Posts Tagged ‘green stocks’

Buzz Stock of the Day – A-Power Energy Generation Systems (APWR)

Thursday, April 9th, 2009


With favorable policy support from the Chinese government, wind power has been witnessing a rapid development in recent years, with annual growth reaching more than 100 percent in the past few years. It’s estimated that China’s wind power industry will continue its high growth momentum in the coming years with the annual growth rate likely surpassing 60 percent, according to a recent article.

Our Buzz Stock of the Day — A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: APWR) — could likely be a big beneficiary of China’s greening.

The power systems firm reported a net income of $10.0 million, or $0.30 per share, compared with earnings of $3.4 million, or $0.25 per share, a year ago. Analysts were projecting earnings of $0.15 per-share.

Revenue rose 93.5 percent to $81.4 million in the fourth quarter.

For 2009, the company expects revenue of about $290 million and net income of about $29 million. These targets are based on the Company’s current distributed power generation (DG) backlogs, which are subject to change when the company signs new DG contracts and/or recognizes revenues from wind turbine sales during 2009.

“After China posted robust growth rates in wind turbine installation from 6GW in 2007 to 12GW in 2008, the Chinese government recently unveiled another ambitious plan to invest $11.7 billion (RMB 80 billion) in expanding the wind energy market to 30GW and requiring utility companies to generate 15 percent of their power from wind by 2010,” said A-Power’s chairman and CEO, Jinxiang Lu. “As we believe many Chinese domestic wind turbine producers are facing technological barriers and component shortages in their mega-watt class turbine production, A-Power, with its European and U.S. relationships, is well positioned to gain market share.”

A-Power had cash and cash equivalents of $43.5 million as of December 31, 2008, compared with $59.7 million at September 30, 2008. Working capital as of December 31, 2008 was $97.0 million, compared with $95.8 million at September 30, 2008.

The Shenyang-based company has had quarterly earnings growth of 124 percent year-over-year, and quarterly revenue growth of 119 percent year-over-year.

A-Power’s P/E ratio is 7.8, well below the industry average of 11.4, making it all the more attractive at these levels.

“Alternative energy perhaps has a near-term problem with overexposure in our opinion, but the industry is not hype by any stretch, and China’s demand for power will only increase again once the global crisis has passed,” said Brian Yerger, a partner at ARDA Advisors.

With recently announced partnerships with General Electric, and European wind turbine makers Fuhrlander and Norwin, A-Power could become a major player in China’s alternative energy market.

Buzz Stocks for the week of 3/30/09- PESI, LCUT, TRMA, and XIDE

Friday, April 3rd, 2009


The bad news is there are only 4 daily Buzz Stocks to report this week. The good news is they all closed the week higher.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Monday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: PESI)
Open (3/30/09):
$1.61
Close (4/3/09): $1.95
Percentage Change: +20.6
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Tuesday
We took the day off

Wednesday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Lifetime Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCUT)
Open (4/1/09):
$1.38
Close (4/3/09): $2.19
Percentage Change: +58.6
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Thursday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Trico Marine Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRMA)
Open (4/2/09):
$2.39
Close (4/3/09): $2.55
Percentage Change: +6.6
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Friday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Exide Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: XIDE)
Open (4/3/09):
$3.75
Close (4/3/09): $4.23
Percentage Change: +12.8
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Buzz Stock of the Day- Exide Technologies (XIDE)

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

In early January, the Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Energy Policy Project released a study that said Kansas alone could create 11,500 jobs and draw $2 billion in investment in renewable energy.

“This analysis is not a prediction,” said George Sterzinger, who is with the Renewable Energy Policy Project and one of the principal authors of the report. “It is really an attempt to illuminate the potential (of renewable energy).”

It estimated that Saline County could see as many as 2,300 jobs and $430 million in investments, with the most potential coming from solar energy business and the large battery plant in Salina that’s owned by our Buzz Stock of the Day — Exide Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: XIDE).

Exide Technologies, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and supply of lead acid batteries used in transportation, motive power, network power, and military applications in the Americas, Europe, and internationally. Its transportation batteries include ignition and lighting batteries for cars, trucks, off-road vehicles, agricultural and construction vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, boats, and other applications.

Exide has supply agreements with for its batteries with Toyota and Penske, among others.

We like Exide Technologies because the company generates free cash flow, spends its money wisely, and plans for the future.

The company generated $74.7 million of free cash flow for the three months ended December 31, 2008–up from a burn of $129.4 million for the year ago period. Net income for the quarter was $15.4 million, or $0.20 per-share, down from $19.3 million, or $0.25 per share for the same quarter a year earlier. Excluding the impact of a few non-operational items, adjusted net income for the fiscal 2009 third quarter was $18.2 million or $0.23 per share. This compares with adjusted net income for the comparable prior year period of $17.3 million or $0.23 per share.

Exide has also spent wisely. The company announced plans for a $7 million expansion at its Kansas City lead-acid battery manufacturing facility earlier this year, and anticipated the expansion will result in increased production performance and volume capacity.

We also like the company’s long term prospects. Exide just announced a collaboration with Nano-Terra, a Cambridge, Mass.-based nanotechnology company to develop more efficient stored energy solutions. The solutions under development in this collaboration are based on the surface engineering methods pioneered by Nano-Terra and its Co-Founder, Professor George M. Whitesides of Harvard University.

“Exide is one of the world’s largest producers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries and the first in our industry to collaborate with Nano-Terra. This strong collaboration will allow our Company to draw upon unique nanotechnology resources to implement innovative energy solutions for the global marketplace.”

Join the discussion on Exide Technologies, Inc. on its official Buzz Board thread.

Here’s a cool video of Exide’s Liberator line of batteries in action (kind of):

Buzz Stock of the Day- Perma-Fix Environmental Services (PESI)

Monday, March 30th, 2009


Nuclear waste management is quickly becoming a hot topic both on Wall Street and Capitol Hill.

In late February, the government affairs arm of the nuclear industry called for President Barack Obama to convene a blue ribbon nuclear waste commission, a move that could be a first step toward forming alternatives to burying radioactive power plant fuel at Yucca Mountain, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The idea of forming a blue ribbon commission has been floating quietly around Washington for several months as Obama during the presidential campaign and Steven Chu, his energy secretary, have said it is necessary to revisit the management and disposal of used nuclear fuel currently stored at power plant sites.

Late last week, Chu said he, not Congress, will establish a blue-ribbon commission to develop a new strategy for managing the country’s nuclear waste.

This could be good news for our Buzz Stock of the Day, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: PESI).

The company’s expansive portfolio of nuclear waste treatment includes radioactive and mixed waste treatment services for hospitals, research labs and institutions, federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and nuclear utilities.

Perma-Fix CEO, Dr. Louis Centofanti recently stated that he was “optimistic that Perma-Fix will be a beneficiary of the stimulus plan,” which allocates more than $6 billion for nuclear waste clean-up throughout the Department of Energy’s complex. “In addition, the DOE fiscal 2009 annual budget has been increased to $6.4 billion, from $5.2 billion in fiscal 2008. “

The company’s fourth-quarter revenue was up 46 percent to $23.5 million, from $16.1 million a year ago. Perma-Fix generated EBITDA of $2.2 million, and net profit of $725,000, or a penny a share.

Shares of PESI trade at about 50 percent of their 52-week high, and are down about 11 percent over the past 52-weeks — substantially less than the S&P 500 and many of the company’s much larger competitors including American Ecology Corp. (Nasdaq: ECOL) and URS Corp. (NYSE: URS).

Join the discussion on Perma-Fix Environmental Services on the company official Buzz Stock thread.