&l;strong&g;Soaring Solar: Enphase Energy (ENPH)&l;/strong&g;
Of the more than 200 environmental stocks I track, solar continues to be the most volatile group - in fact the worst performer Friday was the high-flying Jinko Solar, which fell almost 13%. Then there&s;s &l;a href=&q;https://enphase.com/en-us&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Enphase Energy&l;/a&g;, a model of calm and steady price appreciation since the start of the year. The chart here shows the past three months of Enphase as the green mountain, and its relative performance to the S&a;amp;P 500, the purple line. The S&a;amp;P has done great &a;ndash; it&s;s up 19% the past three months through Friday. But compared to Enphase, the S&a;amp;P looks plodding. Enphase has almost doubled, from $4.64 just ahead of the end of 2018 to now. Over the past 6 months, it&s;s been the best environmental stock performer relative to the S&a;amp;P, outpacing it by 121%. For&a;nbsp;momentum-minded&a;nbsp;traders &a;ndash; people who buy and hold for weeks to months before selling &a;ndash; relative performance is a wondrous thing, because&a;nbsp;multiple studies show that stocks that outperform over the past six months tend to outperform in the months ahead.&a;nbsp;&l;span&g;Founded in 2006 in California, Enphase makes microinverters, the tech for small scale, residential solar. Investors appear pleased that the company has been reducing costs while improving its gross margin, as this (slightly stale) company &l;a href=&q;https://investor.enphase.com/static-files/cb6f701b-311e-4e9f-be46-b19c648ce4e0&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;presentation&l;/a&g; shows. A larger size of the chart is available &l;a href=&q;http://kinsaleinsights.com/three-bullish-esg-stocks-this-week/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;here&l;/a&g;.&l;/span&g;
&l;img class=&q;size-medium wp-image-1579&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/brendancoffey/files/2019/03/ENPH_YahooFinanceChart-1-300x157.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;157&q; data-width=&q;300&q;&g; Enphase compared to the S&a;amp;P500 index over the past three months.
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&l;strong&g;Odey Plugs In: PlugPower&l;/strong&g;
&l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/profile/crispin-odey/#3bc51d1b64d3&q;&g;Crispin Odey&l;/a&g; is a classic big bet hedge fund manager,&a;nbsp;and&a;nbsp;tends to boom and bust&a;nbsp;with his investments as a result. Last year his Odey Asset Management&a;nbsp;boomed, with 53% gains. Is he still dealing a hot hand? Last week Odey &l;a href=&q;https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/03/20/1757859/0/en/Plug-Power-Inc-Announces-23-5-Million-Registered-Direct-Offering-With-Odey-Asset-Management.html&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;bought&l;/a&g; 10 million shares of PlugPower in a private placement. Now $23.5 million of shares in anything isn&s;t much to a $5 billion hedge fund (about half a percent of assets), so while Odey may not have bought shares to lose money, by way of caution it&s;s not like it&s;s terribly important to him one way or the other. But it&s;s encouraging nonetheless. &l;a href=&q;https://www.plugpower.com/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;PlugPower&l;/a&g; is a hydrogen fuel cell company and dominates the hydrogen-cell market, with 95% market share (but be aware there are a number of other equally intriguing companies that use natural gas-based fuel cells). Its main market right now is warehouse forklifts, with cars and delivery vehicles its hoped-for future market. The 12 month daily chart here shows shares basically range-bound until tumbling with everyone else in December, and then rebounding strongly. And look at the volume (the bottom bars), which show increasing interest as shares move higher &a;ndash; a positive. Friday&s;s action showed support and not a lot of selling action, so this is another good sign. There&s;s some resistance&a;nbsp;waiting at $3 a share. A larger version of the chart is &l;a href=&q;http://kinsaleinsights.com/three-bullish-esg-stocks-this-week/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;here&l;/a&g;.
&l;img class=&q;size-medium wp-image-1581&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/brendancoffey/files/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-24-at-4.37.51-PM-300x161.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;161&q; data-width=&q;300&q;&g; PlugPower daily chart with 40-day and 200-day simple moving averages.
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&l;strong&g;Canada Clean: TransAlta&l;/strong&g;
&l;a href=&q;https://www.transalta.com/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;TransAlta&l;/a&g; is an Alberta-based utility that has been pushing hard to transition into renewable energy and away from coal. From a purely climate-change point of view such large scale moves away from coal are essential for the world to head off the worst effects of global warming. By next year, the company is aiming to have its emissions 30% lower than 2015, as it continues into hydro and&a;nbsp;converting its coal plants to run on natural gas, the cleanest option of the fossil fuels. The chart here is a one-month daily chart so the effect is clear: the candlesticks with the small real bodies from Thursday and Friday show the bears don&s;t see much advantage selling off. Plus volume is low&a;nbsp; in the down days and shares are sitting well above the 40-day moving average, the blue line. Utilities tend to be defensive holdings in volatile times, TAC looks like it could be a good option. A larger version of the chart is &l;a href=&q;http://kinsaleinsights.com/three-bullish-esg-stocks-this-week/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;here&l;/a&g;.
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&l;img class=&q;size-medium wp-image-1583&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/brendancoffey/files/2019/03/koyfin_20190324_044815816-300x150.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;150&q; data-width=&q;300&q;&g; TransAlta one month daily chart with 40-day moving average.&l;/p&g;
