This cleantech stock should be in your portfolio, investor says

Investors interested in the renewable energy space have a number of resource-based companies to choose from, including hydro, wind and solar providers, hydrogen companies and renewable natural gas providers. While on the tech side, options are also plentiful, with smart grid and battery tech names being a frequent choice.

To help narrow down your choices, portfolio manager Rob Lauzon says investors should be thinking about Israeli photovoltaic systems name SolarEdge Technologies (SolarEdge Technologies Stock Quote, Charts, News, Analysts, Financials NASDAQ:SEDG). Lauzon recently gave the nod to SolarEdge as one of his three top picks in the renewable sector.

“This is a clean tech company, with no dividend but it grows at 25-30 per cent per year,” said Lauzon, CIO at Middlefield Capital, who spoke on BNN Bloomberg on Friday.

“SolarEdge helps optimize the power that you get out of your solar panels and all solar projects. They take the power and with their software, their semiconductors, inverters and their battery storage they squeeze more efficiency out of it,” he said.

SolarEdge partners with solar panel installation companies, for example, to sell their solar products to residential and commercial settings. Last month, they announced a new agreement with US residential solar company Freedom Forever to supply the SolarEdge Home Smart Energy Ecosystem of products like inverters, power optimizers, batteries, EV chargers and load controllers.

“Electricity costs, recent weather events, and new regulations, like the California’s Net Energy Metering 3.0, are bringing solar and battery solutions to the forefront”, said Zvi Lando, CEO of SolarEdge, in a press release. “We are proud to enter this strategic cooperation with Freedom Forever to provide smarter, more efficient, and more powerful solar and battery solutions to homes across the United States.”

With an $18 billion market cap, SolarEdge’s share price has been bouncing around the $220-$340 range over the past couple of years, and Lauzon says if you can get used to the volatility, the stock is a worthy pick.

“It’s in North America and in Europe, and I like that because it’s a little bit of a diversification [play] and I think there’s another leg to grow if Europe does an Inflation Reduction Act-type of product policy proposal later this year that will help SolarEdge over its competitor Enphase. We like them both because Enphase is more in North America and with SolarEdge you get a little bit of both,” Lauzon said.

“The stock is either up or down three per cent a day, so a little more volatile, but think of it as a technology stock for sustainable infrastructure,” he said.