Electric, Feyen Zylstra and Meisner Electric and grew electrical revenue 81.2 percent in the second quarter; Dycom paid about $1.95 billion for Power Solutions to enter data-center electrical work ¹⁸.

One trade is 45 percent of the book

Network and communications work, mostly data centers, is 45 percent of EMCOR's record $17.14 billion order book, up 43.9 percent in a year, and 58 percent of second-quarter electrical segment revenue ²⁷. One research estimate puts half the whole business in data centers ⁸.

Execution is the catch. Electrical margins slid from 13.4 to 12.1 percent during the 2025 expansion before recovering to 13.9 percent in the second quarter ²⁷, and goodwill and intangibles sit near a quarter of assets ²⁶. Revenue has still grown near 20 percent for three straight quarters ¹¹.

Q3 is the first clean number

The quarter due late October, with no date set as of October 11 against a October 16 notice a year earlier ³, is the first to consolidate all five deals. Management raised full-year guidance on July 30 to $20.00–20.50 billion of revenue and $32.00–33.25 of diluted EPS ²⁷. UBS told clients on October 9 to expect continued growth and margin strength↗ ⁹¹⁰, and the average analyst target of $1,033 sits about 31 percent above the close ⁹.

The roll-up has been priced before it has printed a single quarter. Watch the electrical margin, not the revenue line: buying crews is the easy part.