It's green week on CNBC, a time to reflect on missed opportunities, and a green thesis that didn't work out: using natural gas as auto fuel. It was a big part of the Pickens plan (and the the Cramer plan too), as natural gas is cleaner than oil and, unlike oil which is in all the most inhospitable places, we're sitting on top of immense natural gas reserves.
Mad Money initially recommended Clean Energy Fuels , a company that makes natural gas fueling stations, as a very speculative name back on August 1st with the stock at $13.79-then again on September 10th at $18.07 when he talked to the company's CEO Andrew Littlefair. Since then CLNE has been crushed-it's now a $3.49 name. Tonight on Mad Money we want to figure out why.
Even though CLNE, with about $1.50 of cash per share, is trading just two dollars above its cash, this is not one of those cases where you can buy the stock because of the cash--CLNE has a cash balance of $66 million, but it has a burn rate of $15 million a quarter--so the company really has about four or five quarters worth of cash, which means it is absolutely not a value prospect.