The days of a financial analysis being the sole weather vane for investors may be coming to an end. Investors and analysts are looking more closely at a given company’s impact on the environment, position and advocacy around social issues, and the integrity with which they are governed.
As the focus on ESG becomes a necessity for companies, smaller firms may very well be best equipped for improvements in these areas, as their ship is not yet “too big to turn.” We have identified five stocks the ESG conscious investor may find worthy of their watchlist.
Viking Energy Group (OTCMKTS:VKIN) is perfect for any speculative investor searching for ESG investments. The diversified green company has made three recent acquisitions; a carbon capture system that produces sellable commodities from carbon emissions, a medical waste treatment device called the ‘OZONE’, and a Green Renewable Diesel Production Facility in Reno that it is extremely close to closing on. VKIN has a lot of potential market shifting events potentially in the near-term horizon. So now is the time to start your research on VKIN.
CNH Industrial NV (NYSE:CNHI) reported Q4 earnings of 25 cents a share, down from a year ago EPS of 30 cents a share. Revenue during the quarter stood at $9,072 million, grew 7% year-over-year. Analysts were projecting the company to report 21 cents a share in revenue of $7,983.3 million. The company’s net sales for industrial activities came in at $8,552 million, up 6.4% year on year.
In the December quarter, net sales in the Agricultural Equipment segment jumped 21.2% year over year to $4,150 million due to a demand boost and favorable price realization.
When the price target for a stock is moved up then it almost always comes into the attention of investors and so was the case with the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) stock on Thursday. The stock came into focus in a big way after JPMorgan set the price target to $20 a share.
The price target was moved up from $18 a share and in addition to that, the bank also maintained the rating of ‘overweight’ on the stock. In the fourth quarter financial results announced by the company in November last year, Hewlett Packard had managed to generate revenues of as much as $7.4 billion and that was higher than the estimates of $7.39 billion. Earnings per share came in at $0.52 and that was higher than analysts’ estimates of $0.49 as well.
Flex Ltd (NASDAQ:FLEX): Recently, the company announced that it sold a minority stake in Nextracker Inc., its solar industry subsidiary, for $500 million. TPG Rise Climate, which is a fund within private equity firm TPG Inc. (Nasdaq:TPG), bought the stake. Its investment came at an implied enterprise value of $3 billion.
Flex Ltd. provides design, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain services and solutions to original equipment manufacturers in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It operates through two segments, Flex Agility Solutions (FAS) and Flex Reliability Solutions.
Earlier on in the week, the Northern Oil and Gas Inc (NYSE:NOG) stock came into focus after the company made a major announcement. Back on February 14, the company announced that it had been awarded the approval by the New York Stock Exchange to transfer the listing of the Northern Oil and Gas to the New York Stock Exchange from the NYSE American.
The stock had stopped trading on the NYSE American from yesterday and started trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol NOG. It was a significant development for the company and it is now going to be interesting to see if the stock experiences any heavier action following its listing on the NYSE.
