Monthly Archives: August 2008

The results of last week's poll: Answer Text Votes % Lithium Technology Corp (LTHU) - Batteries 64 14% Evergreen Solar (ESLR) - Solar PV 62 13% US Geothermal (HTM) - Geothermal 61 13% Ocean Power Tech (OPTT) - Wave Power 49 11% Electro Energy (EEEID) - Batteries 49 11% China Wind Systems (CWSI.OB) - Wind Turbine Parts 47 10% AAER Inc. (AAERF) - Wind...

Linamar (LNR.TO or LIMAF.PK) is a Canadian auto parts designer and manufacturer whose primary customers include GM, Chrysler and Ford. Before you rush to the exits because of their exposure to the North American auto industry, consider the following. Often, cyclical downturns beat a stock down far more than is deserved. We've seen it over the years with home builders, as discussed here, and we've discussed here how cyclical downturns offer opportunities for value investors to buy companies while they're cheap. Many will argue that this is in fact a secular downturn for a company like Linamar. However,...

Question from a Reader: (links mine, in case you have not read the articles I think he's referring to) Hi, I'm a very small time investor and I have a strong longterm belief in the alt energy sector. I have one gripe with the sector, though - the fact that it's hard to get in all the way at the bottom, ie: from the birth of companies. I have a feeling that much more growth will happen at that level, and investing in something like ICLN gets me into mature companies that have much less growth potential.  ...

Even though solar - and especially solar PV - has managed to capture the lion's share of public equity investors' attention over the past three years, wind remains far more competitive with with fossil-fired power generation on a cost basis than solar, and thus presents a fundamentally stronger investment case for the time being (and I emphasize for the time being). What's more, wind as an industry is more mature than solar; for solar, the lack of earnings for many companies and the wildly inflated PEs for others make the sector potentially volatile and risky for investors. While...

On Monday, Michael Graham Richard at TreeHugger told us that Toyota was boosting production of the Prius by 70% next year. This follows on the footsteps of Ford announcing plans to nix production of trucks in North America and retool factories to make smaller cars typically sold in Europe. The thing to note about such commitments is that they have to be anchored in pretty credible forecasts. It's one thing for pundits on CNBC to tell you where they think the price of oil is going based on a 20-day moving average. It's quite another for a global business...