Shares of Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which runs natural gas fueling stations for fleets of taxis, buses and other vehicles, fell Monday after investor publication Barron’s took a critical eye toward the company.
Clean Energy’s stock closed down 7% on a market value of about $1.2 billion.
The shares have nearly tripled in the past 12 months with Wall Street’s rebound and a push toward profitability at Clean Energy, which runs about 200 natural gas fueling stations.
The company’s stations serve government buses, airport vehicles and private taxi fleets.
According to Barron’s, some big companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. are considering switching some of their trucks to natural gas, which is less polluting and cheaper than diesel.
But Clean Energy faces issues, according to Barron’s.
If large fleets of trucks do switch to natural gas, major oil and gas companies could enter the market and take business—and profits—from Clean Energy, the magazine said.
Shareholders also face the prospect of a big increase in Clean Energy’s shares as executives and key owner T. Boone Pickens exercise stock options and warrants.
Texas billionaire Pickens, who owns 40% of Clean Energy, has to exercise warrants before 2012 or he’ll forfeit a profit of $150 million, according to Barron’s.
All of Clean Energy’s options and warrants stand to dilute profits expressed on a per share basis by 30%, it said.
“Clean Energy investors should brace for that 30% haircut,” the story said.
Pickens started Clean Energy as a tiny part of his Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum in the late 1980s. He split it off in the late 1990s.
