Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Al Gore, No Score!: GIM Stuck with 959,075 First Solar Shares (FSLR)

Long time readers know that we've had less and less to say about the solar space as the zeitgeist changed and the fundamentals asserted themselves.
As part of our change in focus we've stopped reporting on Mr. Gore's Generation Investment Management.
Until today.
Last year we posted "Al Gore's Generation Investment Management's Portfolio Ain't So Green: It's Deliberate":
Every time GIM files their 13F quarterly report with the SEC I trot out some boilerplate:

Two comments I've made in the past but have to repeat:
1) These are only the publicly traded U.S. stocks in their portfolio. Private deals, foreign stocks, cash etc. don't show up.
GIM is reputed to be running $5 Billion, these securities only total $2.36 Bil.
2) This is not a very "green" portfolio.
The intro to the Nov. 2009 filing was a bit more flippant:
Al's got wood!
And implements!
As we've commented before this is not a particularly green portfolio.
These are only the publicly traded U.S. names. Other investments (GIM is a large holder of carbon trader Camco, CAO.L, for instance) they aren't required to report, so they don't.
Here's the inside scoop, from NewNet:

NewNet Investor Profile: Colin le Duc, Generation Investment Management...
As of GIM's last SEC filing, August 8, 2011 for the quarter ended June 30, GIM held 959,075 First Solar shares.
The stock closed at $99.88 that day.
The prior 13F, filed May 18 when the stock closed at $129.24 showed 632,674 shares in the portfolio.

Generation Investment Management was making the rookie mistake of averaging down on a busted high flyer.