A Better Way to Play Green Stocks?
Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA My Quick Clean Energy Tracking Portfolio continues to outperform all benchmarks and expectations... is it luck, or did I stumble onto a better way to invest in green energy stocks? I continue to be stunned at how the portfolio which I intended as an easy way to duplicate green energy mutual fund performance at much lower cost continues to blow those green mutual funds out of the water. I last published an update on this portfolio at the end of May, and was shocked to find that it had beaten the funds it was...
2020 Hindsight: Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2019
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...
The Peak Coal Portfolio
Last week, we alerted you to a report from Germany's Energy Watch Group called “Coal: Resources and Future Production,��? which predicts peak coal by 2025. Readers of AltEnergyStocks are doubtless familiar with peak oil, the inevitable fact that as we consume a finite resource (oil reserves) at some point the rate of that consumption must peak, and taper off. Serious arguments about peak oil center around "when" oil production (and consumption) will peak, not "if." The same it true for other finite natural resources, such as natural gas, uranium, and even coal. The difference with coal is the received...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2016: Earnings Season
Tom Konrad CFA May was a tough month for most clean energy stocks, even though the broad market was up slightly, but my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2016 model portfolio continued to out-perform, mostly because of strong earnings for several stocks. The model portfolio was up 3.1% for the month and 3.8% for the year to date, even though its clean energy benchmark fell 2.0%, for a decline of 2.8% for the year through May 31st. The broad market of small cap stocks also rose, and was up 2.2% for a total gain of 2.4% for the...
Notes On YieldCos, Future Fuel, and Aspen Aerogels
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Since I have not had much time to write for AltEnegyStocks, I thought I'd share with readers some notes I wrote for investors in the JPS Green Economy Fund, a hedge fund for which I'm director of Research, regarding our holdings in the third quarter: In the third quarter, we took advantage of the general decline of clean energy "YieldCos" to add two of these owners of wind and solar farms to our portfolio at attractive yields. Pattern Energy Group (PEGI) is an owner of wind farms having long term power purchase agreements...
Value Trapped: Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2015, April Update
Tom Konrad CFA My Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2015 model portfolio held on to first quarter gains in April, despite a 29% fall for one of the stocks. (For details on that decline, see the Power REIT (NYSE:PW) section below.) The portfolio as a whole was rescued by the recovering Canadian Dollar and Euro, as well as mild advances for most of the other stocks across the board. That includes a 4.9% gain for TransAlta Renewables (TSX:RNW, OTC:TRSWF), and a 5.8% gain for FutureFuel (NYSE:FF) which I singled out...
You Can’t Love Tesla And Ignore Energy Storage
John Petersen The second quarter was brutal for publicly traded energy storage companies which saw their stock prices fall by an average of 24.1% after a first quarter drubbing of 16.2%. Frankly I'm astonished that investors are chasing a battery-powered IPO like Tesla Motors (TSLA) and ignoring the energy storage technologies that will make EVs possible, and perhaps cost-effective, while making wind, solar and other renewable energy sources stable. At times like these I need to remind myself that energy storage is the beating heart of cleantech and take comfort in the fact that while Goldman Sachs began...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2020: Trades
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...
What’s Going On With Beacon Power and RailPower Tech?
Two diametrically-opposed stories for this post: Beacon Power and RailPower Tech . The latter is up 134% on its week-ago closing price, while the former is down nearly 22% over the same period. Beacon Power Corp I wrote about Beacon Power a little while ago. The recent drop in share price is due in large part to the fact that Beacon announced, last Friday (Dec. 29), a glitch at one of its testing facilities in Massachusetts. This was followed by an analyst at Merriman Curhan Ford downgrading the company from Buy to Hold. Almost immediately, the...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013: January Update
Tom Konrad CFA Clip art by Philip Martin January has been a great month for clean energy stocks, and the stock market as a whole. My clean energy benchmark, the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW), returned 10.9%, while the broad universe of small cap stocks which I benchmark with the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) is up a lesser but still impressive 9.5%. My ten clean energy picks for 2013 (introduced here), are up a...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2018: Terraform, Clearway, and Enviva
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
Last week, I neglected to discuss Terraform Power (NASD: TERP) in the third quarter update on the other ten clean energy stocks for 2018. I did not notice the omission until after the post had been published, so I decided to write a quick follow-up this week after I had a chance to digest the earnings announcements (including TERP's) which were scheduled for later in the week.
Stock discussion
Clearway Energy, Inc (NYSE: CWEN and CWEN/A)
12/31/17 Price: $18.90 / $18.85. Annual Dividend: $1.133(6.0%). Expected 2018 dividend: $1.26(6.7%) Low Target: $14. High Target: $25.
10/31/18 Price: $19.61/$19.42 ...
Calpine Gets Hammered
Shares of Calpine Corp. (CPN) suffered a greater than 20% loss yesterday and is now down almost another 13% today. All of this was caused by a court ruling stating that they will be unable to use the $395 million in cash they received from the sale of oil and gas fields earlier this year for the purpose of buying natural gas to run its power plants. The dispute stems from the Bank of New York's decision in September when, acting as trustee for Calpine bondholders, it withheld proceeds from Calpine's sale in July of North...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks Under Trump (November 2016)
Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA So far, the broad stock market seems to like the idea of a tax and regulation-cutting and infrastructure spending Trump administration and Republican controlled Congress. The bond market is less pleased at the rapidly growing deficits such a "borrow and spend" policy will inevitably entail. While the S&P 500 advanced 3.4% in November, bond funds fell in the face of rising interest rates. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) fell 8.4%. Clean energy stocks were also hurt by the incoming President's climate change skepticism and his promises to undo environmental regulations put...
Trading Alert: AAER Inc. (TSE:AAE)
I took 2 long positions yesterday (1 in my normal trading account and the other in my retirement account) in an emerging Canadian integrator of megawatt-sized wind energy conversion systems (i.e turbines) called AAER Inc . Besides turbine assembly, the company also provides a range of services to clients in the wind industry, ranging from assistance in project planning and financing to post-installation maintenance. Now it must be said from the outset that is a very speculative play on North American wind and not suitable for all investors. I entered one of my positions at C$0.38 and the...
Why I Sold My Utility Stocks
In times like these of financial uncertainty, regulated utilities have traditionally been considered a safe haven. But that is changing. The Dow Jones Utilities Average was down 30% in 2008, vs. a 34% drop in the Dow Industrials. Not much of a safe haven. In a recent interview, utilities analyst Daniel Scotto noted, that the utility industry offers "a lot less security" than it used to. His reasoning is based mainly on the fact that the regulated portion of utility company's business is smaller than it has been in previous recessions, making them vulnerable to lower growth (or even...
Shares in XsunX Inc. Purchased
You may have noticed that I'm starting to buy again. Well I also purchased shares in XSUNX Inc. (XSNX) this morning for my personal portfolio. Marketocracy will not allow me to purchase this stock in the mutual fund since it trades over the counter as a penny stock. The stock has been a strong mover since early September and I have been waiting for a pull back that has never materialized. I decided to purchase a 1/3 position here at this point. XsunX is a development stage company that I have profiled in the past. Since I started...
