Posts for Ticker ‘URZ’

Nuclear Stocks Reacting to USEC Woes (USU, CCJ, NLR, URZ, DNN, URRE, PESI)

Carbon Emission ImageWe have already covered the nuclear winter blow-up over at USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) after the DOE declines to issue a guarantee for it long-pending loan application.  What we wanted to see is what the fallout is in the rest of the nuclear sector.  As we expected, all of the stocks are down.  The good news is that these are not down anywhere as much we would have guessed based upon the sharp negative reaction for USEC shares.  This has Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ), Market Vectors Nuclear Energy ETF (NYSE: NLR), and others on the defensive.
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Posted on: July 28, 2009 – 11:26 am in Nuclear, Trading Alert, Utilities, , , , , , ,

Uranium Strategic Investment, Denison Mines and Uranerz (DNN, URZ)

Uranerz Energy Corporation (AMEX: URZ)announced that it will raise approximately $23.676 million (US Dollars) in funds via a brokered private placement of 4 million units and via a non-brokered private placement of 5.865 million units, including 5,465,000 to Denison Mines Corp. (AMEX: DNN) at a price of $2.40 (US Dollars) per unit. Denison will then own about 9.9% of Uranerz after completing the investment.

Each unit is comprised of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant for a period of 24 months at an exercise price of US$3.50 per share.  The securities have not been and will not be registered.  These fall under Reg. D inside the U.S. and fall under Reg. S outside the US in offshore accounts.

Denison is also a uranium producer in the United States.  Net proceeds will be used for the following:

  • to advance the 100% owned Nichols Ranch and Hank ISR properties whose license and permits were submitted in Q4-2007;
  • complete an aggressive exploration drill program on the 81% owned Arkose Property, contiguous with Nichols Ranch and Hank;
  • and for general working capital purposes.

Denison is a uranium producer with mining assets in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan, Canada and also in Colorado, Utah and Arizona. Denison also has a strong development portfolio with advanced stage projects in Zambia and Mongolia.

In US terms, Denison has a $1.6 Billion market cap and looks like it is profitable. Uranerz Energy has a $94 million market cap in U terms and is still in its early stages.

Jon C. Ogg
March 18, 2008

Posted on: March 18, 2008 – 4:00 pm in Metals, Nuclear, Secondary Offering, ,

As Media Touts Nuclear Power, Time To Review Nuclear & Uranium Stocks (CCJ, USU, SGE, FLR, GE, URRE, USEG, URZ, CAU, MOS, CF, NLR)

It seems like the media is touting and flaunting more and more for a return of nuclear energy.  This may or may not happen as the applications are again for "Next Year" and it is with no surprise that it’s becoming the topic of much labor in Mexico pronounced "Man-ya-na" (sorry no N~ without changing languages).    You can also see where spot Uranium prices have come down significantly from the pre-summer ramp and summer highs.  TradeTech’s Uranium site shows its price chart for Uranium and The Ux Consulting Company shows much of the same.  But with $80.00 per barrel of oil and T. Boone Pickens calling for even higher oil prices you never know just how long the "call for nuclear power" will take to resurface from the investment community.  Nuclear power is getting more media coverage again. 

Let’s assume for a moment that we forget about the discussions leading to delays that have been perpetual.  Let’s for get about the political side of nuclear power.  Lets forget about killing land under mountains where we’ll bury the stuff in Nevada.  And let’s forget about the potential environmental catastrophe that can result if something goes horribly wrong.

There are many stock plays in the U.S. alone that will be huge beneficiaries of this if even one nuclear power plant approval goes through.  If there is one, why not the full dozen of them.  Here is the lot of companies:

Shaw Group (NYSE:SGR) is perhaps the most vertical of the engineering and construction firms.  Fluor (NYSE:FLR) is also in there.  And we can’t leave out the monster General Electric (NYSE:GE) for new reactors, nuclear fuel, reactor services and performance services.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) out of Canada is THE go-to behemoth in the stock market for Uranium miners and producers.  The much smaller company in the US is USEC (NYSE:USU), although its shares were hit exceptionally hard Friday after testing started.  Some more smaller and much more speculative stocks in the sector are Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:URRE), U.S. Energy Corp. (NASDAQ:USEG), Uranerz Energy Corp (AMEX:URZ), and even Canyon Resources Corporation (AMEX:CAU).  Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) and CF Industries (NYSE:CF) are stealth plays in the sector that can enrich uranium from phosphate, but you should know that prices have to be very high and have to be expected to remain very high for quite some time for those to be cost effective.

 

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Posted on: September 14, 2007 – 12:32 pm in Nuclear, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Uranium Stocks Surge Despite Slow Uranium Contract Trading

Stock Tickers: USU, NMX, CCJ, EMU, URRE, URZ

This morning, if it is a stock related to uranium then it is probably up.  This is in the face of what is a very slow launch of uranium contract trading on NYMEX (NMX-NYSE) that we alerted last Friday.

USEC Inc. (USU-NYSE) is trading up 5% more at $23.94 and the stock earlier today traded a dime above the old yearly high of $24.34.  This is actually a multi-year high that may in fact be an all-time high.

Cameco (CCJ-NYSE) is also up 2% to $50.68 today.  If you listened to their conference call last week you would scratch your head over this.  Almost every single analyst that asked questions after the update to the company’s Cigar Lake floode was vicious and lashing.  The company didn’t really address the concerns from how it sounded.

Cramer’s pick, Energy Metals Corp. (EMU-NYSE) is trading up more than 5% on the day.  Uranium Resources (URRE-NASDAQ/OTC) posted a 300% revenue gain to $4.6 million.  This is a tiny number on a microcap stock, but those are things that swing traders and metals speculators look for.  Shares are up almost 4% to $9.90.  Even the small uranium wild catting play, Uranerz Energy (URZ-AMEX) is up 1% today.

This all flies in the face of what has been a very slow start to the Nymex uranium contract trading.  According to the website at Nymex, the open interest was a whopping 37 contracts since the contract debuted on Monday.  The large uranium miners and processors said they were going to stay on the sidelines for a while to see what would happen and how the contracts would be received.  Based on that open interest it doesn’t look like the big layers are coming in to trade the contract any time soon.

Jon C. Ogg
May 11, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: May 11, 2007 – 10:41 am in Metals, , , , , ,

NYMEX Launching Uranium Futures: What Does It Mean For Uranium Stocks?

Stock Tickers: NMX, USU, CCJ, EMU, MOS, CF, URRE, USEG, URZ

Uranium prices, and many of the underlying stocks that either mine it or explore it or are involved in the processing are way up from prior months.  This sector will get more interesting next week and it has been given very little exposure for something of this magnitude.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (NMX-NYSE) is going to start trading a URANIUM FUTURES CONTRACT on Monday.  You can visit the site and see the summary of details on the contracts that are available.  There were some details that the exchange made public on April 16 and it is worth a read.

It is quite odd that this has not been a US market yet, because as far as most of us know the price is basically set weekly.  What is a bit odd is that the terms are not quite the same as what the industry has used and many of the indications are that the major uranium players themselves are going to sit on the sidelines for a while.  That may or may not hold true in a few months but for now it seems like the speculators and trading firms are going to be the ones involved.

Some of the underlying shares were making major moves a few weeks ago, but some have slown down or stalled during the earnings flood over the last 3 weeks.  Most of these stocks are also either micro-cap companies with loose involvement in the grand scheme of things or they are smaller companies in Canada.  There are still at least some decent sized stocks that can be reviewed in the sector:

USEC (USU-NYSE) is the pure-play that most US investors use as a bogey.

Cameco Corp. (CCJ-NYSE) is far larger as the largest producer in the world and based in Canada.  They are holding a conference call to give an update to the two floods at the Cigar Lake uranium project in Saskatchewan.

Energy Metals (EMU-NYSE) was Jim Cramer’s play on the huge spike in the sector.  Cramer also came out with the two stealth plays in the sector. He also noted Mosaic (MOS-NYSE) and CF Industries (CF-NYSE) as stealth plays in the sector that can enrich uranium from phosphate, but you should know that prices have to be very high and have to be expected to remain very high for those to be cost effective. Here is what he said on these.

We had noted a safety net at the end of 2006 that uranium and nuclear energy investors could look at after Merrill Lynch made some incredibly strong calls for 2007 to 2008.

There were also many of these that were up huge in early April, and here is what was indicated at the time.

Uranium Resources (URRE-NASDAQ) $9.44; April 12 $9.68, DEC 11 $5.96.

U.S. Energy Corp. (USEG-NASDAQ) $6.54; April 12 $5.77; DEC 11 $5.58.

Uranerz Energy Corp (URZ-AMEX) $7.03; April 12 $6.38, DEC 11 $3.83.

There is even a note in the National Post in Canada showing that Raymond James has made some Canadian picks that could be buyouts in the sector.

It is hard to imagine that the contracts will gain a major foothold until the major producers and explorers to come into the actual exchange and participate in the liquidity.  These contracts may offer them some added hedging and liquidity, but it sounds like they are going to wait and see how this goes before they change the time old traditions of current uranium trading. 

Jon C. Ogg
May 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in any of the companies he covers.

Posted on: May 4, 2007 – 11:48 am in Alternative Energy, Nuclear, Utilities, , , , , , , , ,