More good news out of Itron (ITRI) tonight. The company announced strong quarterly earnings results and also a big contract with Yorkshire Water of the UK. The five year contract calls for outfitting up to a million commercial and residential water meters with Itron’s next generation EverBlu AMR technology which will allow Yorkshire to collect meter reads remotely and provide customers and utilities with important usage data to increase efficiency.
Marcel Regnier, COO of Itron … Read the rest
After four straight quarters of sliding revenues and profits, it appears the smart grid sleeping giant Itron (ITRI) has been awakened and ready for years of extraordinary growth. Ok, maybe that’s a bit optimistic, but she has clearly turned the corner with a very impressive quarterly earnings report after the bell today. The company smashed conservative Wall St estimates of .60/share by posting a non GAAP EPS of .82 share on revenues of $477 million. … Read the rest
Jim Cramer has a good history of recommending stocks that are well overbought and he’s adding another one. Last night on his Mad Money show he recommended a few smart grid plays – Itron (ITRI), Cooper Industries (CBE) and Telvent (TLVT). I have long highlighted ITRI as the best and safest way to play the smart grid long term and it remains in a firm up trend. CBE is an interesting pick and one that … Read the rest
This is great news for Itron (ITRI) today. Its subsidiary Actaris has won a joint contract with Arad Technologies of Israel to provide 150K water meters to the city of Mumbai which is half of an expected 300K order. The total project of installing 1.2 million water meters throughout Mumbai is expected to come at a cost of $128 million. Both companies expect to receive follow on orders for the project because of the complexities … Read the rest
The upgrades keep coming in for Suntech Power (STP) and JA Solar (JASO). Yesterday they were upgraded by Barclays and this morning Thomas Weisel is doing the same, upgrading both from Underweight to Market Weight. Both stocks are holding yesterday’s breakout moves well despite heavy selling in the overall market today. While it could be a rocky ride, solar stocks are increasingly showing signs that the bottom is in.
Itron (ITRI), the smart grid behemoth … Read the rest
Sequentric Energy Systems, LLC just announced the release of a new product: the Sequentric ERT Gateway, a home energy management hub that provides data on home energy use directly to consumers, using Itron’s ERT reading functionality.
The device allows utilities to provide customers with up-to-the minute information on energy consumption in their home, connecting them to the smart grid and allowing them to manage their energy usage. The device also works with load controllers, current … Read the rest
As expected, Itron (ITRI) didn’t post great results after the bell today and that’s been the case for much of the past year as utilities continue to curb spending. The company posted an EPS of .45, missing analyst estimates by .07 on revenues of $408 million which also misses estimates ($418 million). The stock isn’t getting hit too hard after hours because expectations were low going in and most traders recognize that with stimulus … Read the rest
I came across a Reuters article today discussing the Itron (ITRI) earnings report tomorrow and they believe (along with a few analysts) that Itron will report poor results tomorrow after the bell due to a cut back on spending from utilities, but are bullish longer term. I would like nothing more than for Itron to miss by a wide margin tomorrow so that I can continue to add to a long term position at a … Read the rest
Deutsche Bank is out this morning upgrading Itron (ITRI) to Buy and raising the price target to $70.
Hat tip to StreetInsider.com for the following analyst comment:
“We encourage investors to accumulate shares as we believe 1) sentiment and forward est’s will trough within the next month, 2) there are numerous positive catalysts on the horizon and 3) Itron’s valuation is attractive (14.5x CY11 EPS). While there is risk to the Street’s 3Q est, we … Read the rest
Ambient Corporation and Itron have partnered to develop a product called the Ambient® EDC module. The module allows legacy automatic reader systems to newer, advanced smart grid systems. The module is installed at strategic positions along the grid to pick up data from encoder receiver transmitter systems (ERT meters). This negates the need for drive-by meter readings and allows utilities to set up monitoring in real time.
In a press release, John J. Joyce, Ambient’s … Read the rest