As I’ve noted in previous columns, each political party likes certain sectors of the economy more than others. For example, Democrats tend to be much more supportive of renewable energy companies than Big Oil, and Republicans are the other way around. Also importantly, “when Republicans and Democrats are in office, they usually reward their supporters and often take steps to harm the opposing party’s backers.”
Further, by shaping Congress’ legislative agenda and appointing officials who make crucial rules, the party controlling the White House has tremendous power to help the sectors and companies it likes. Therefore, investing in the sectors and firms backed by the party in the White House is often a good way to generate profits. With that said, here are three stocks for a Democratic victory.
First Solar (FSLR)
The Biden administration is a big backer of solar energy. In fact, just recently, the Department of the Interior announced that, during Biden’s tenure, it had “approved 47 clean energy projects and permitted 11,236 megawatts of wind, solar and geothermal energy on public lands — enough to power more than 3.5 million homes.” Now, the department plans to reserve 22 million acres of government-owned land in the west for solar power.
This initiative will tremendously benefit First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) since its main customers are utilities and other large providers of solar power likely to build huge solar projects on lands owned by the federal government.
FSLR is also a prime beneficiary of the tax credit for solar panels made in the U.S. since the company has three factories in America and is building a fourth. Those tax credits were backed by the Biden administration and established by Congressional Democrats.
FSLR has an extremely low forward price-earnings ratio of 11. One of the reasons its valuation is so low is that investors fear a Republican will win the White House this year and greatly scale back the solar tax credit. As a result, if President Joe Biden is reelected, FSLR stock is likely to surge in the subsequent weeks and months.
Albemarle (ALB)
One of the world’s largest lithium miners, Albemarle’s (NYSE:ALB) financial results are boosted by higher lithium prices. Those prices climb when electric vehicle (EV) sales accelerate since most EVs use lithium-ion batteries. Of course, the opposite is also true: Lithium prices drop when the growth of EV sales decelerates.
The Democrats’ budget plan, backed by the Biden administration, established significant tax credits for many EVs. If a Republican wins the White House in November, the new administration could convince Congress to repeal those tax credits, causing EV sales to meaningfully decelerate and putting tremendous downward pressure on lithium prices.
Investors’ fear of such a scenario materializing is likely a major reason why the forward price-earnings ratio of ALB stock is an extremely low 8.9 times. If President Biden is reelected, on the other hand, the tax credits will be here to stay, and ALB’s shares will probably climb a great deal. Consequently, it’s one of the best stocks for a Democratic victory.
Additionally, the bipartisan Infrastructure Law, backed by the Biden administration, subsidized the creation of thousands of public EV chargers around the country. However, due to bureaucratic delays, very few chargers have actually been built so far. A GOP administration could easily decide to greatly curtail the funding for those EVs.
Such a decision would likely have a negative impact on the future growth of EV sales since the availability of more public EV chargers would greatly reduce the “range anxiety” issues that have prevented many consumers from purchasing EVs.
General Motors (GM)
President Biden said he is “one of the ‘most pro-union presidents,’” and General Motors (NYSE:GM), unlike most of its competitors, has a high number of unionized employees.
Therefore, in his second term, Biden will likely help GM. The aid could come in the form of government contracts. For example, the administration could decide to purchase a significant number of the company’s EVs. Additionally, the administration, acting on its own or pressuring state and local Democrats, may provide regulatory relief for the firm’s embattled self-driving unit, Cruise.
But even if Biden is not reelected, I believe GM stock is a buy. That’s because analysts, on average, expect its earnings per share to rise to $7.78 this year from $7.54 last year, while its forward price-earnings ratio is a very low 4.55.
On the date of publication, Larry Ramer did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
