As northeast U.S. air quality suffers from wildfires, some potential stock ideas
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images News
Millions of people across the U.S. and Canada have been under air quality alerts and warnings, as smoke from Canadian wildfires has smothered northeastern U.S. cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., in recent weeks, even reaching Chicago and parts of the Midwest.
As residents struggle to cope with the hazy conditions, demand for air purifiers has been surging, reports say.
Raymond James analyst Olivia Tong recently raised her FY 2024 adjusted earnings and core sales estimates for Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE), citing demand for Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON) air purifiers.
Tong said the higher estimates "reflect our expectation for higher sales of Honeywell (HON) air purifiers as a result of the Canadian wildfires, partly offset by an expectation for increased promotion due to muted demand in home-related categories," Tong wrote, adding that in previous years, California wildfires led to an estimated $30M sales boost for Helen of Troy (HELE).
As more wildfires burn out of control throughout the world, "products and services that prevent or extinguish major fires will continue to be in demand," according to ETF specialist ProcureAM, whose Procure Disaster Recovery Strategy ETF's (FIXT) holdings include companies involved in wildfire response, prevention and recovery.
Examples include specialist vehicle manufacturer REV Group (REVG), fire truck maker Oshkosh (OSK), infrastructure consulting firm AECOM (ACM) and risk analytics technology provider Verisk Analytics (VRSK).
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