Greentech Media submits:
by Michael Kanellos
First Solar (FSLR) will participate in the massive Desertec project, one more stop along their plan toward world domination.
Investing, Long Term Investment, stock market | admin March 16, 2010 | 
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Green Chip Review submits:
By Nick Hodge
China’s Solar Industry
The modern solar industry was cradled in Germany. It was the first country to offer robust incentives for solar installations, and now boasts the largest solar market in the world. (See, solar can thrive anywhere.)
Saj Karsan submits:
If a company has been able to grow its revenues over the last several quarters, it may be a sign of strong future growth. However, investors should be careful not to assume that future growth is a fait accompli, or that revenues will even stabilize at current high levels. While we’ve often discussed how investors should interpret one-time losses, occassionally one-time gains can occur as well.
Consider Alpha Pro Tech (APT), maker of a slew of protective products, from medical masks to roof underlay. The following chart depicts the company’s revenues over the last several years: (Click to enlarge)
Toby Shute submits:
Every Friday, Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) releases its estimate of the U.S., Canadian, and international rig count. Usually, I let these updates go without comment, as the weekly changes are small. The "big picture" trends only come into focus when you zoom out and look at months’ or years’ worth of data. I think I’ve done a good job of documenting one of these phenomena, but a poor job of alerting you to another. Something in Friday’s release really snuck up on me. I should have been paying better attention.
The first key trend is the dramatic shift from vertical to directional and horizontal drilling. Drilling in tight gas shales used to be thoroughly unconventional. Following the success of Mitchell Energy (acquired by Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) in 2002) and others in the Barnett shale, however, it didn’t take long for shale plays to dominate the drilling landscape. Nowadays, it seemingly takes a contrarian to avoid the shale and granite wash plays that firms like Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) and EnCana (NYSE: ECA) are exploiting so eagerly.
Ockham Research submits:
“Now, for a long time botox, made by Allergan, a stock you know we like, has been synonymous with smooth skin. But now Medicis we’ve likened, MRX as the Pepsi to Allergan’s Coke, has come out with a new treatment called dysport that aims to give botox a run for its money…
Medicis beat Wall Street’s consensus earnings estimates by eight cents per share last quarter and they have serious growth. Then shortly after the quarter on March 10th Medicis boosted its quarterly dividend from 4 cents to 6 cents. I know the yield’s just 1%. But we know dividend hikes are an important sign of strength in a company…
Charlie Price submits:
St. Patrick’s day celebrations have already been in full swing in Ireland, leading up to the big day this Wednesday. The Irish would never let any economic difficulty get in the way of a good party, but this time they are badly in need of something to celebrate.
Ireland has been among the nations hardest hit by the global recession. The Economic and Social Research Institute forecast a 14% fall in GDP from peak to trough. Unemployment has risen from 4% to 13% and retail sales fell by 15%.
Bill Simpson submits:
Bill Simpson wrote an analysis of Financial Engines (FNGN) to TradingIPOs subscribers on March 13. In its debut Monday, March 15, the company sold 10.6 shares for $12 each, raising about $127.2 million. It had planned to sell 10.6 million shares for between $9 and 11.
The text of Mr. Simpson’s original writeup follows:
Paul Price submits:
|
FY
|
Sales
|
C/F
|
EPS
|
Avg. P/E
|
52-wk. Range
|
|
2001
|
8.61
|
1.07
|
0.84
|
16.6x
|
9.30 – 22.20
|
|
2002
|
4.04
|
0.03
|
d.0.17
|
NMF
|
6.10 – 22.60
|
|
2003
|
4.61
|
0.33
|
0.15
|
NMF
|
8.70 – 23.10
|
|
2004
|
6.47
|
0.90
|
0.73
|
23.3x
|
11.40 – 22.70
|
|
2005
|
6.80
|
0.79
|
0.65
|
26.1x
|
13.40 – 20.70
|
|
2006
|
8.77
|
1.17
|
0.98
|
21.1x
|
17.30 – 31.00
|
|
2007
|
13.93
|
2.07
|
1.73
|
21.2x
|
26.40 – 58.20
|
|
2008
|
11.61
|
1.61
|
1.32
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26.6x
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14.00 – 41.20
|
|
2009
|
4.95
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d.0.20
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d.0.40
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NMF
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16.00 – 36.60
|
|
Sell
|
Put Premium
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Break-Even Price
|
Margin of Safety*
|
|
August $25 Puts
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$1.50 /sh.
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$23.50
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16.7%
|
|
Jan. 2011 $22.50 Puts
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$1.65 /sh.
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$20.85
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26.1%
|
|
Jan. 2011 $25 Puts
|
$2.55 /sh.
|
$22.45
|
20.4%
|
|
Jan. 2012 $25 Puts
|
$4.30 /sh.
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$20.70
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26.6%
|
|
* Margin of Safety = % break-even price is below today’s close.
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|||
Kurt Wulff (McDep Associates) submits:
Buy-recommended EnCana Corporation (ECA) offers unlevered appreciation potential of 8% to a McDep Ratio of 1.0 where stock price would equal Net Present Value (NPV) of $35 a share. Fourth quarter results, released on February 11, support our estimate for unlevered cash flow (Ebitda) in 2010. Following the November 30 spinoff of buy-recommended oil producer, Cenovus Energy (CVE), EnCana intensifies its concentration on natural gas to 93% of NPV.
We call EnCana the best large cap clean energy investment for at least three reasons. First, we believe natural gas is the runaway first choice as clean energy, particularly with the promise of more abundant economical supply. Second, EnCana’s 93% concentration on natural gas is the highest among large cap stocks. Third, the company is well-managed, starting at the top. Chairman David O’Brien has a long record of value creation from the day he took over at resource-rich Canadian Pacific and turned the conglomerate into a series of high performing independent companies.
Wall Street Cheat Sheet submits:
by David Gibbs
After delaying its last earnings announcement, previously scheduled for February 25th, Athenahealth, Inc. (ATHN) finally reported Q4 earnings Monday after the bell. The leading provider of Internet-based healthcare services announced in-line EPS results of $0.17/share and a slight revenue of miss of $54.4 million vs. $55 million consensus estimates. Shares are trading up during the after-hours session following the news.
Jeff Miller submits:
Whether you are a trader or an investor you need to have a method and to follow it in a disciplined fashion. You also need to understand your system, having patience when necessary.
Every system has strong and weak points. Most methods are either momentum (where you play the trend) or mean reversion (where you fade the trend). There is also a matter of time frame. One leading technical commentator uses four (!) different time frames for trend determination.
Michael Kudrna submits:
Impac Mortgage (IMPM) released their much anticipated 2009 earnings results Monday night and will host a conference call Tuesday at 12pm eastern to further discuss. For those new to IMPM, they had accumulated a significant amount of debt during our recent financial crisis and have been in the process of cleaning their financials to survive. IMPM was once a stock which traded over $275 and last year was trading as low as $.16. After my initial review of the earnings release, it looks like IMPM is finally turning the corner to the surprise of many. I have been accumulating shares under $4 and now that we have more clarity with earnings, I expect the positive news plus the bullish chart indicators to elevate the PPS from here.
Per the earnings release and in summary, IMPM reported earnings of $10.8 million (excluding preferred stock dividend of $7.4 million) for the year end 2009. To show the drastic improvement from a year ago, IMPM reported a loss of 44.7 million in 2008. Stockholders’ equity for discontinued operations was a loss of $14,672 and for continued operations was positive $30,105 for a total of $15,433. IMPM also reported diluted net earnings per common share before redemption during 2009 at $0.44. This is very positive when compared to the loss of $7.34 during 2008 which is a 106% difference year over year. These numbers indicate IMPM has finally turned the corner and now we need to know whether they can gain traction from here in a poor economic environment.
Colin Peterson submits:
I was reading a presentation that Contango Oil & Gas (MCF) gave recently. This one has been a hedge fund favorite for a few years. Justifiably so, considering the quality of management.
Click to enlarge slides
Look at this next slide. Management actually keeps track of the net capital invested in the company.
