Evergreen Solar: Strong Call Action

By David Russell

Evergreen Solar is rallying today on a big upgrade from JP Morgan, and at least one trader is betting that it will more than triple by late this year.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring system detected the purchase of 1,500 December 7.50 calls against open interest of 106 contracts. The transaction was broken into two pieces executed at $0.15.

ESLR is up 12.56 percent to $2.42 in afternoon trading after being upgraded from "underweight" to "overweight" by analyst Christopher Blansett, who said the solar energy company's performance may start surprising to the upside. ESLR has ranged between $1 and $3 since mid-January and is down more than 70 percent in the last year.

Traders also piled into the August 2.50 calls, which traded 1,931 times against open interest of 1,070 contracts. The selling was divided between buyers taking new long positions and sellers who are probably taking profits and writing options against holdings in the stock.

Call volume in the name exceeded puts by 19 to 1, reflecting the bullish sentiment. Options trading also heated up in Energy Conversion Devices, which JP Morgan initiated with an "overweight" rating. Call volume in ENER was about twice average and outnumbered puts by almost 5 to 1. The stock is trading up 7.4 percent to $15.36.

(Chart courtesy of tradeMONSTER)

Comments

[Windsun33:]

Way too optimistic on ESLR. I would rate it a hold at best for the next 6 months.

Jul 02 10:46 PM

[Fred W:]

ESLR's management has been proved very good at extracting money from common shareholders--otherwise they are incompetent and bordering on dishonest with how they approach their own compensation.
Tech is good and someone will buy it but ESLR is not looking out for its "owners", just its managers and prospective buyers.

Jul 03 11:31 AM

[BPYHO:]

Agreed. Did anyone listen to their presentation at the piper jaffrey's clean energy conference a a few months back? If you get a chance to listen and watch their slide show you wouldnt be touching ESLR with a 10 ft pole. The Evergreen rep (think it was the VP) who presented was terrible. In a sort of a slow NE accent he basically said, ' our company is the best b/c we have string ribbon technology...."I dont remember him even taking any questions...GT solar and JA solar's presentations were MUCH better and more professional. I actually owned 2k of ESLR before the conference but once I heard that baboon in ESLR's managment give the presentation I immedietely sold everything... Im sure its still a good trading stock but definitely not one I am keeping in my portfolio

Jul 03 05:44 PM

[t bo row:]

Solar products are waaaayyyy too expensive, they will have to lower product costs to go anywhere...

Jul 05 09:53 AM

[stockdoc123:]

ESLR will be a winner in the end! Very good product!

Jul 14 04:31 PM