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Wildfires Disrupt Earnings Across S&P 500, From Insurance to Energy Drinks

LA blazes spark financial fallout in unexpected corners of corporate America, revealing the growing operational risks of climate extremes

Author

Louie Woodall
April 24, 2025

AI-generated via DALL-E

TL;DR

  • Over 100 S&P 500 companies referenced "fire" or "wildfire" in earnings calls between January and end-March, with several reporting operational or financial impacts from the Los Angeles blazes specifically

  • Insurance firms like Marsh McLennan and AJ Gallagher flagged LA wildfire-related insured losses as among the costliest ever, while utilities like Edison face ongoing stock price volatility and potential litigation exposure.

  • Companies across sectors — from real estate to engineering — increasingly highlight climate resilience as part of risk mitigation or growth strategy, signaling it’s becoming a boardroom priority

  • Beyond the LA wildfires, other major weather disruptions had an airing — hurricanes, snowstorms, and abnormal weather featured heavily, with companies like CSX, Charter, and Walgreens noting damage, disconnections, or softer demand

  • Executives at Jacobs Solutions, Veralto, and CME Group see opportunity in the growing demand for climate-resilient infrastructure, water tech, and weather-related financial products, suggesting a long-tail revenue theme

The Los Angeles wildfires monopolized headlines at the start of the year. The blazes upended thousands of lives and consumed over 19,000 buildings, throwing one of the economic hubs of the US — and the world at large — into tumult. 

It’s no wonder that the LA wildfires were a major topic in S&P 500 earnings calls last quarter. What is surprising, however, is just how many different types of companies were affected — including some you wouldn’t expect. Why did an energy drinks company take a hit from the disaster? And what explains the revenue dip projected by a self-storage firm following the post-fire “State of Emergency” declaration?

The latest edition of Climate Proof’s S&P 500 Climate Physical Risk Signals teases out the operational and financial impacts to large companies from climate-related disasters, as told by their top executives. It also surfaces the climate resilience actions talked about on earnings calls. Such insights may be of value to adaptation-minded investors, who want to understand the steps companies are taking steps to shield themselves from climate shocks and capitalize on adaptation opportunities.

The study covered all earnings transcripts from S&P 500 companies for the period January 1 to March 31. Each transcript was searched for mentions of specific climate risks — ‘hurricane’, ‘storm’, ‘flood’ and the like — as well as for ‘adapt’ and ‘resilience’, to discern whether any companies talked about hardening themselves against climate shocks using these terms. Excerpts around the located keywords were extracted and manually reviewed to ensure their climate relevance.

⬇️Scroll to the bottom of the article to download a slide deck with 25 key executives’ quotes on the physical risks they dealt with last quarter

▶️ Premium members can also explore all the excerpts over at the S&P 500 Climate Physical Risk Signals Data Dashboard HERE

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