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Giving credit to the Antis

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It was a cold day in February, 2005, during the NRC public meeting for North Anna's Early Site Permit.

One antinuclear sage in attendance had the proverbial "good news" and "bad news" for the shareholders of Dominion. The good news was that the Dominion would never build a new nuclear power plant at North Anna, the bad news was that it was going to cost the shareholders a lot of money in the process. Another antinuclear prognosticator added,

"Dominion does not even know the reactor design it wants to build. Why? Because the minute they mention that they have a reactor design, Wall Street will think it's an intent to construct, and they will short your stock."

And, as if these antis were descended from old Nostradamus himself, a strange thing happened today, November 20, 2007. Just take a gander at this headline:

Dominion Hails Approval of Early Site Permit for North Anna Power Station

And sure enough, as I write this, Dominion shares (NYSE: D) are trading at about $46 dollars per share, when yesterday they were trading in the low $90s.

Coincidence?

Thankfully, Dominion gave everyone two shares for every one they had before to offset this change in stock price. Who would have known these two events would happen on the same day? Was this a strange coincidence or are we witnessing a miracle?

Thanks to Delbert Horn for pointing out this sagely wisdom of antis. He also adds the following information:

Dominion Stock price on 2/17/05: $72.01
(date of predictions made at NRC public meeting)

Stock Price on 10/17/07: $89.19
(Announcement date of GE large parts order)

Stock price on 11/19/07: $91.03

Stock price on 11/20/07: $46.03
(Day of stock split and ESP approval)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Fissioning stocks! Wish I'd had my Bets On visions of fissioning Dom Pwr stock!
November 21, 2007 at 3:23 AM
Anonymous said…
Dominion announced their reactor design at the point of large GE part order.

Not much change in stock price occurred. I.e.; the Anti's were wrong...

Stock split and the stock value was cut almost in half. Is anyone surprised by that?

The fact that the NRC announced the ESP on the same day as the stock split was coincidence.
November 21, 2007 at 2:27 PM
Anonymous said…
My own take on this is published here.

Please feel free to stop by and comment.

Thanks Mike.
November 21, 2007 at 3:27 PM
Michael Stuart said…
bryfry, thanks for the support!

I tried to comment, but it looks like the discussion was closed.

And, I had some exciting news to share with ya. Don't be surprised if you see some interesting Dominion news on Wednesday, November 28...
November 27, 2007 at 2:40 PM
Michael Stuart said…
Anonymous,

À certains, le sarcasme est plutôt comme une langue étrangère.
November 27, 2007 at 2:44 PM
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