Cree Cuts Prices on LED Streetlights (CREE, AIXG, VECO, LEDS, RBCN)
LED lighting maker Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) has succeeded in making an LED streetlight that sells for less than $200 when purchased in volume. Provided the company can actually make a profit on the light, we could be seeing the…
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Shares in Cree and competitors Aixtron SE (NASDAQ: AIXG), Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO), SemiLEDS Corp. (NASDAQ: LEDS), and Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) have been making a comeback since the beginning of the year, though for the past 12 months shares are down anywhere from -35% (Cree) to -71% (SemiLEDS). Since the beginning of the year, however, Cree, Veeco, and Aixtron are all up around 30%.
A report in The Wall Street Journal notes that 25% of all outdoor lighting in the US is streetlighting and that the market for LED streetlight should blossom at the sub-$200 price point. Both Aixtron and Veeco were upgraded to ‘buy’ by one analyst last month, and most of these companies expect the first quarter of this year to be their toughest.
Cree claims that its latest technology, which uses fewer and cheaper LEDs per light has led to the lower pricing. Whether or not cash-strapped municipalities will buy even cheap lighting is the last remaining question.
Paul Ausick
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.