By Al Root
Shares of cooling technologies provider Madison Air are hot. Wall Street sees more gains coming.
The maker of " Big Ass Fans" and other cooling technologies sold shares at $27 apiece in an initial public offering on April 15, raising about $2.2 billion and valuing the company north of $13 billion. Shares started trading the next day and closed at $31.75. They entered the week at $42.02, up 56% from the IPO price.
Wall Street brokers involved in an IPO typically wait a few weeks before publishing research on a new company, which also means investors get a bevy of ratings all at once.
Monday was that day for Madison. Now, eight analysts cover the company, according to FactSet. Six, or 75%, rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%.
Madison stock was up 1.1% at $42.62 in early trading, while the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.2%.
The average analyst price target is about $47, up 12% from recent levels. The top target price is $50, from Vertical Research Partners analyst Jeff Sprague, up almost 20% from recent levels.
"Madison Air is a high-quality/highly profitable HVAC pure-play," wrote RBC analyst Deane Dray in a Monday report, adding that it has "critical mass" with $3.5 billion in annual sales and attractive profit margins. "Datacenter, 12% of revenues, is its fastest-growth business."
He rates shares Buy and has a $48 price target. Baird analyst Tim Wojs rates shares Buy. His price target is also $48.
"We think Madison Air possesses several attributes to be a long-term outperformer, including a differentiated/niche business model that delivers industry-leading margins/free cash flow, an expanding total addressable market, multiple avenues for growth, and a track record of value-accretive capital deployment," wrote Wojs on Monday.
Madison's strategic mantra is " return on air." The company tries not to sell just HVAC hardware, but rather outcomes enabled by efficient cooling and air-handling systems. That philosophy has led them to build "highly engineered, custom solutions."
Wall Street has bought into the strategy and sees a winning stock for investors to consider.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 11, 2026 10:51 ET (14:51 GMT)
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