June 9, 2025
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Lehigh Valley stocks have not roared in 2025.
That’s not a surprise; the S&P 500 is up just 2% year-to-date, and the Dow 30 companies are up 1%. Still, it’s been a drab year in the region.
That reflects the national economy, with concerns about inflation, sporadic tariff policy, long-overdue worry about the national deficit and the potential for a recession.
I believe in shopping at home, and I will disclose stakes in local companies even though it’s painful at times.
First, let’s look at the three New York Stock Exchange-traded companies with headquarters in the region.
Air Products (NYSE:APD) has been a dud, not just this year but for years. The closing price was $279.78 on Friday, down from $286.52 at the end of 2024. The Upper Macungie Township-based maker of industrial gases has been a long-term laggard.
New management forced out old management and big promises were made, but while it’s early, the results are undeniable. The stock price has not moved. Air Products pays a 2.56% dividend yield, so it’s not blowing the doors off on holder return either.
Making big changes at a company valued at about $63 billion isn’t easy, to be sure. I own shares in Air Products. I have watched it do nothing for years.
Shift4 has been through a lot in 2025. Founder and now-former Chief Executive Jared Isaacman was supposed to be in charge of NASA by now, but the Trump administration pulled his nomination. That helped lead to the Trump/Elon Musk split that dominates the news.
Isaacman will remain with the payment-processing company as executive chairman, and Taylor Lauber has stepped up to CEO from the presidency at the Upper Saucon Township-based firm.
At $94.40 on Friday, the stock is down about 9% from the end of last year. Shift4 does not pay a dividend. I used to own Shift4. It did pretty well, but I missed getting out at the $127.50/share 52-week high. The company’s mantra is “profitable growth,” that is, it seeks growth but doesn’t want to add market share unless that gain leads to making more money.
Next, good old dependable PPL. At $34.04 on Friday, the Allentown-based utility (NYSE:PPL) is up more than 5% from the end of 2024, and its dividend yield is 3.2%. This makes it the star of the Lehigh Valley NYSE Three.
PPL might get more interesting as it seeks to add data-center clients. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will use lots of energy, ideally leaving enough for the rest of us to keep our phones charged. Yes, I own shares in PPL.
Beyond the Big Three, we then get to OraSure. Unfortunately. The little Bethlehem-based maker of diagnostic kits flounders along. Closing price Friday, $2.89, down from $3.73 at the end of last year.
Nothing this company does seem to help. Not a small acquisition announced in December, and not what I consider to be an ill-conceived buyback this year. It looks like OraSure needs some bigger company to come along and make its day.
For years, OraSure has consistently done one thing: destroy investors’ wealth.
I’m going to skip over the small local banks, because trading is light. We do have some companies that are big in the area but based elsewhere.
That includes Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO). I bought shares a few years ago in the Massachusetts-based maker of medical and laboratory equipment and it was one of the worst moves I’ve made.
No matter how upbeat CEO Marc N. Casper is during earnings calls, Thermo Fisher rarely fails to disappoint investors. It has zigzagged up and down since the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly down. Friday’s price: $401.90, down more than $100 per share since the end of 2024. I will take a loss and get out soon.
Prologis is big in the Lehigh Valley, with about 30 million square feet of warehouse space. The San Francisco-based company pays a dividend yield of 3.7%, and since the end of 2024, is up about 4% at Friday’s closing price of $108.79.
I’ve owned this stock for a long time and it’s not a barnburner but has been steady. It is down from its highs of about four years ago.
There are other companies with a lot of local employees, such as Walmart and Starbucks, and McDonald’s franchises employ many people, but I have to draw the line somewhere.
It’s fair to say that so, far 2025 has not been a good year for shareholders in locally based big companies.
At what points will boards of directors and shareholders demand more? At OraSure and Thermo, that may be overdue. Air Products and Shift4 have reasons for uneven performance, and PPL chugs along.
Shopping at home may seem public-spirited, but it doesn’t always pay off.
— A note on disclosures: I work for myself, so I don’t have to disclose anything, but as a matter of principle I’ll note when I own stakes in companies mentioned in the blog. I don’t have enough shares or anywhere near enough clout to influence the prices, but it’s a good practice anyway.
In addition to the local companies, I own shares in two of the other companies mentioned, McDonald’s and Starbucks.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 