Four Picks and Shovels Stocks
by Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
The last three months of 2020 brought an explosion in clean energy stock prices.
Solar stocks (as measured by the Invesco Solar ETF (TAN), nearly tripled. So did the Invesco Wilderhill Clean Energy ETF (PBW), which includes a broader spectrum of companies. Wind stock rose 61%, and even the relatively sedate Yieldcos were up 32%. The stars of the last half of 2020 was undoubtedly Tesla (TSLA, up 246%) and other electric vehicle stocks.
Money Flows Out of Fossil Fuels and Into Clean Energy
I believe that the cause of the current rise in stock prices is largely...
10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2020: May Update Part 1
by Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
For the last few monthly updates, I've been focusing on the big picture, and have neglected to say anything about many of the 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2020 since I looked at how the pandemic would likely affect each stock in March.
This month, I'm trying to rectify the oversight, and have been posting updates on individual stocks for my Patreon supporters since Friday. Below is a collection of the updates I've published so far. I am to keep posting one a day until I've gotten to all of them, after which I plan to...
Five Alternative Energy Stocks For 2014
By Jeff Siegel There's no doubt about it: 2013 was a fantastic year for alternative energy investors. The big story this year was Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). A company that we began touting years before the company even went public, Tesla soared this year, taking the stock from $34.71 in January to a high of $194.50 a share in September. Folks, a 460% gain from an electric car company in just nine months would've been laughable in 2013. Today, it's the one of the most hyped stories in the world of finance... And if you listened to me...
Ten Green Energy Gambles for 2010: Q2 Update
Tom Konrad CFA My speculative green gambles still have chips, but the mild decline of the stock market so far this year is not enough to make them really pay off, yet. In January, I brought readers a collection of nine bearish puts on non-green companies and ETFs and one tiny energy efficiency company with a chance of taking off big before the end of the year. They considered of bets against three fossil energy companies, four travel and leisure stocks, a Mexico ETF , a Trucking company (JB Hunt ), and a long bet on Power...
Six More Clean Energy Stocks for 2013
Tom Konrad CFA This article is intended as a companion piece to Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2012. In the past, I've generally avoided illiquid stocks like Lime Energy (NASD:LIME) and PFB Corporation (TSX:PFB, OTC:PFBOF) which are included in this year's list. The reason is simple: it's hard for all but the smallest investors to buy such stocks without significantly moving the price. This year, I've instead chosen to publish a short list of alternative picks which readers can substitute for stocks they consider too illiquid or otherwise risky for their portfolio. Another advantage...
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 2020
by Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA
If it's tough to follow a winner, 2020 is going to be an especially tough year for my Ten Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio.
I've been publishing lists of ten clean energy stocks that I think will do well in the year to come since 2008. With a 46 percent total return, the 2019 list has had its best year since 2009, when it managed a 57 percent return by catching the rebound off the 2008 crash. This year's returns were also achieved in the context of full- to over-valuation of most of the clean energy...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks I’d Buy Now
Tom Konrad CFA Buying opportunities return to clean energy. Two years ago I had a problem. In the universe of clean energy stocks I watch, I could not find any that I thought were good values. So I wrote an article saying "We're near the peak." If you had been comparing that call to the performance of the broad stock market since then, you would have to conclude that I was ludicrously wrong. The S&P 500 is up 40% since then. If on the other hand, you'd been watching clean energy stocks, you would...
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...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2018: Wrap Up
by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA
Almost every major index fell in 2018. My Ten Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio and the Green Global Equity Income Portfolio (GGEIP), the real-money portfolio that I manage were not exceptions. Still, I'm satisfied with their performance: the model portfolio lost only 1.3 percent for the year, while GGEIP was down 2.6 percent. That's well ahead of most indexes, including my benchmarks YLCO (down 7.8 percent) and SDY (down 4.1%.) These benchmarks are intended to reflect the performance of clean energy dividend stocks and general of dividend stocks, respectively. Non-income oriented indexes such as the...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2011: Year In Review
Tom Konrad CFA My clean energy portfolio outperformed again in 2011, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. Without a doubt, 2011 was a horrible year for Clean Energy stocks, nearly as bad as 2008. The difference was that, in 2008, the entire stock market was crushed, while this year, the broad market ended with only modest declines compared to clean energy stocks. Based on 2010 and 2011 closing prices, the broad market (as measured by the performance of the Russell 2000 index), was down 10%, while clean energy stocks were down 52%, as...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2017: Earnings Season
Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Earnings season began in earnest in February. My Ten Clean Energy Stocks model portfolio gave back a little of its large January gains because a mix of good and bad earnings mostly offset each other. One pick (Seaspan Preferred) gave back its large January gains. Neither the original gain nor the loss were driven by news. Instead, they seemed driven by investors changing expectations for global trade in an uncertain political environment. For the year to March 17th, the portfolio and...
Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2016: Quick July Update
Tom Konrad, Ph.D., CFA My Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2016 model portfolio had yet another strong month, as did my real managed portfolio, the Green Global Equity Income Portfolio (GGEIP.) The shorter-format of last month's update turned out to be popular, so I'm doing it again. July Total Return July Benchmark Return YTD Total Return YTD Benchmark Return 10 Clean Energy Stocks 8.5% 5.5% 15.3% ...
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...
Three Green Money Managers; Six Green Stocks for 2013
Tom Konrad When I asked my panel of green money managers their predictions for trends 2013, I got enough material for four articles: On where the cleantech sector is heading in 2013, as well as on Solar, Smart Grid, and LED technology. I also asked them for stock picks, some of which I included in the previous articles. Several had opinions about EnerNOC (NASD:ENOC), which I wrote about here, and two picked LED stocks Veeco Instruments (NASD:VECO) and Universal Display Corp. (NASD:PANL), which I discussed here. Since I just published my annual model portfolio of...
In a Buying Mood
Several key indicators I follow have put me back into a buying mood. But sadly I will be spending most of my day in meetings and will not have much time to follow through on any purchases. I wanted to post a quick update about the stocks I'm following. I will be averaging down on some of my current holdings this week and also looking to add some new stocks to the portfolio. Here is my short list of new stocks I'm taking a close look at to add to the portfolio: Capstone Turbine Corp (CPTC)...
