Minyanville's Sean Udall dares to share the kind of keen insight and actionable information you won't find in any prospectus. Here he answers a reader's burning question about "green" stocks. For more original thought, visit www.minyanville.com.

Professor Udall,

Do you have any opinions on Zoltek Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOLT)? My wife wants me to buy everything "green". Her last "green" company idea was General Electric (NYSE: GE). I know, right? I bought a little just to quiet the noise level. I'm into a little SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) and Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR). Does Zoltek have legs?

Thanks,

Minyan L.

Minyan L.,

First, that's hysterical. Second, a word of caution: Going all green, or all of any one thing, is something I'd never advocate. If you do, you do so at your own risk, as nothing in the market is ever as obvious as it seems, especially when it seems totally obvious.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Procter & Gamble, Human Genome and Arcelor Mittal were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) to Hold from Buy on valuation and their expectation for slowing short-term industry growth, especially in beauty.
  
• Citigroup downgraded Human Genome (NASDAQ:HGSI) to Hold from Buy as they believe giving up Syncria's royalties removes an important value driver for the stock.
  
• HSBC downgraded shares of Arcelor Mittal (NYSE:MT) to Neutral from Overweight on valuation and believes the company needs to raise prices more than costs have risen for iron ore, coking coal and steel scrap.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• BAE Systems (NASDAQ:BAESY) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  
• Merrill downgraded Zoltek (NASDAQ:ZOLT) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Credit Suisse downgraded Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW) and International Paper (NYSE:IP) to Neutral from Outperform.

Here are a few highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) beat estimates on strong sales and higher profit margins.
• Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) profit soared on strong revenue from online marketing.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) earnings and revenue surged in the fourth quarer.
• Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) missed expectations on rising commodity costs and lower profit margins.
• Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) posted better-than-expected profits as rising grain prices spurred demand.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) posted solid results on cost savings and debt reduction.
• Insight Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ: NSIT) beat expectations and raised its guidance.
• LECG (NASDAQ: XPRT) posted a net loss despite a slight increase in revenue in the fourth quarter.
• Loews Corp. (NYSE: LTR) missed estimates due to profit decline in its CNA Financial (NYSE: CNA) affiliate.
• Marsh & McLennan Inc. (NYSE: MMC) missed estimates on weakness in its insurance services business.
• Playboy Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: PLA) posted disappointing results on weakness in publishing and TV.
• Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) fourth-quarter and full-year results met estimates.
• Sierra Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ: SWIR) beat esimates on the launch of new product s.
• Taser International Inc. (NASDAQ: TASR) profits doubled, which was in line with expectations.
• Visteon Corp. (NYSE: VC) posted a fourth-quarter loss on restructuring costs and write-downs.
• Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WMI) beat espectations and offered 2008 guidance.
• Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: WYN) earnings met expectations and were buoyed by lodging revenue.
• Zoltek Companies Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOLT) missed earnings estimates due to inventory buildup.

Upcoming results to watch for include Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX), Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI), MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP), and Safeway (NYSE: SWY).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Zoltek Companies Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOLT) stock is down big this morning after the company posted a first-quarter profit of 8 cents per share, well below analysts' estimates of 24 cents per share. ZOLT's CEO blamed inventory buildup, which is probably due to the sagging economy. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on ZOLT.

After hitting a one-year high of $51.77 in August, the stock has hit a new one-year low today. This morning, ZOLT opened at $27.28. So far today the stock has hit a low of $26.16 and a high of $28.08. As of 11:15, ZOLT is trading at $27.64, down $4.99 (-15.3%). The chart for ZOLT looks bearish and steady.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a June bear-call credit spread above the $40 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. This particular trade will make a 6.4% return in four and a half months as long as ZOLT is below $40 at June expiration. Zoltek would have to rise by more than 42% before we would start to lose money.

ZOLT hasn't been above $40 since early January and has shown resistance around $35 recently. This trade could be risky if the stock bounces back from today's drop, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance ZOLT might find at its 200 day moving average, which is currently around $40 and falling.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in ZOLT.

"Alternatives may not be an important source of electricity, but they are the fastest-growing subsector in the energy space," says energy sector expert Elliott Gue in Personal Finance. Here, he looks at wind power.

"The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that wind power will grow by more than 7%, encouraged by generous government subsidies. Compare that to just 1.5% annualized projected growth in total electricity demand.

"The world's largest wind turbine producer, Vestas Wind Systems (OTC: VWSYF), fell on hard times back in 2005. It priced some of its turbines too aggressively and saw a surge in warranty claims because of defective components.

"But the stock appears back on track. Warranty provisions are down to 5% of revenues. Profit margins surged 4 percentage points year-over-year because of more rational turbine pricing. Vestas' current backlog stands at EUR4.1 billion (US $6.03 billion), up more than 30% year-over-year.

"Alternative energies are not just a pie-in-the-sky dream," says Paul Tracy and Nathan Slaughter from the StreetAuthority Market Advisor. "Denmark generates as much as 30% of its power from wind, Iceland uses geothermal energy, and producers are bringing down the cost of solar power."

"Overall, companies involved in alternative power technologies, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass, are getting plenty of attention from investors these days." Here, the advisors profile what they consider to the most attractive companies in the alternative energy space.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. (NYSE: STP), "which manufactures and sells photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, has two primary advantages: a low manufacturing cost base and highly efficient cells.

"For starters, Suntech is based in China, where labor costs (even for skilled research staff) are far lower than in the Western world. The Chinese government also subsidizes such research, further helping companies like Suntech.

"In addition, the firm's cells boast some of the highest conversion rates on the market, allowing the company to offer smaller panels that can produce as much electricity as far larger ones from competitors.

"Suntech has been ramping up its manufacturing capacity rapidly in recent years to keep pace with strong demand. Analysts are forecasting robust earnings growth of 45% annually over the next five years.

What are the best energy investments for long-term investors? To answer this question, I surveyed 20 of the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors to find their current favorite ideas in the energy sector.

Interestingly, the advisors see the best opportunities in areas well beyond traditional oil firms; indeed, no one included in this report chose a major integrated oil company. Rather, the advisors have shown a preference for various oil services sectors, non-oil energy sources, and developing alternative technologies.

Some focus on areas such as deep-sea operations with Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO), Transocean Inc. (NYSE: RIG) and Oceaneering International (NYSE: OII), while others look toward oil shippers such as Nordic American Tanker Shipping (NYSE: NAT) and refiners such as Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO).

Others chose companies that make specific products needed by the oil & gas industries such as NATCO Group Inc. (NYSE: NTG), which makes a wide range of oil & gas processing systems; Dresser-Rand Group Inc. (NYSE: DRC), a maker of control systems; Gardner Denver Inc. (NYSE: GDI), which makes compressor and fluid transfer systems; Tenaris (NYSE: TS), a maker of pipes and tublar products and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB), the largest and most diversified of the oil services companies.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: European pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Taleo and McAfee were today's noteworthy initiations:

• UBS resumed coverage of Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) with a Buy rating and AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Roche Holding (OTC: RHHBY), Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) with Neutral ratings.
  
• Deutsche Bank believes new product leverage can bring upside to consensus operating margin expectations at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and they view shares as attractively valued given its growth profile. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $33 target.
• Keybanc initiated shares of Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) with a Hold rating and sees slowing growth rates for revenue and net subscriber additions throughout the remainder of FY08 and beyond and thinks investor expectations are too high.
• Keybanc also started shares of Taleo Corporation (NASDAQ: TLEO) with a Buy rating and $27 target, as it is well-positioned to gain market share in the Human Capital Management space.
• Thomas Weisel believes McAfee Inc (NYSE: MFE) will benefit from PC market growth, enhanced awareness of the company's brand, and its renewed focus on product development for the midmarket corporate segment, and started shares with a Market Weight rating and $37 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) was started at William Blair with an Outperform rating and at UBS with a Neutral rating and $37 target.
• Merrill Lynch initiated shares of Zoltek Companies Inc (NASDAQ: ZOLT) with a Buy rating and $50 target.
• Bear Stearns started shares of Capital Product Partners (NASDAQ: CPLP) with a Peer Perform rating.
• Oppenheimer initiated shares of BFC Financial (NYSE: BFF) with a Buy rating and $3.50 target.

Carbon fiber manufacturer Zoltek Companies Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOLT) can no longer be considered a startup, as evidenced by the company's recent decision to sell 4,000,000 shares of stock to the general public at $38.76 per share. Some of these shares originally belonged to senior management who now have the right to sell the shares and collect their due after years of nurturing the company into profitability. The stock closed Tuesday at $37.60, down $2.15, but Zoltek makes much in-demand products like carbon fibers and other technical fibers, which are essential components in various technology components. The market will very soon catch up to the sale price. Tech investors will want to take a look at Zoltek in the near future.

The company reported third quarter 2007 on Aug 6. Net sales increased 50% to $40.3 million. Operating income was up 72% to $6.7 million and net income was $5 million or $0.17 per diluted share. This is certainly an improvement over a $21 million loss in 3Q 2006.

Zoltek is turning an important corner in which income from continuing operations no longer must be plowed straight back into expanding the business. Zoltek has grown its production capacity significantly, and recently signed a five-year , $142 million contract with a Spanish firm to provide carbon fibers for wind turbine generators. The company has reduced its long-term debt significantly, but has increased its short-term debt by a similar amount. Investors who enjoy a ride now and then may find Zoltek's public stock offering of interest.

In my book about Baby Boomer investing I highlight what I feel are the five major growth industries going forward. The industries are health care, alternative energy, technology, communications and lifestyle. I also mention 42 companies within those industries that could be the leaders, the game changers. Since the book has been published, five of the 42 stocks I wrote about are being acquired!

The latest one to go is Checkfree (NASDAQ: CKFR). Fiserve (NASDAQ: FISV) has announced its $4.4 billion bid. Checkfree made our banking-transactional life much easier. The other four that will be part of larger companies are Opsware (NASDAQ: OPSW), Color Kinetics (NASDAQ: CLRK), aQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT) and Kyphon (NASDAQ: KYPH). Other than aQuantive, the other three were also part of my Top 25 stocks for the NEXT 25 years series.

As the 42 companies are down to 37, it causes some reflection for the future. Great, emerging companies will always be on the radar screen of larger, well-financed suitors. If growth cannot be internally generated through research and development efforts, larger companies will need to acquire growth and next generation products or technology. With interest rates still historically low, the borrowing necessary to buy these young, up-and-comers is not a significant issue. Investors will reward mature companies if they acquire intelligently and strategically.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has hired Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to find a buyer for its WMC Mortgage subprime mortgage unit, signaling its exit from the mortgage business, reported the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
  
• GE's CNBC cable business news channel and the Financial Times Group are in discussions to share resources and shore up their Web business, reported the Wall Street Journal.
• VeriSign Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN), which oversees dot-com and dot-net domain names registry, has recorded an additional $160M in compensation expenses related to stock option grants made between 1998 and 2006, causing the CFO to resign, reported the Wall Street Journal.
• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that Virgin Media Inc (NASDAQ: VMED) has hired financial services company UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) yesterday to pursue strategic buyers.

OTHER PAPERS:

• From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column:
  
• Investors are paying attention to Arbitron Inc (NYSE: ARB), the media research company that compiles radio ratings.
  
• Ziopharm Oncology (NASDAQ: ZIOP) is testing the use of ZIO-101 arsenic [organic] to treat myeloma and other blood cancers.
• Zoltek Companies Inc's (NASDAQ: ZOLT) carbon fiber used in wind turbines is in-demand, as windmill demand soars as an alternative energy source.

In my series of the top 25 stocks for the NEXT 25 years I promised you that if anything relevant or game-changing were to come about, I would write it up for your reading pleasure. Well, I have some new news on Zoltek Co. (NASDAQ: ZOLT). I wrote up the initial Zoltek report just last week, but since that publishing, some relevant good news has come up.

Zoltek is the worldwide leader in the manufacturing of carbon fiber material. Carbon fiber has hundreds of applications from sporting goods to aeronautical casings. The most popular application of carbon fiber is as the material of choice for rotor blades on huge energy-generating wind turbines. The carbon fiber is lighter, less prone to friction and therefore far more efficient and cheaper to operate than traditional materials. The Dewind Corporation (a subsidiary of Composite Technology Corp./OTC: CPTC) has contracted Zoltek for the next several years to supply it with enough carbon fiber material to satisfy its growing demand.

This comes on top of the commitment made to Zoltek by the large Danish wind generator company Vestas. Vestas is one of the leading European companies in the energy field and known for its cutting-edge choices in technology and materials.

"At first glance, the upcoming Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes look much like existing commercial models – but nothing could be further from the truth," says energy and resource industry expert Elliott Gue.

In Personal Finance, the editor notes, "Both are 20% to 30% more fuel efficient than any planes currently flying, due largely to lightweight composite materials."

Composites, he notes, are formed from two dissimilar materials -- usually a reinforcing fiber and an adhesive epoxy or resin, with carbon-fiber composite being the most commonly used in aircraft construction.

And it's not just airplanes that use these advanced materials; Gue observes, "Wind-power blades, oil rigs and sporting equipment all use high-strength, space-age materials. That spells soaring demand and solid growth for a handful of companies involved in their manufacture."

For those looking to invest in the "composite" industry, the advisor offers a trio of ideas. First is Hexcel (NYSE: HXL), the world's largest producer of "prepregs" for the aerospace industry. Prepregs, he explains, are woven carbon-fiber sheets that when chilled remain flexible and can be bent to shape or pressed into molds.

Gue says, "Outside aerospace, the wind power industry is fast becoming Hexcel's most important source of revenues. In fact, wind power is the company's fastest-growing major source of revenue; Hexcel projects at least mid-teens growth from that line this year.

Back in early to mid February I wrote up a recommendation on Zoltek Co., Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOLT). ZOLT is a world leader in the manufacturing of carbon fiber materials. Sounds boring until you realize the applications for carbon fiber are many. Carbon fiber is a lighter, stronger material, therefore energy efficient. In the dawning of the green era, any substance that can conserve energy and improve products is a win-win.

Applications for Zoltek's products are in aerospace, wind turbine blades, sporting goods, automobile bodies, etc. You get the picture. The only factor holding back ZOLT is capacity constraint. The company is frantically building capacity as its product is all spoken for through the end of 2007. The company will not comment on 2008, but some who are close to Zoltek feel 2008 supply is also spoken for. Nice problem to have.

Zoltek has been a volatile stock: It began the year in the low $20s and is now at $35. RBC Capital markets just moved its price target up to $45 for 2007. Members to my Investors Insights club have been reading about ZOLT from me since last September and I have published a price target of $40 for this year.

Well, this once stubborn company is finally beginning to emerge from its Midwestern, St. Louis-based shell. Sure, they put up a terrific results. Zoltek Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZOLT) may be in the beginnings of an incredible growth spiral. The revenue numbers for September 30, 2006 fiscal year were $96 million going to $153 million in FY 2007 and $250 million for FY 2008.

These are staggeringly high growth rates for the revenue line. The earnings per share line follows suit at $0.25, $0.73-0.75 and $1.25-1.30 for fiscal years 2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively. A portfolio manager friend of mine equates ZOLT's opportunity and growth rate to Cisco Systems back in its heydays.

What gives? The industrial world is opening its eyes to the short and long term benefits of carbon fiber. The applications are many and varied: from sporting goods, blades on wind turbines to automobile bodies, deep sea drilling platforms and so on. The light weight nature of carbon fiber coupled with the flexibility and strength makes this a natural alternative. The key word here is "alternative", as in alternative energy. Zoltek is beginning to hit the radar screens of the Green crowd and should lift its profile over the next couple of years. By the way, the Chairman, President and CEO, Zsolt Rumy ( I know, I know) has publicly stated that its corporate objective is to hit $500 million of revenues by fiscal year 2009!! This may appeal to the Green crowd as well as those who just like green!!

Georges Yared is the author of "Baby Boomer Investing...Where do we go from here?" and "Stop Losing Money Today". For more info go to http://www.georgesyared.com