PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW) Holdings

PBW is an ETF that holds companies in the "business of the advancement of cleaner energy and conservation." We've gotten quite a few requests recently about alternative energy plays, so we thought we'd publish a list of the stocks that make up the Clean Energy ETF. For each stock, we include its sector, price, year-to-date percent change, estimated '08 PEG ratio, relative P/E ratio (to the S&P 500), and weight in PBW.

Many alternative energy plays are still very speculative and have either very high valuations or no earnings at all. Clearly not every company in this list is going to make it, and that's what makes holding the ETF and not trying to pick individual names so appealing to investors. With oil up so much this year already, it's surprising to see that only 24% of the stocks that make up the ETF are up on the year. FSYS, GU, ENER and MXWL are all up more than 50% this year, but three of the four don't even have earnings.

click to enlarge

Comments

[tessant:]

GREAT ETF to get the alt ener exposure. Highly recommend it. One of the first ones in this space and still the best IMO

-Scott
solarfeeds

2008 May 15 03:38 PM

[bluesmoke:]

Nice chart. I've owned PBW for about a year. At one point it was up 18%, then down over 20%. I'm still down about 10% but I like it for the long term, and I expect a lot more volatility.

2008 May 15 04:23 PM

[DM226:]

Any thoughts on this vs. PBD?

2008 May 15 04:39 PM

[Tim Plaehn:]

I am a fan of PBD primarily for the global exposure. Renewable energy companies from 20+ countries.

2008 May 15 08:16 PM

[investorslive:]

Anything with the word Solar or Energy in it is a good buy in this market

Thats response to DM226

check out www.investorslive.com/...

2008 May 16 12:03 AM

[Nidhi Kadalbal:]

GEX is another good alternative which is more global.

2008 May 16 01:40 AM

[keanemd:]

Hey everyone

I have tracked PBW the last six months and currently own a call spread on it. This ETF does exactly what I think the ETF philosophy should be: be balanced. PBD is also good for the global exposure. Long term this is a nice ETF to own.

2008 May 16 08:39 AM

[danno:]

This ETF is a nice short-term investment, but the strategy for long-term sucks. There's no investment merit here and the risk-adjusted return is poor. If you have to pick so many companies in the same sector then you get too many losers. Seems like there's a lot of stocks here that have little to do with altnernative energy, are in bio-fuels from food crops, or just plain lousy companies. I'd have to agree, that GEX, or PZD, or even the new solar ETFs (for trading) blow this puppy out of the water.

2008 May 16 08:48 AM

[danno:]

Actually, I take that back. PZD is diversified way beyond alternative energy so it's not a pure-play energy ETF. It's a good ETF, but it's not a good direct comparison to PBW. QCLN is a good comp to PBW, but it's no better, in fact, its worse. I'd have to stick with GEX as a better direct comp.

2008 May 16 08:51 AM

[aquaculture:]

U.S. geothermal industry experiencing "dramatic growth surge" with expectations that total power production (currently 3 million homes) could triple over the next few years.
GEA together with Ormat (NYSE:ORA) and Glitnir bank will host a workshop on july 23, 2008 in NYC to introduce geothermal energy to the NYC financial community.
Among the present: Google.
Google has announced that geothermal energy will be one of their focus areas for new investment.

2008 May 16 09:42 AM

[aquaculture:]

More info: geo-energy.org

2008 May 16 09:44 AM

[oaksleeksbeans:]

Hey Aquaculture - I believe you mean ground sourced heat pumps not geothermal. Speaking as a geologist, geothermal is hot water gysers etc. Ground sourced heat pumps use the stable temperature of the earth as a heat source (winter) or sink (summer) for a heat pump.

2008 May 19 11:30 PM

[thewiz12:]

I feel the two best alt energy ETF's are GEX & PBW. You can hold both & gain quite excellent diversification. Here's why:

GEX: Larger caps, Global (EU & Asia mostly) exposure, Older companies
PBW: Smaller caps, More US focused co's, Younger companies

So, GEX is a "safer" investment, while PBW will have more volatility. Combine the two & you get a little bit of cross over (mostly Chinese Solar co's) with better diversification.

2008 Jun 04 05:33 AM