New York, Feb 20, 2026, 15:37 EST — Regular session.
- Shares rose about 6% in afternoon trade after the contractor posted a sharp jump in profit and a record backlog.
- Comfort Systems lifted its quarterly dividend to $0.70 per share.
- Investors are watching whether data-center-driven demand keeps turning into signed work and cash.
Comfort Systems USA, Inc. shares rose about 6% on Friday, extending gains after the heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor reported record backlog and raised its quarterly dividend. At 3:37 p.m. EST, the stock was up $82.21 at $1,455.73, after earlier touching $1,468.19.
That matters now because investors have treated Comfort Systems as a rough read on the data-center buildout, where power and cooling work has been feeding multi-year construction schedules.
Backlog is work under contract that has not yet been booked as revenue; it is one of the first numbers traders check for visibility.
In a Feb. 19 release filed with the SEC, the Houston-based company said fourth-quarter net income rose to $330.8 million, or $9.37 per share, from $145.9 million, or $4.09 per share, a year earlier, as revenue climbed to $2.65 billion. Backlog at Dec. 31 was $11.94 billion, up from $9.38 billion at the end of September; CEO Brian Lane said, “Backlog is just under $12 billion, and it has roughly doubled since the beginning of the year.”
On a conference call on Friday, executives said technology work, largely data centers, made up 45% of 2025 revenue, up from 33% in 2024. They also said modular work — prefabricated building systems assembled off-site — is running at about 3 million square feet of capacity and is targeted to reach about 4 million by the end of 2026. (The Motley Fool)
Separately, the board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.70 per share, a 10-cent increase, and said it will be paid on March 17.
Other contractors were also higher: EMCOR Group rose about 1.2%, MYR Group gained about 4.6% and Primoris Services added about 2.2%. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF was up about 0.6% and the Invesco QQQ was up about 0.8%.
“A very strong fourth-quarter result was necessary to sustain this momentum, and the company did not disappoint,” wrote William Blair analyst Tim Mulrooney. (Investors)
But the run-up has left little room for error. Barron’s said Comfort Systems’ forward price-to-earnings multiple — a valuation metric based on expected earnings — has climbed to around 43, making the shares sensitive to any cooling in bookings or margin pressure. (Barron’s)
Investors now look for signs that the record backlog turns into revenue without straining labor and project execution. The next marker is the March 6 record date for the higher dividend, a filing showed. (Securities and Exchange Commission)
