Guides
Electrical contractors beyond the obvious
The contractors worth studying in 2027 are the ones whose public filings show how they price, staff and carry risk across many jurisdictions.
What to take away
- Four US names file audited numbers worth reading line by line: Quanta Services, EMCOR Group, MYR Group and IES Holdings.
- Six others, including Rosendin, Cupertino Electric and M.C. Dean, are private. Study their project records and safety history instead of an income statement.
- Outside the US, VINCI Energies, SPIE, Balfour Beatty, Aecon, Kandenko and Larsen & Toubro work under rulebooks other than the NEC.
- Pull every figure from the filing yourself.
Why a filing beats any shortlist
A shortlist tells you who is large. A filing tells you where the money came from. Listed contractors must disclose segment revenue and backlog every quarter, which is the closest the trade has to an audited pricing model.
Quanta Services (PWR), EMCOR Group (EME), MYR Group (MYRG) and IES Holdings (IESC) each file a Form 10-K once a year and a Form 10-Q each quarter. Backlog definitions differ by company, so read the note that defines the term before comparing two of them.
Most electrical work sits inside private firms. There you rely on project announcements, trade press and safety records. That evidence is thinner than a filed statement, and you should treat it as thinner.
Market cycles behind these companies are mapped in the expansion and market guide, which explains why utility and data centre demand move on different clocks.
The names, and the line to read in each
Eight names, four of them listed. Each row points to one line item and one signal for 2027.
| Company | Main market | Line item to read | 2027 signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quanta Services (PWR) | Utility transmission, pipeline, renewables | Electric Power Infrastructure segment revenue | Grid replacement and interconnection queues |
| EMCOR Group (EME) | Electrical, mechanical, industrial services | Remaining performance obligations | Data centre fit-out against service revenue |
| MYR Group (MYRG) | Transmission and commercial electrical | Backlog by segment and contract type | Conversion speed on fixed-price work |
| IES Holdings (IESC) | Regional electrical and technology | Segment operating income | Integration of acquired brands |
| Rosendin | Commercial and industrial electrical | Employee ownership reporting | Retention through ownership |
| Cupertino Electric | Data centre and high-tech | Named project awards | Customer concentration |
| M.C. Dean | Integrated electrical and technology | Federal award notices | Low-voltage scope sold with power |
| Faith Technologies | Electrical, engineering, prefabrication | Prefabrication capacity reporting | Labour hours per installed unit |
Quanta, EMCOR and MYR Group split their revenue differently, and each segment note shows how.
Contractor Focus and Study Angle
Quanta Services
- Main work
- Utility transmission
- What to study
- Segment mix shifts
EMCOR Group
- Main work
- Electrical and mechanical
- What to study
- Service vs construction balance
MYR Group
- Main work
- Transmission and commercial
- What to study
- Backlog conversion
Rosendin is employee owned, so its retention record is the thing to study. Cupertino Electric shows what happens when one customer class supplies most of the work. M.C. Dean shows how low-voltage and power scope can be sold as one package.
US work of this kind is priced against NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code, which sets the material and inspection baseline.
Example: reading one segment note
Reading one segment note
- Open the company's most recent 10-K on SEC EDGAR.
- Find the segment note inside the financial statements.
- Compare the current year column with the prior year column, segment by segment.
- Apply the stated segment margin to the change to see which part moved the total.
- Read the backlog note to see how much of next year's revenue is already signed.
Backlog is signed work, not collected cash. Typical range, and not a cited figure: utility-scale builders report backlog in the billions of dollars, while regional commercial contractors report it in the low hundreds of millions.
Pricing those contracts is a separate exercise. The pricing and profit guide works through contract type, markup and change orders in that order.
Outside the US: five markets, five rulebooks
| Market | Wiring rule | Regulator or standards body | Names to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | Canadian Electrical Code, Part I, amended province by province | Provincial authorities; Ontario applies it through O. Reg. 164/12 | Aecon Group, Bird Construction |
| United Kingdom | BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations | Health and Safety Executive for enforcement | Balfour Beatty, NG Bailey |
| France | NF C 15-100 | CONSUEL for inspection and certification | VINCI Energies, SPIE |
| Japan | JEAC 8001, the Japanese Electrical Installation Code | Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry | Kandenko, Kyudenko |
| India | IS 732 and the National Electrical Code of India | Bureau of Indian Standards; Central Electricity Authority | Larsen & Toubro, KEC International |
Canada matters most to a US reader, because the work looks familiar while the material list does not. Ontario Regulation 164/12 applies the code with provincial amendments, so a Toronto bid is not a Buffalo bid with a different currency sign.
Benchmarking your own shop
The profit margins and break-even breakdown shows how to compute gross margin per job and per crew day. Sort your last twenty jobs by contract type before you compare anything.
That internal table tells you which contract types you should be selling. The named companies tell you only which types exist. Different questions, different sources.
Rerun the comparison quarterly, because contract mix drifts as your customer base changes.
