4. CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX)
Greenlight Capital’s Stake Value: $55,137,000
Percentage of Greenlight Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 3.69%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 15
Share Price as of December 15: $20.67
CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX) is an American energy company from Pennsylvania that is primarily focused on coal mining and natural gas, via its subsidiaries. B. Riley analyst Lucas Pipes on October 4 raised the price target on CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX) to $35 from $24 and kept a Buy rating on the shares, citing rising natural gas prices in North America.
David Einhorn, via Greenlight Capital, owns 2.11 million shares of CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX) as of the third quarter, worth $55.1 million, representing 3.69% of the firm’s total investments.
CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX), on November 2, published its Q3 earnings. The company reported a loss per share of $0.14, missing estimates by $0.78.
Encompass Capital Advisors is one of the leading CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX) stakeholders from Q3, with 568,581 shares worth $14.79 million. CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX) is a new addition in the firm’s third quarter portfolio. Overall, 15 hedge funds monitored by Insider Monkey were long CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX), up from 13 funds in the preceding quarter.
Here is what Greenlight Capital has to say about CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CEIX) in its Q2 2021 investor letter:
“Thermal Coal and Natural Gas
ESG investing is inflationary, as green energy is simply more expensive than hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbon energy companies are starved for capital and are being told to change their ways. The result is less exploration and drilling. Even with benchmark oil prices surging over the last year, companies are loath to drill more. Normally, the cure for high prices is high prices. With ESG in the proverbial driver’s seat, we might need much higher prices still in order to increase investment to meet demand.
There is almost nothing less popular than thermal coal. From 2011 to 2020, U.S. coal production declined by 51%. U.S. demand has fallen as we’ve shifted to alternative sources of electricity. As unpopular as coal is though, it still makes up about 20% of U.S. electricity generation. Globally, coal demand is growing modestly as China and India add power generation capacity faster than the West is reducing it. Even so, reduced oil and gas drilling has caused natural gas prices to advance and coal prices are following. Seaborne thermal coal prices are up 140% year-over-year and at the highest levels since 2011, and Northern Appalachia thermal coal prices are catching up, rising 23% in the last month alone.
We own CONSOL Energy (CEIX), the lowest cost, most efficient miner in Appalachia, which is poised to benefit from rising coal prices. It trades at 12x consensus earnings estimates that look stale to us, as they do not reflect recent coal price gains.”
