Coal Stocks Heating up in the Last Few Days

In case you didn't notice, every major coal stock, except one, was up significantly today, January 23, and some some of them were up as much as 3%. Not bad for a one day move. They have all started to move up in the last few days. Some are attributing this to the cold weather. But it is most likely more than that. In a previous article, I discussed the use of coal by electric utilities. With more than 70% of all utilities using coal to run their generators to produce electricity, the demand for coal is significant. The following is a list of the major coal stocks. Fording Canadian Coal Trust (FDG) is excluded from the list because it is a Canadian trust that I will be covering in an upcoming article on publicly traded trusts. You will notice that coal producers are not really high dividend payers [with the exception of Yanzhou Coal Mining and Fording Canadian Coal Trust], but I have included the yields for your review. If the current PE is not listed, it means recent earnings are negative.

Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) mines, processes, and markets bituminous and sub-bituminous coal with low sulfur content. PE=24. Yield .8%

CONSOL Energy Inc. (CNX) mines and markets steam coal. PE=17. Yield .8%

Foundation Coal Holdings Inc. (FCL) extracts, cleans, and sells coal to electric utilities, steel producers, and other industrial companies. PE=18. Yield .6%

International Coal Group, Inc. (ICO) produces, processes, and sells steam and metallurgical coal. No dividend.

James River Coal Co. (JRCC) mines, processes, and sells bituminous, steam, and industrial-grade coal. No dividend.

Massey Energy Co. (MEE) produces, processes, and sells steam and metallurgical grade bituminous coal. Yield .7%

National Coal Corp. (NCOC) mines, processes, and sells bituminous steam coal. No dividend.

Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) has ownership interests in 36 coal operations. PE=19. Yield .6%

Westmoreland Coal Co. (WLB) produces and sells coal from surface mines to electric utilities. PE=38. No dividend.

Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd. (YZC) This Chinese company mines, and sells coal in China and Australia. PE=14. Yield 2.8%.

Author does not own any of the above.