Golar & eMagin 2Q20 schedules, and earnings follow up ?3

20:07 06-Aug-20

Golar has scheduled its second quarter report for the morning of August 13th.  Average analyst estimates call for a loss of 9 cents per share from $90M in revenue, increasing to $93.9M this quarter from the parent company.  The Partnership is expected to earn 17 cents per share from $70.5M, increasing to $71.7M.  Of course, we'll all be looking to see if there is a way that Golar can unload the shipping that I've always worried about and get on with its business in Brazil and maybe even Africa.  Color on the potentially game-changing Galileo agreement will also be of interest to me.

eMagin has scheduled its second quarter report for the same morning.  Only one analyst offers estimates for the company, predicting a loss of a penny per share from $7.5M in revenue, increasing to $7.9M this quarter.  Obviously that hasn't been updated for the D.C. following much of the rest of the world's lead in picking government-sponsored winners.

It could be worse.  Stability is still better than the catastrophic instability that I've predicted for the Middle East.  That and dollar weakness probably have more to do with oil prices holding above $40 than supply & demand reports right now.  So a 5K open market insider buy from a Schlumberger Director doesn't move me in the least.  However, natural gas is still at $2.17.  Some interesting commentary in Clearway's call characterized gas as a valuable hedge to renewables, but one that should be diluted going forward, whereas hydrogen is seen as a potentially valuable replacement for the latter half of this decade.  I've just written about how such a progression doesn't play out so well for Westport, and the same goes for Golar.  However, that sort of ramp would be fairly positive for Xebec.

Of course, much hinges on the election, and not just for eMagin.  AMSC up too much for my taste in advance of that, along with AES whose storage business depends largely on stable demand and regulations.  This is also why Clearway's management explicitly acknowledged the preference for investment outside of California.  At the federal level, financial analysts are already looking not only the possible rollback of individual tax cuts, but the corporate ones as well, in the event of a Democratic sweep.  In such a scenario, CenturyLink historical Net Operating Loss becomes more valuable, as does Clearway's business model, since renewable credits would enhance the strong growth already planned for the next two years over and above the math I provided.  With the PG&E situation finally out of the way, CWEN(A) goes back to primarily being an income investment, as evidenced by the new $150M ATM authorization.  Know your investment goals when investing; if it's growth you're looking for, VIRT is the only solid near-term option that I see remaining.  More on that in the morning.