Tag: Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (HASI)

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Why Green Buildings are Profitable Buildings Buildings are responsible for approximately a third of greenhouse gas emissions, so making buildings more efficient and switching them to renewable sources of energy is an essential part in addressing climate change. Fortunately, new technologies such as cold climate heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, as well as the ever falling cost of renewable electricity and improvements to insulation and building envelopes often provide opportunities to improve buildings while achieving extremely attractive investment returns from the energy and maintenance savings alone. Because of the great financial returns, building owners who...

By Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA Here are two more updates from last week on Patreon.  Also, I realize I neglected to publish the monthly performance chart for my 10 Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio here at the start of the month, so here it is as well: Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Earnings (published May 11th) Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure (AY) released its first quarter earnings announcement and financial statements on May 6th. Atlantica is one of the higher yielding Yieldcos, 5.3% at the new quarterly dividend rate of $0.43 and a $32.50 stock price.  The dividend is safe, since most of Atlantica's debt is fixed rate,...

by Tom Konrad, Ph.D. CFA Two more earnings notes I shared with my Patreon followers on February 18th. Covanta Holdings (CVA) Leading waste-to-energy firm Covanta Holdings (CVA) announced 2020 earnings today.  There will be a conference call tomorrow morning, but here is my high-level impression: The company managed well through Covid and ended the year within it's original pre-covid guidance.  Metals and energy prices, as well as increased maintenance capital expenditures were a drag on results, but  prices are improving and capital expenditures will fall in 2021. The company is conducting a strategic review which will likely result in the sale of some underperforming...

by Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA Market Decline Last week I warned "The risks in today's stock market outweigh the possibility of future potential gains."  Looks like we're seeing those risks manifest in short order.  The last couple days' decline have me looking at a few stocks to start adding to my positions again, especially MiX Telematics (MIXT) discussed on June 2nd and Green Plain Partners (GPP), discussed below. Note that this pullback could easily be very early days of a much larger market decline.  We might even see the market fall far enough to test the March lows... any of my buying...

With the market's rapid rebound from March lows and the Nasdaq Composite stock index closing higher than it was at the end of last year, many of us are probably asking ourselves: Did I miss my chance to buy at the lows?  or: Will I ever make up for my losses? These questions point to dangerous emotions for stock market investors.  Fear of missing out often leads to investment mistakes.  This is why investment advisors always tell their clients that they are better off not looking at their portfolios in a downturn. A big loss makes some people want to sell everything, for fear...

by Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA Of the few survivors of the dot com bust, Ebay (EBAY) is a perennial also-ran.  It owned the market for consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions in 2000, but has since repeatedly lost market share.  Nevertheless, the company remains a profitable business that enables the sustainable reuse of easy to ship items while returning cash to investors. Note: My supporters on Patreon got an early look at this article.  Want to support my work and get previews of my writing?  Join them here. The Competition for Sellers In the early 2000s, Ebay lost sellers to Amazon's (AMZN) marketplace, which had the...

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Four weeks ago, I predicted that the 12% market correction we had seen would turn into a true bear market.  Bear markets are often defined as a decline of more than 20% for the major market indexes, but I find it more useful to focus on long term changes in investor sentiment. What I did not predict was just how severe the effect of the coronovirus shutdown would be on the economy.  I thought we would need the combined of the effect of the shutdown and investors re-assessing their risk tolerance to bring us into full...

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Sometimes it's good to be wrong. When I published the Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2019 model portfolio on New Year's Day 2019, I thought we were likely in the beginning of a bear market.  With 20/20 hindsight, that was obviously wrong. I made the following predictions and observations: "he clean energy income stocks which are my focus should outperform riskier growth stocks."  "eep value investors will put a floor under the stock prices of these ten stocks." "I could also be wrong about the future course of this market."  "I have a history...

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Although valuations and political uncertainty have me spooked, October was another strong month for the stock market in general and clean energy income stocks in particular. While my broad income stock benchmark SDY added 1.6% for a year to date total gain of 19.6%.  My clean energy income stock benchmark YLCO did even better, 2.7% for October and 29.7% year to date.  The 10 Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio fell somewhere in between for the month (up 1.8%) but remains unchallenged for the year to date (40.7%).   My real-money managed strategy, GGEIP, lagged as I reduce...

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA July 2019 was “marginally” the warmest month on record. Meanwhile, the stock market was also inching to new highs, and the real, sweltering evidence of climate change continues to let clean energy income stocks turn in a blistering performance. While my broad income stock benchmark SDY was up 16.0% through the end of July (0.9% for the month), my clean energy income stock benchmark YLCO is up 23.4% through July (0.4% for the month,)  My 10 Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio is up 28.3% (1.3%) and my real-money managed strategy, GGEIP, is up 26.4% (1.2%) for...

I missed my regular monthly update in early June because of vacation. In hindsight, early June looks like it was a good buying opportunity. The broad market of dividend stocks (represented by my benchmark SDY) falling six percent in May, only to rebound a similar amount in June. At the time, I would have continued to advise caution: “Sell the peaks” rather than “Buy the dips.” Particularly volatile stocks like European autoparts supplier Valeo (FR.PA) from this list would have generated even greater short term gains. But it would take more than a six percent market decline to transform this bear...

In April, my 10 clean energy stocks model portfolio continued to power ahead, despite the concerns about market valuation I expressed last month.  As I said at the time "me being nervous about the market is not much of an indicator that stocks are going to fall" at least in the short term.  So I continue to trim winning positions and increase my allocation to cash as stocks advance. Both the model portfolio and the Green Global Equity Income Portfolio (GGEIP) were up 4.5% and 3.6% respectively in April.  This was solidly ahead of their clean energy income benchmark YLCO...

The first quarter of 2019 saw the market's largest quarterly gain in a decade, and my 10 clean energy stocks model portfolio outperformed both the broad market and the clean energy income ETF I use as a benchmark (see chart above.) Performance that strong makes me nervous, especially since the last time we saw gains like these it was the stock market rebound from the financial crisis.  In this case, while the market was down in the last quarter of 2018, it had only been enough of a decline to blow a little of the foam off the top of...

It's hard to find anything to complain about in the first two month's performance of my 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2019 model portfolio.  Unfortunately, I'm about to go on vacation and don't have time to do an update on all the earnings reports that have come out over the last two weeks.  I will try to get to them individually as I have time. Strategically, I'd like to say I'm getting very nervous about this market rally, and think that readers should be taking profits opportunistically and increasing your cash positions.

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Looking forward to 2019, I'm more optimistic than I have been since the start of 2016, in the wake of the popping of the YieldCo Bubble in late 2015. The bear market that started in late 2018 seems like it's far from over, but I expect in early 2019 will see it enter a less chaotic phase.  After the wild declines and swings of late 2018, I expect investors will begin the new year with an eye to safety more than growth.  This means that the clean energy income stocks which are my focus should outperform...

This is a list of renewable and alternative energy stocks with dividend or distribution yields above 4%.  The list includes most Yieldcos (high distribution companies that own renewable energy operations), but is not limited to Yieldcos. Some Yieldcos may be excluded if their yield is below 4%. Atlantica Yield plc (AY) Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (AQN, AQN.TO) Bluefield Solar Income Fund Ltd. (BSIF.L) Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEP) Clearway Energy, Inc. (CWEN,CWEN-A) Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CIG) Covanta Holding Corporation (CVA) Crius Energy Trust (KWH-UN.TO, CRIUF) Enviva Partners, LP (EVA) Foresight Solar Fund plc (FSFL.L) GATX Corporation Series A (GMTA) Global X YieldCo ETF (YLCO) Greencoat UK Wind PLC (UKW.L) Green...