Will Cameco Light Up the Second Half?

With more than half of 2012 in the record books, it's important to take a look at whether or not the stocks that interest you can live up to their full potential. By making sure you know about a company's future plans and possible challenges, you can make a better decision about whether it's a smart investment for your portfolio.

Today, let's take a look at Cameco (NYSE: CCJ). As we saw in our look at Cameco last month, the Japanese nuclear disaster in early 2011 took the wind out of the sails of the nuclear industry and threatened uranium demand as Germany and other countries considered radical cutbacks to their nuclear energy programs. Let's take a quick look at Cameco's prospects for the rest of the year and beyond.

Stats on Cameco

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

What will the rest of 2012 bring for Cameco?
The big question facing Cameco is whether nuclear energy comes back into vogue once memories of the disaster in Japan start to fade. To a large extent, the big drop in prices of both natural gas and coal have taken the focus off nuclear energy, and that's a big part of why peers Uranerz Energy (NYSE: URX) and Uranium Energy (NYSE: UEC) have suffered such big drops in the past year.

But with United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSE: UNG) having risen 50% off its lows in April, it's increasingly clear that natural gas won't stay cheap forever. As gas prices rise, coal should follow, and that will make nuclear energy again look like a more attractive option. With Southern Company (NYSE: SO) having gotten permission to build two new nuclear reactors, the stage is set for another step up for uranium demand. Combined with China's rising uranium demand, Cameco could get a lot more of its losses back, rewarding value-hunting investors who buy shares at cheap prices now.

So far, uranium prices haven't really gone anywhere in the past year, and as long as prices stay relatively stable, Cameco's gains will remain capped. But in the long run, Cameco has a lot of potential as a leading player in the uranium industry, and getting into the stock at near 2005 price levels seems like a good play going forward.

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