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Editor’s note: US Stock Market and InvestorPlace offices, including client service, will be closed tomorrow, May 25, in observance of Memorial Day. Regular business hours will resume on Tuesday, May 26 at 9 a.m. ET.
Tom Young is here with your Sunday digest.
For centuries, Swiss cheesemakers viewed the famous holes in their products as manufacturing defects. The bubbles were unsightly, made it difficult to cut blocks, and sometimes even caused cheese wheels to crack or burst.
We now know that these holes are caused by microscopic straw particles found in the cheese-making process, and customers have come to expect them in their Swiss cheese. In fact, many cheese makers are now adding powder to the cheese milk to create more holes.
Gaps have also become the basis of the “Swiss cheese model” of safety. Every safety check has some error rate. So, if you string enough of these scans together, it’s usually enough to prevent most errors from occurring.
This is why hospitals generally ask each patient to state their name and the planned procedure before undergoing major surgery. Even if the patient wears that information on a wristband, that extra layer of “cheese” (no matter how porous) provides additional protection from errors.
InvestorPlace Senior Analyst Jonathan Rose And investment expert Mark Chaikin Now we put the same concept to work in investing. Over the past few months, they have been experimenting with their smart money indicators, combining them into a “convergence trigger” signal with exceptional results experienced. Both systems help check red flags that either might have missed.
In the next presentation, on May 28 at 8 p.m. ETJonathan and Mark will explain how their new system works, how it has helped them boost results by 45% and helps them avoid two out of every three losing trades. They will also reveal their top five picks for the Convergence Catalyst. You can sign up for free Peak convergence The event is here.
It’s the perfect time for their tools to succeed. Its indices have historically performed best during periods of volatility, and we are entering a market phase where instability is almost guaranteed. High energy prices.. collapse of consumer morale.. stock prices skyrocketing..
To borrow a metaphor from cheesemaking, pressure always finds weaknesses first. And this market has a lot of those buildings under the surface.
In the meantime, I would like to show one of these stocks to illustrate how this system works. And to get the other four, make sure you’re on the VIP list when you reserve your spot for the Jonathan and Mark show.
The Big Cheese of America’s Energy Infrastructure
Ameresco Company (I command you) is a Boston-area-based company that has transformed itself from an energy efficiency company to an energy efficiency company One of the four Leading Energy Services Companies (ESCO) in America. In cooperation with Schneider Electric SE (SBGSY), Johnson Controls International PLC (JCI), Siemens AG (SijiAmeresco provides a wide range of energy infrastructure solutions to utilities and governments. This includes on-site power generation, electricity storage, biogas, microgrids, electric vehicle charging, finance, and more.
This transformation has put Ameresco on a rapid growth path. Revenues have nearly tripled over the past decade, and profits have risen five-fold. Analysts expect 10% sales growth and 40% profit growth annually through 2028.
Now, Jonathan and Mark’s systems have converged and identified Ameresco as a compelling stock to buy. The company easily passes the ‘smart money’ screen, and lifting the lid helps explain why.
Improvement with age
In 2020, Ameresco began building its own energy assets, rather than just building them for clients. For example, the company built a gas plant in Houston that year to convert landfill gas into usable energy, then opened a wind farm in Ireland in May of the same year.
Today, Ameresco has 839 megawatts of electrical assets producing power, enough to power 700,000 homes. It also has another 568 MW of assets under development. In the most recent quarter, nearly three-quarters of the company’s adjusted operating profit came from these energy assets.
This makes Ameresco’s revenues much more stable than investors might expect from a former energy efficiency company. The company has more than $3.8 billion in revenue already locked into its energy assets, enough for two years of sales. Because more than half of its energy production comes from solar energy, the company is prepared for this He wins From rising fossil fuel prices as competitors’ input costs rise.
The company is also a major builder of energy projects for other entities. Ameresco has $5.3 billion of backlog in this sector, divided between the US federal government (35%), municipalities and schools (29%), utilities (22%), and commercial customers, including data centers (14%).
Fortunately, Ameresco’s stock price has not yet reached its pivot level. Over the past five years, AMRC shares have actually fallen 43% as investors exited “clean tech” stocks and sold Ameresco along with its former peers.
Ameresco (I command you) Share price
Meanwhile, other energy infrastructure companies like Johnson Controls have seen their shares more than double over the past five years. The reason for this growth is something I will discuss next…
Johnson Controls (JCI) Share price
The appetite for artificial intelligence
Wall Street’s sudden interest in power system builders and other power generation companies has been driven by an insatiable appetite for the artificial intelligence revolution. AI “agents” like Cloud Code can use 50 times more power than traditional large-scale language models, exacerbating the electricity shortage sweeping America.
Wholesale electricity prices in Northern Virginia’s primary ‘data center alley’ are already up 80% In the past five years. They are likely to continue to rise as AI models become more complex.
Dominion Energy Company (D), state-granted monopoly in the region, says data centers are now in demand 70 thousand megawatts (megawatts) per day – more than three times Dominion’s all-time peak load of 24,678 megawatts.
Some data centers take matters into their own hands. In 2024, Microsoft (MSFT) signed a 20-year agreement to restart the notorious Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to power the data center. It has since entered into a larger agreement with Chevron.CVX) and the investment company Engine No. 1 to build 2.5 gigawatts of power for the West Texas site. Other companies from Meta Platforms (dead) to Alphabet Inc. (Google) Deals are also signed.
This is optimistic news for energy contractors, including Ameresco. Network infrastructure companies are helping build power systems for AI data centers (among many other activities), and demand is growing. In September 2025, for example, the company reached an agreement with the US Navy to develop a 100-megawatt AI-focused data center at Naval Air Station Lemoore, the Navy’s largest major aircraft base, south of Fresno, California. This microgrid will include engine generators, control systems and infrastructure upgrades.
Ameresco’s historical focus is on wind and solar energy as well no Big obstacle. Large-scale data center projects typically have connections to the main grid, and renewables are a way for these large projects to access the power grid. Microsoft itself plans to provide more than 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity through a collaboration with Brookfield, an alternative asset management company.
Pass the cheese test
Most energy-related stocks now fail the smart money screening. NRG Energy Company (NRG), for example, saw approx $5.3 billion in sales By major bearers, a bearish signal. Kawkaba Energy Company (CEG) flipped from “bullish” in the Mark system to “extremely bearish” in 2025, where it remains today.
energy constellation (CEG) Chaikin power meter rating
This is because energy stocks tend to trade more like stable income investments than growth companies. Smart money usually sells on the rise to avoid an eventual bounce.
Basic screening tools have also become negative for many Utility stocks. Earnings quality is declining, input costs are rising, and profits are falling. For example, NRG is expected to report net income margins of 4.88% this year, down from 5.23% last year.
Fortunately, Ameresco transcends these screens. Insiders have largely avoided open market sales in the past six months, and earnings per share are expected to rise 26% this year and 56% next as the company reaches scale. As I mentioned earlier, the company’s focus on renewables also protects it from rising fossil fuel prices.
This makes Ameresco an unusually attractive play in an industry lacking good options. The company is still growing, riding one of the strongest investment waves of our generation. Below is a five-year chart of the stock price, which you can see was rated negative by the MARC system until the recovery began in August 2025.
Ameresco (I command you) Chaikin power meter rating
So I highly encourage you to watch Jonathan and Mark’s free presentation May 28 at 8 p.m. ETwhere they’ll go into more detail about how their system works, how it can help you screen other promising stocks, and what our four other top picks for Convergence Trigger are.
Sign up for Peak convergence Event by clicking here.
Until next week,
Thomas Young, CFA
market analyst, Investor location
