Ethanol Stocks - Pacific Ethanol

Civil war in Libya intensifies and causes oil price to remain at  record high of $100 per barrel.  With most sectors down on high oil price the sector that attracts buyers so far are the energy sectors such as the oil drillers.  Beside the oil related industries another group of stocks that may get benefit from rising oil price are the ethanol producers.  


Pacific Ethanol Inc(Nasdaq: PEIX) owns and operates four ethanol production facilities in California, Oregon and Idaho and produces 200 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol per year.  For the past three years the company's revenue has been falling from $703 million in 2008 to $316 million in 2009.  And for the first three quarters of 2010 the ethanol producer has just generated $194 million in revenue and will have and will have a tough time to exceed the revenue earned in the previous year.  This probably explains why the stock is currently traded at 72 cents per share, about 64% off last March's level at $2 and 98% off 2006's high of $42 per share.  Pacific Ethanol's hope is the high gasoline price which could attract investors to look at this hard beaten stock. The chart does indicate support at the 60 cents per share level so there is some room for the stock to go up.