Vivian Lewis selected Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN) as her top conservative idea for 2019 and Azure Power (AZRE) as a favorite speculative play. Here's the latest update on these "green" ideas from the editor of Global Investing.
My two top stock ideas for 2019 were chosen because they are green investments; I want the world to be safe for my 5 grandchildren and soon-to-be-born first grand niece
Ironically, my the safer stock pick — Algonquin Power & Utilities — was up 21%, rising more than my more speculative idea, Azure Power, which rose 16.5%.
Algonquin Power & Utilities is a Canadian utilities company which operates both in the regulated and unregulated electric power business, which means it has some flexibility in rates.
It also has expanded across the border into the USA, which reduces the currency risk for US- based investors. Lastly, it has moved into another business, water distribution and sewage.
It pays over 4% (it paid more when I recommended it last year, but the stock rose despite the sagging Loony). It is a safe way to make green by buying a green stock.
Azure Power is an integrated project developer which offers guaranteed long-term electricity prices, whatever happens in to oil. It bids for government supported sites like railway station rooftops.
The firm a decade of experience and over 3 dozen plants. The founder and CEO since 2008 is a Silicon Valley professional of Indian heritage, Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa.
Climate change deniers are putting their heads in the sand rather than learning from the extreme weather conditions hitting the world, flooding in the Mississippi rivers system, murderous heat waves in Chennai, and extreme heat in Switzerland and France where people until now have not needed air-conditioning.
I am embarrassed that the India speculation did less well than the more sensible Canadian stock. But my reasoning for both was based on the fact that I want to make sure our planet will remain healthy for the next generation.
We have no "Plan B" if we don't move away from greenhouse gas producing energy sources. We need solar — Azure — and alternative energy— Algonquin — for the sake of generations to come. I also think they make sense financially.
