ABB on Top of the Barrons' List:
online.barrons.com
The Smart Way to Play the Green Revolution
By MIKE HOGAN, Barrons'
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2009
Greater government funding bodes well for some pure plays in the solar, wind, ethanol and biomass industries. But it bodes even better, near term, for well-established, diversified and financially healthy companies like Switzerland's ABB (ABB), Florida utility FPL Group (FPL), Waste Management (WMI), Jacobs Engineering (JEC) and electrical-products supplier Eaton (ETN). All are visible and increasingly powerful players in areas given spending priority: energy conservation, infrastructure renewal and the build-out of a "smarter" power grid.
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But we consider ABB, Waste Management, FPL, Jacobs and Eaton a sort of green dream team, for all the reasons, and then some, explained below. They probably aren't the first names that come to mind when you think "green," but they have the products, technologies and, not least, the financial strength to deliver for investors. Even better, their stocks are bargains.
A provider of power and automation systems, ABB tops most shortlists of companies likely to benefit from large-scale energy projects and conservation initiatives. Among other things, the 125-year-old industrial giant is one of the world's biggest builders of electricity grids.
With credit frozen and demand constrained, ABB faces the same challenges as other industrial outfits. But the company, profiled favorably in Barron's last spring ("The GE of Europe is a Major Power Player," May 19, 2008), is better positioned to benefit from more government and industry spending on infrastructure upgrades around the world, says Van Eck's Mitby.
Headquartered in Zurich, ABB sells large-scale electrical circuitry, robotics and energy-monitoring and automation systems. It seems to land one multimillion-dollar infrastructure contract after another, including a recent $63 million deal to upgrade a power station in Saudi Arabia. Renewable-energy projects will need ABB's products and services, and its technology, including power-management sensors and load-balancing systems, has kept it ahead of most competitors, says Morningstar analyst Daniel Holland.
ABB's shares have been cut by almost two-thirds, to 12, from their high last May, and now trade for nine times 2009 estimated earnings of $1.32 a share, a discount to the S&P 500's price/earnings multiple. Granted, last year's earnings were higher, at $1.74 a share, slightly exceeding expectations. Morningstar puts the company's fair value at 19 a share, some 62% above last week's close. Investors can collect a 46-cent annual dividend (for a current yield of 3.8%) while waiting for the global economy to jump-start.
ABB recently shed some poorly performing assets in an efficiency drive of its own. The company boasts a strong balance sheet, and net cash (cash minus debt) of $5.4 billion, or $2.40 a share, Holland notes. It has used excess cash to boost its payout and buy in shares. Twelve-month return on equity of 28.39% is more than three times that of its peer group, which includes industrial outfits such as Emerson Electric (EMR) and Danaher (DHR).
"We are in the sweet spot of energy efficiency and of climate change," chief financial officer Michel Demare told Barron's last spring. For ABB, it is about to get sweeter.
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