Monday, 04/21/08
Posted 04/21/08,  10:47 pm ET

(Scroll down to see Jim's comments below)

 
 
Today's date:  Monday, 04/21/08

  Dow Jones: 12,825   - 24
  NASDAQ:   2,408   + 5
  S&P 500:   1,388    - 2
 
 
 
 
 
First Segment
 
 
Opening Segment 1 Title: 'The Green Party'

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s): First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)
Foster Wheeler
(FWLT*)
Shaw Group Inc.
(SGR)
BorgWarner Inc.
(BWA)
MEMC Electronic Materials
(WFR)



See Opening Segment 2, below...
 
After this segment, you can see Jim's Lightning Round picks here...


JJC:    A year ago, we had our first "Green Week" on Mad Money... I picked eight environmentally-friendly stocks for my green portfolio... And now, the results are in... Green has been pants-ing the rest of the market...

The tide seems to be turning green! The stocks in Mad Money's green week portfolio are up... are you ready skee-daddy?... an average of 76.8%, compared to a negative 5.5% for the S&P 500. Who says money doesn't grow on trees?!

Green up!...

The stocks I picked were First Solar, Inc. (FSLR), Foster Wheeler (FWLT*), Shaw Group Inc. (SGR), MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR), Tetra Tech Inc. (TTEK), Fuel-Tech, Inc. (FTEK), and OM Group Inc. (OMG)...

I know that FSLR's up huge... But, even without it, the Green Portfolio is up 35%!... and that's still a lot to brag about...

Tonight, I want to review the stocks in the portfolio, to go over what worked and what worked less... and I want to tell you which of these I think you should dump... and which ones I think are worth hanging onto going forward, or even buying more of!

First, I want to go through the big winners... Then, after the break... this is called a tease... we'll try to learn from the ones that only slightly outperformed the S&P 500.

But, before I start going through the stocks, I want to explain why green has worked so well... and why I expect it to keep working...

A year ago, in our first green week, we correctly anticipated that oil would be up huge to $125... still our price target... and it's higher oil prices that have driven up everything related to clean energy... from solar to clean coal... This is the trend behind the trend... and I don't think it's going away... It's what drove me back to the ag stocks... and I've got a new ag play to talk about after the Lightning Round...

Back to my green stocks...

The biggest winner out of the bunch has been First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)... It's up 367%, since I made it a green week stock on April 17th last year... FSLR is the solar play that doesn't need subsidies to work... and will be the standard in this country, no matter which presidential candidate wins... as it already is the standard in Germany... I think the new president brings in FSLR fast. I also can't stress enough how much (Gov. Arnold Swartzennager) over in California, has gotten behind solar, and how the utilities in California always lead the rest of the country.

FSLR was purely a play on the need for energy that pays back. Sure, right now, an FSLR panel in year 1 is more costly than oil or gas, and certainly more than wind, but these fossil fuels are getting more and more expensive... and are in short supply... Remember, this is the most cost-effective solar play out there, because it doesn't use silicon, and that makes it much cheaper for FSLR to make its panels... to put them right on the roofs of commercial operations and integrate them straight into the grid... This is practical solar... the stuff that works when it's nasty out... not the other kind, where you kind of need 98 degrees in the shade for it to work...

We remain in conviction mode for FSLR... and I think that any big time conglomerate that wants to be in energy, should just swallow the dilution, and buy them!... I think this is to solar what Intel (INTC) was to semiconductors... and I expect it to repeat the incredible performance from Intel from 1988 to 1998...

The next winner was Foster Wheeler (FWLT*)... a stock that remains in my charitable trust...

FWLT, up 97%... This was and is my favorite infrastructure play. We liked it for Green Week, as a play on clean coal... Now, if you think a democrat is going to win the White House, then I think you can bet that FWLT will go up because clean coal, while seemingly oxymoronic, is FWLT's great environmental contribution. Also, if the price of oil stays high, or continues higher, that means FWLT, which builds petrochemical plants and refineries - all of which are in short supply - should work even higher. This one if way off its high... and, unlike FSLR, which could use a little 10-point pullback... I think you should be buying FWLT right here. I think FWLT knows how to make green nuclear coal and coal liquification plants...

We had another infrastructure stock in the Green Portfolio... It was called Shaw Group Inc. (SGR)... up 79% since last year. This one was a play on nuclear, almost extensively... and exclusively...

It's winning energy and power projects all over the world, just like FWLT... but nuclear is the heart and soul of this one, especially as nuclear power plant projects in the U.S. are just starting to get off the ground. If I were you, I'd definitely stick with SGR, although the Street didn't like the quarter...

We picked BorgWarner Inc. (BWA) as a clean emissions play... but I think you should dump this one from the portfolio. It's too tied to auto production... going nowhere.

Another one in the portfolio we want to jettison is MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR)... up 21.7% since last year. It worked because of high silicon prices. I don't think it's sustainable. I believe silicon's the wrong technology for solar. The company has continually had execution warnings... I say (ring the register)... Faded and fatigued... that's how I regard WFR... 

.  .  .  .  .

The Bottom Line!:      The Mad Money Green Week portfolio worked! Money did grow on trees, despite those classes that you took! Stick with First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)... stick with Foster Wheeler (FWLT*) and Shaw Group Inc. (SGR). But it's time... yes, hit the eject button on BorgWarner Inc. (BWA) and MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR).


[See Jim's 2nd Opening Segment stock picks below... ]

 

 

 



See all of tonight's stocks' latest quotes on Yahoo! Finance



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Stock Snapshots - Includes all stocks mentioned above

 

 

 

Jim
Cramer's
rating on
this stock

STOCK
SYMBOL

Closing
price
that
day

Opening
price
next
day

Full Company Name/Comments
(see comments above for each)

FSLR

291.85

na

First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)

FWLT*

67.09

na

Foster Wheeler (FWLT*)

SGR

55.02

na

Shaw Group Inc. (SGR)

BWA

47.67

na

BorgWarner Inc. (BWA)

WFR

75.96

na

MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR)

 

       

 


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Second Segment
 
 
Final Segment 1 Title: 'Green Giants'

.  .  .  .  .

Featured Stock(s): Tetra Tech Inc. (TTEK)
Fuel-Tech, Inc.
(FTEK)
OM Group Inc.
(OMG)

 
After this segment, you can see Jim's Lightning Round picks here...

 

JJC:    We're going over the stocks from last year's Green Portfolio... We've been through the winners. Now, I want to talk about the losers...

Every stock in the Mad Money Green Portfolio beat the S&P 500. But three of them dramatically underperformed the rest of the group...

And that was Tetra Tech Inc. (TTEK), Fuel-Tech, Inc. (FTEK) and OM Group Inc. (OMG).

I want to tell you where I think we went wrong on these three, and if they're keepers or losers...

First, let's talk about Tetra Tech Inc. (TTEK)... Up just 1.6%, this is a water play that serves the complete water cycle. It gets a lot of its contracts from the Feds... I hate it when people say they were early on a stock, and not wrong. I'm going to cop to both... I got this one wrong, okay?... But, right now, it's actually becoming right... Why?...

Water will be the next global shortage, even though all the talk right now is about the oil and gas complex... When it comes to water, TTEK is the largest player in the sector. Multi-billion dollar opportunities coming up... There are coastal engineering and flood protection projects coming... $20 billion... Raw sewage management... another $20 billion... and military base closure deals.

Just last month, TTEK announced its largest commercial - meaning non-governmental - contract... $100 million. They also recently bought a wind energy company, making TTEK even greener. That offers entry into another $20 billion opportunity... Wind, by the way, is the cheapest... That's the cheapest per unit of energy you're using.

Last year, TTEK was wrong. But now it's entering the environmental sweet spot, and I'd be a buyer.

If I were a major conglomerate, wishing to get into wind power and water construction, I would bid for TTEK for a lot more than it's selling for now...

The next so-called loser in the Green Portfolio is Fuel-Tech, Inc. (FTEK), which is up a mere 8.9%... very popular as a Lightning Round stock...

Here's the thing... FTEK had an incredible run in the two months after my Green Day recommendation... so I put it in the Sell Block on June 21st of last year with a 72% gain. The stock dropped sharply since then.

And you know what I think with FTEK?... At last, after this big decline, time to reload...

This is one of those high-flying stocks that swings wildly up and down... and I think there are good reasons to think it'll go higher from here...

FTEK is a clean coal play that also increases the efficiency of coal plants. They recently reported breakout fourth quarter numbers, but they issued conservative guidance that made people sad...

I think these guys are playing the UPOD game... underpromise... overdeliver...

Coal has been working, but I think FTEK will do especially well, if a democrat gets into the White House... But it needs to be clean, and FTEK does the cleaning.

There's a great legislative catalyst here too... Clear Air Interstate Rule Regulations are set commence in 2009, and I think utilities will be seeking out pollution control technologies like the kind FTEK makes right now...

The company is also only beginning to tap foreign markets... It's got the foot in the door into India and into China. From what I can see, it's just a question of execution now, when it comes to how much money they can make in Asia.

Shockingly, I think there is a growing perception among the Chinese Communists that dying from bad air generated from dirty coal plants may actually be bad... at least for business...

Back to FTEK... There's been a lot of recent insider buying... The Chairman bought 25,000 shares at $17.90 on March 7th... about six points below the current price... The Deputy Chairman bought 20,000 shares a few cents lower on March 10th.

I love insider buying... You only buy for one reason... because you think it's going up. Stick with it.

Finally... OM Group Inc. (OMG)... up 11.3%. This was an emissions play that is heavily dependent on cobalt prices. We thought cobalt prices were going to go up... but then they went down like the Titanic... Going into August, we were down 26% on OMG, when the stock bottomed. I think we should be happy that they've recovered so much from here. Take profits on OMG.

OMG makes the chemicals used in hybrid car batteries and, since the auto business stinks out loud, I don't think you want that exposure, or exposure to the cobalt market.