Andrew Bary, analyst/reporter at Barron’s, highlighted Ethanol companies in this week’s Barron’s.  He basically said that although it is a competitive industry (companies have a lot of debt and potential liquidity issues) and profits are volatile, the industry has government subsidiaries (until 2010) and is saving consumers money on gasoline.  And, ethanol reduced gasoline demand by 9 billion barrels annually.

Ultimately, he believes several stocks are trading at a discount to their book value. And, he says Ethanol producers VeraSun Energy (VSE), Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR) and Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) are trading below book value. All could rally in the coming year.

Check out Bary’s stock picks at:

http://www.trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=322

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Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ:PEIX) made a huge comeback last Monday leaping from $3.20 to $5.65, just one week later is back down to $3.79 a share.  Hard to believe this stock was $44.50 in 2006 and this week's fall is due to the dillution of PEIX shares by adding millions more to be shorted on the open market. Kudos Management. Here's the story from Sacbee.com: Pacific Ethanol Inc., seeking to bulk up at a time of slim profit margins, said Friday it has raised $34.25 million through a series of private stock sales. About $5.75 million in preferred stock and warrants were purchased by a group of company executives, including Chairman Bill Jones; Neil Koehler, the president and ...