Thursday, May 29, 2008

Sunken Treasure Discovered By Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMEX)

Normally, here at Stock Picky we concentrate on relatively safe stocks for the long term, but I felt like I had to share this one with my readers! The name of this speculative play is Odyssey Marine Exploration, ticket symbol (NASDAQ: OMEX). This is a company that literally hunts for sunken treasure!

Based out of Florida, Odyssey Marine Exploration has over 20 ongoing shipwreck projects throughout the world. Past projects include the shipwreck of the SS Republic which brought in 50,000 coins and 14,000 artifacts, and just last year the company announced it recovered 500,000 silver and gold pieces from The Black Swan!

As if that wasn't enough, the company just filed today that it had filed Admiralty Arrest on two more shipwreck sites. Both of these new found sites are near the English Channel, but are outside the territorial waters of any sovereign nation. The sites both contain cannon and other artifacts which are believed to dated back to the colonial period.

More good news came earlier this week as they announced they will be the focus of an 11-part Discovery Channel series. Now this might not seem like a big deal, but it will certainly bring this company into the public light, which will most like bring a lot more buyers to the table and in turn raise the stock price.

Before you get too excited though, let me remind you that this stock is very, very speculative and you could easily lose your shirt. With that in mind, I am sure you can imagine what would happen to the stock price if they made a really big find!

Now for the numbers... Odyssey Marine Exploration has only been traded on the Nasdaq since October of 2006, with a market cap of only 239 million this is a very small company. The stock has traded between $7.75 and $4.42 over the past year and today stands at around $5.00.


I look at this as a long term lottery ticket, one that could go down to zero, but could also win you that big prize. Remember, you want to be in before they make that big discovery on National Television in the upcoming documentary : )

Friday, May 23, 2008

Evergreen Solar Announces 1 Billion In Contracts

Evergreen Solar (eslr) surged over 20% yesterday as it announced that is had signed two contracts worth approximately 1 billion dollars. Evergreen Solar and German-based Ralos Vertriebs GmbH signed an agreement valued at approximately $750 million for panel deliveries beginning in 2008 and extending through 2013. They also signed an agreement just last week with an unnamed United States-based installer, for approximately $250 million. Both of these contracts are going to be manufactured in their Devens, Massachusetts plant.

In addition to the two contracts listed above Evergreen Solar (eslr) already has a backlog of $850 million from six different sources to be completed in Ever-Q, it's German based joint venture.

Here is what the big whigs at Evergreen Solar had to say about the recent contracts...

“We offer our customers a long-term value proposition because our string ribbon technology consumes less than half of the polysilicon as compared to the industry average, which enables us to provide a unique combination of cost and cell conversion efficiency," said Richard M. Feldt, Evergreen Solar's president and chief executive officer. “We will enter into selective long-term supply agreements with additional companies that also bring differentiated value to their customers and serve markets that are at the forefront of solar growth.”


So, here we are watching a company that has 1.85 billion dollar in backlog yet the entire company itself is only worth 1.32 billion by market cap! Based on this factor alone it would appear that Evergreen Solar is grossly undervalue at these levels. One of the biggest problems with solar companies is the perceived shortage of polysilicon. Evergreen has this covered already though as they have signed several long term supply agreements over the past year.

Here at Stock Picky we have been behind ESLR for a long, long time and we still believe that it is a great buy even at these much higher levels then just a couple days ago. The key of course is to not buy all at once, take advantage of the dips and always invest for the long-term. After all, this stock was a buy at $100 oil, but now at $135 people will be flocking to alternative energy plays like this one. To research more into this company check out all of our Evergreen Solar articles here!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Ormat Reports 1st Quarter 2008 Results

Why this took so long to come out, I am not quite sure, but here are the 1st quarter 2008 results for Ormat Technologies ticker NYSE:(ORA).

The Company reported net income of $10.1 million, or $0.24 per share of common stock (basic and diluted), as compared to a net loss of $5.8 million, or $0.15 per share of common stock (basic and diluted), for the first quarter of 2007. This smashed analyst's estimates of $0.18 per share!

On the revenue side though they came in a little light, r
evenues for the first quarter were $69.4 million, versus $61.7 million for the first quarter of 2007, an increase of 12.4%. This trailed analyst's estimates of 76.5 million.

Ormat's Board of Directors approved the payment of a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share pursuant to the Company's dividend policy, which targets an annual payout ratio of at least 20% of the Company's net income, subject to Board approval. The dividend will be paid on May 27, 2008 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 20, 2008. The Company expects to pay a dividend of $0.05 per share in the next two quarters as well.

Here is what the big bosses had to say...

Dita Bronicki, Chief Executive Officer of Ormat, stated: "The first quarter performance was in line with our expectations for 2008 and highlighted our improved operating performance, increase in our overall generating capacity and improvement in power prices in certain projects.

"Since the beginning of the first quarter, we declared commercial operation for the Galena 3 and Heber South projects and continued to make progress on our exploration work to secure geothermal resources for 2010 and beyond. Also during the quarter, we strengthened our products backlog signing three EPC agreements for a total amount of over $100 million, consisting of one geothermal and two recovered energy generation power plants, out of which approximately $50 million are still subject to a Notice to Proceed. We expect to add an additional 174 MW by the end of 2009 from projects that are currently under construction, including Olkaria and Brawley," Ms. Bronicki continued.

Commenting on the outlook for 2008, Ms. Bronicki said, "Following our first quarter earnings results, we maintain our guidance for 2008 and expect our 2008 Electricity Segment revenues to be approximately $245 million. We also expect an additional approximately $9 million of revenues from our share of electricity revenues generated by Mammoth that is accounted for under the equity method. With regard to our Products Segment, we maintain our guidance for 2008 revenues and expect them to be between $70 million and $80 million."

Ms. Bronicki concluded, "We are excited with the progress we have made this quarter, especially in recovered energy generation, which has experienced increasing interest as the need for energy efficiency begins to play a greater role in combating global warming."

We will have to see what tomorrow brings for this stock as it did not appear to be traded after the earnings were released...

To see all of our posts on Ormat Technologies including an in-depth analysis click here!

Friday, May 2, 2008

Ormat Technologies, The Pure Play On Geothermal

Ormat Technologies ticker NYSE:(ora) might be looking a little pricey at first glance with it's 75 p/e, but with earnings coming up on May 6, 2008 after the close, we will soon know if the run up the past 3 months really has legs to break through it's 52 week high of $57.93. Here is their chart since becoming publicly traded...


Now for some background information in case you are not familiar with Ormat Technologies. The company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants around the world. Additionally, the company designs, manufactures and sells geothermal and recovered energy power units and other power-generating equipment, and provides related services. Ormat Technologies has more than four decades of experience in the development of environmentally-sound power, primarily in geothermal and recovered-energy generation.

The coming election is increasingly looking like alternative energy is going to win no matter if a Democrat or Republican is elected. Sure, there is Solar, but a lot of people don't realize the potential of geothermal and heat recovery systems. Ormat is the only pure play, just look at these numbers...

They also have just recently announced two deals one in Montana...

Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. have announced that Ormat has entered into an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreement to build a 5.3 MW recovered energy generation facility to be located in Morton County, North Dakota. The facility, which is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009, will produce electricity without burning additional fuel. The project, subject to regulatory approvals, will increase the utilization of the energy content by approximately 25 percent and will produce enough renewable energy to supply about 5,000 residential electric customers in Montana-Dakota's service territory.

And one in Nevada... I particularly like this side of Ormat's business... retrofitting existing power plants and turning the heat that is given off as waste into energy!

Energy Holdings Company, and Ormat Technologies Inc. have announced plans to build a six-megawatt (MW) waste-heat recovery renewable energy project in the Goodsprings area south of Las Vegas. The project, subject to regulatory approvals, is scheduled to be completed in 2010 and will produce enough renewable energy to supply 1,200 residential customers in southern Nevada. The best part about these waste-heat recovery systems is that they will generate additional power with no increase in emissions. Check out this slide that shows the dependability and cost effectiveness of various forms of energy...

If that wasn't enough, I also like Ormat's Dividend policy which is for an annual payout ratio of at least 20% of the Company’s net income, subject to Board approval. That means that as Ormat grows it's dividend will grow right along with it, always nice for long term investors like me.

The conclusion that I come to is that Ormat is a great long term investment, but always around an earnings report I urge caution. Make sure never to buy all at once and slowly build your position in a stock. Develop a good cost basis and you should do find... take advantage of the dips and ride this one out, because this is a big part of the future of energy.

To learn even more about Ormat Technologies visit their website or check out Stock Picky's Tapping The Earth With Ormat!