UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Upgrades Generac Holdings as Strong Execution Offsets a Post-Storm Lull

In a report published Monday, Goldman Sachs analyst Jerry Revich upgraded the rating on Generac Holdings GNRC from Sell to Neutral, and raised the price target from $32.00 to $49.00. In the report, Goldman Sachs noted, “We upgrade GNRC to Neutral from Sell. Our Sell rating was predicated on an organic growth downturn in 2014 driven by declining post-storm generator demand following a 120% increase in two years. However, we clearly underestimated the impact of Generac's 25% increase in distributors and other initiatives that are driving a baseline level of demand that's 25% above our prior estimates and down only 7% from a 2013 peak compared to 30% declines following similar outage events in prior years. Since we added GNRC to the Sell List on 2/15/13, the stock is up 33% vs. S&P +16%.” Generac Holdings closed on Friday at $50.44.