Clean tech insider buying begins to emerge as investors look to 2024
Clean tech insider buying begins to emerge as investors look to 2024
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Another COP climate summit is in the books and delegates are leaving Dubai politely clapping like fans of a losing football team uttering “good game, good game” while privately wondering who will be their quarterback next season.
Oil interests led by Sultan Al-Jabar stalled real progress for another year by pulling a classic bait-and-switch on summit leaders, recommending a deal so hideous that delegates were willing to jump at the next option: an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels by 2050 but with no teeth.
It says something that oil prices rose on the agreement, but for many climate investors, the more positive aspect of Dubai came from a separate agreement to triple renewable energy capacity in the next decade. Next year the International Energy Association expects wind and solar power to exceed coal power for the first time.
Market opportunities like in clean energy stocks, which have been absolutely battered in 2023 until the past month or so, are starting to emerge. For signs of a comeback, we looked to insider buying patterns at the clean energy portfolio hosted for Callaway Climate Insights by our partner, InsideArbitrage.com and its founder, Asif Suria.
Twenty of the clean energy stocks in the portfolio declared insider buying in 2023, but only C-suite executives at four have filed for purchases in this fourth quarter, according to the InsideArbitrage report.
They are at Albemarle Corp. ALB 0.00%↑, down 38% year-to-date; Hyliion Holdings Corp. HYLN 0.00%↑+, down 75% year-to-date; SolarEdge Technologies SEDG 0.00%↑ , down 73% year-to-date; and Enphase Energy ENPH 0.00%↑, down 63% this year.
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Some of the others, such as NextEra Energy NEE 0.00%↑, Energy Vault Holdings NRGV 0.00%↑, and Eose Energy Enterprises EOSE 0.00%↑, saw some insider buying in September. But most of the buying was in the spring and early summer, before the bottom fell out of many of these stocks in the third quarter.
It’s hard not to believe — with the turn in the rate cycle — that many of these stocks are in an oversold condition, and insiders buying last month certainly are on board. But as Suria says, macro conditions matter more than most investors think. BlackRock came out with a report this week highlighting expectations for a surge in investment in clean tech infrastructure next year which would bode well for a revival in clean tech.
With the COP process again disappointing, it’s going to be up to markets and investors in 2024. We look forward to joining you in the chase. Happy Holidays!
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Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. — Albert Schweitzer.