Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2014: Patience Rewarded
Tom Konrad CFA For both the stock market and the weather, March was more lion than lamb. My broad market benchmark fell 2.2% to end up 1.5% for the quarter. Volatile clean energy stocks were down 4%, to end the quarter up 15.7%. My annual Ten Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio is designed to avoid much of the sector's notorious volatility, and fell only 0.6%, ending the quarter with a 3.9% total return. In dollar terms, the first six (income oriented) picks returned an average...
Restarting 10 Clean Energy Stocks Series
By Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
With the launch of my (green dividend income focused) hedge fund early this year, I had to take a hiatus from publishing my annual list of 10 Clean Energy Stocks that I feel will do well in the coming year. Since my duty to clients takes precedence over readers, I could not tell people about stocks I liked before buying them for the fund.
As we complete the first half of the year, the fund is now largely invested, although I am still keeping some buying power back in anticipation that the overall market could easily...
November Update: What Will The Election Bring for Clean Energy Stocks?
11 Clean Energy Stocks for 2012 Tom Konrad CFA October Overview October brought a gentle fall to my Clean Energy model portfolio, and a slightly-less gentle decline for the clean energy sector and the stock market as a whole. Both the unhedged and hedged versions of my model portfolio fell 2.3% for the month, compared to a 4.1% decline for the widely held Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF (PBW), which I use as a benchmark for the clean energy sector as a whole, and a 4.0%...
Four American Stocks for the Next Economy
Garvin Jabusch The Green Alpha Advisors' approach to portfolio management utilizes a top-down macroeconomic model reflecting how global economies will evolve to meet demands presented by modern challenges such as resource scarcity, growing populations, land and food management, atmospheric carbon and extreme weather, to name a few. These emerging challenges are daunting, but fortunately, society is answering and acting to preserve our economies and way of life with a new wave of innovation, the like of which has not been seen since the information technology revolution of the 1990s and the industrial revolution before that. The...
The Four Best Peak Oil Investments
Tom Konrad CFA The best four stocks I've found in my six month quest to find the best peak oil investments. I apologize for being a tease. Since March, I've been writing this series I've called "The Best Peak Oil Investments," but in many cases what I've actually done is to warn readers to stay away from particular sectors. This bait-and-switch was compounded for my syndicated readers at Seeking Alpha when their editors decided to re-title the early articles in this series "Peak Oil Investments I'm Putting My Money On." If you've stuck...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013: February Update
Tom Konrad CFA Clip Art by Phillip Martin February was a month of consolidation after blistering January returns in clean energy stocks, and the market in general. My clean energy benchmark, the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW), declined 2.2%, while the broad universe of small cap stocks which I benchmark with the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) eked out a 0.6% gain. My ten clean energy picks for 2013 (introduced ...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2014: August Update
Tom Konrad CFA July was a hard month for the stock market and clean energy stocks in particular. My broad market benchmark of small cap stocks, IWM, fell 7% and is down 2.7% for the year, while my clean energy benchmark PBW fell 9% and has slid into the red for the first time. It is down 0.1% for the year to date. The mostly defensive stocks in my 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2014 model portfolio fared relatively well, but they were still...
Trade Like It’s 2008
Tom Konrad CFA Three stocks I sold recently, and why. Three years later, I'm still kicking myself that the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and stock market collapse took me by surprise. Not that I wasn't in good company. If a majority of investors had been prepared for the crisis, it would never have happened in the first place: The overpriced CDOs and other securities which were a large part of the cause would never have become overpriced. But making excuses for past mistakes is not useful. Learning from them...
Sixteen Clean Energy Stocks, Two Months
Tom Konrad CFA As I discussed in the first part of this update, this part will discuss the drivers behind the performance of the individual stocks in my Ten Clean energy Stocks for 2013 and six alternative picks. I looked into the performance of the portfolio as a whole in part I. The chart below summarizes individual stock performance. Note that it reflects two more days of trading since I wrote part I. Waterfurnace Renewable Energy (TSX:WFI, OTC:WFIFF) Geothermal heat pump manufacturer Waterfurnace rose 25% but not on any significant news. ...
Make or Break Time
The markets have been in flux the last couple of weeks. I feel we are at a make or break time for the general trend of the market. Yesterday the S&P 500 was trying to close above the 200 day Moving Average but it failed. A close above this level will give me good reason to start investing some money again. Today the markets are down again and when you look at the S&P the 1210 level looks to be some solid resistance. People may wonder why I'm so concerned about the very short term trend of...
10 Clean Energy Stocks For 2016
Tom Konrad CFA The History and Future of the "10 Clean Energy Stocks" Model Portfolios 2016 will be the eighth and possibly final year I publish a list of ten clean energy stocks I expect to do well in the coming year. This series has evolved from a simple, off-the-cuff list in 2008, to a full blown model portfolio, with predetermined benchmarks and monthly updates on performance and significant news for the 10 stocks. While there is much overlap between the model portfolio and my own holdings (both personal and in managed accounts), the model...
December Update: 11 Clean Energy Stocks for 2012
Tom Konrad CFA What the Election Brought to Energy Stocks Obama's reelection did not bring on a new bull market for Clean Energy stocks, as some had hoped. My Clean Energy model portfolio was flat (+0.4%) for the month, while the widely held Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF (PBW) fell 1.6%. In contrast, the broad market, as measured by the Russell 2000 ETF, (IWM) rose 1.1%. If Obama's re-election had a strong effect on any energy sector, it was coal stocks: the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) was down 8.5% over the same...
Alternative Energy Stocks Portfolio Update
It's been six weeks since I last provided readers with an update on the Paper Portfolio. According to the guidelines I laid out there, stocks are added to the portfolio when Chares or I mention them positively for the first time (leaving out ones for which Yahoo! finance does not have historical data, which are mostly pink sheet stocks.) Here are the ones we've added since then. Stock Article Date Added Price Price 9/5/07 DOW Investing in energy Efficient Homes 7/24/07 $47.20 $42.20 OC Investing in energy Efficient Homes 7/24/07 $33.00 $24.26 ...
Two Canadian IPPs For Your Portfolio
Most alternative energy investors are aware of North American wind power's very bright growth prospects. In past articles, we discussed encouraging projections for the US and Canadian (PDF document) wind markets between now and 2015. While onshore European capacity is fast being exhausted, North America is only beginning its foray into wind and some major capex can be expected in this space over the coming years. Besides solid expected growth, another phenomenon is currently impacting the wind industry; consolidation. This is a global movement that is affecting all of the power gen sector, and that has no-doubt been...
Valeo February Update (Ten Clean Energy Stocks)
I'm trying something different and doing quick updates on individual stocks in my 10 Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio as I have time to write. The portfolio as a whole has been accelerating with the instant torque of an electric vehicle this year (details here.) I thought I'd start with the company that's newest to my readers,
Valeo SA (FR.PA, VLEEF)
12/31/18 Price: €25.21/$28.20. Annual Dividend: €1.25. Expected 2019 dividend: €1.25. 03/4/19 price: €29.13/$33.00. YTD gain: 15.5% Euro/ 12.8% USD.
I added this stock to the portfolio because it has great technology and and improving market share, but weak industry growth and overoptimistic management projections in 2018...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2017: Summer Harvest
Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
Colossal Fossil Failure
With a president actively hostile towards renewable energy and focused on promoting fossil fuels, it would be easy to think that clean energy stocks would underperform their fossil cousins. The exact opposite has been true. Despite the administrations' efforts and tweets bragging about new highs for the Dow, energy funds are down over 10% for the year. For example, the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE), largely composed of oil and gas companies, is down 13% for the year. The tiny coal sector did better, with the VanEck Vectors Coal ETF up 18%.
Even so, Trump's...
