Energy

Why Alt Energy Providers Sunworks, Peck, Ocean Power Are Skyrocketing

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Investors appear to be over the moon Wednesday as shares of three alternative energy firms were absolutely soaring. Shortly after the opening bell, Peck Co. Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PECK) was up more than 70%, Sunworks Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) was up nearly 60% and Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OPTT) had added nearly 40%. Added together, the market cap of all three totals around $190 million.

Two of the three, Peck and Sunworks, agreed in August that Peck would acquire Sunworks in an all-stock transaction in which Sunworks shareholders would receive 0.185171 shares of Peck stock for each Sunworks share they owned. Based on Peck’s share price at the time, Sunworks shareholders would own 36.5% of the combined company following the transaction valued at around $14 million.

Peck and Sunworks are both engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) providers to the solar industry, and the combined company would have had ranked as the 16th largest solar EPC firm in the world.

On Wednesday, Sunworks announced that it had signed new contracts worth $10 million in the third quarter of the year. The contracts include $3.2 million in projects located in California, a $1.4 million agricultural project and $700,000 sale to a meat products company that is building a solar parking canopy, including eight electric vehicle charging stations.

For its part, Peck said Wednesday that it has signed a $7.3 million contract for a project in Rhode Island. A week ago, Peck signed a $2.4 million contract for a solar project in Maine.

While these numbers are relatively small, it’s worth keeping in mind that Peck’s revenue over the past four quarters totals just $28.2 million. Yet, that was up from $16 million in the prior year. Sunworks posted revenues of almost $54 million over the past four quarters.

When the transaction between the two firms is completed (expected in the fourth quarter), the combined company’s backlog is likely to be close to $90 million. The two firms expect to capture some $6 million in annual cost savings.

Peck came public last year in a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Jensyn Acquisition Corp.

Late last month, Sunworks received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq for failing to maintain a share price above $1.00. Two days later, the stock jumped more than 400%, and on September 23, shares closed at $1.16, before marching to $4.02 at Tuesday’s closing bell.

Ocean Power, too, has had some trouble maintaining a share price of at least $1.00, receiving its own delisting notice from Nasdaq in April this year. In mid-September, the company signed a common stock purchase agreement with Aspire Capital Fund, a private, long-only investment fund.

Under the terms of the deal, Ocean Power will sell up to $12.5 million in common stock to Aspire Capital over a period of 30 months. Proceeds from the sale will enable Ocean Power to build more of its PowerBuoys, devices that capture the mechanical energy of ocean waves and convert it to electricity. The company said the new devices would be built “as needed to meet potential market demand.” The deal became effective Wednesday, causing the share price to shoot higher.

Peck Holdings’ shares traded at $14.42 early Wednesday, a new 52-week high. The 52-week low is $1.49 and shares recently traded up about 53% at $11.08. No analyst has a listed price target on the stock.

Sunworks stock traded up by around 73% shortly after the bell and most recently changed hands at $4.97, up more than 45% for the day. The stock’s 52-week range is $0.29 to $8.50, and the consensus 12-month price target is $0.80.

Ocean Power shares traded at a new 52-week high of $3.64 early Wednesday. The stock’s 52-week low is $0.33, and it is trading at around $2.96, up 36%, at last look. The consensus price target on the stock is $6.00.

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