WWAT.OB is the former ‘ticker’ symbol for a company that was called WorldWater & Solar Technologies. In January of 2008 the WorldWater & Solar Corp. acquired Entech Inc. and later changed its name to Entech Solar, Inc. via corporate amendment in January 2009. (investorideas.com). The ticker symbol for this new company is ENSL.OB and it trades through the over the counter bulletin board (OTCBB) hence the letters OB at the end of the company’s ticker.
Ticker symbols are the classification code for both publicly owned companies and mutual funds. Mutual funds can have a stake in the owenership of a company and thus, some mutual funds may contain Entech Solar, Inc. (ENSL.OB) in their investment portfolios. Each mutual fund that owns shares in a company may do so for different reasons, for varying lengths of time and in dissimilar amounts. However, a less than 1% ownership of the company is currently from mutual funds due to mutual fund investment policies regarding this type of stock (sec.gov)
Santa Barbara GRoup-PF Water Fund (PFWAX and PFWCX)
The Santa Barbra Group, a division of Nuveen Investments runs a mutual fund that includes ownership of Entech Solar, Inc. as of March 31, 2009. (finance.yahoo.com) This fund is divided into two classes in addition to one exchange traded fund with the ticker (PFWYX) The two mutual fund class names are PFW Water A (PFWAX) and PFW Water C.(PFWCX), both of which have similar investment strategies and holdings. The Santa Barbara PFW Water fund is one of the only mutual funds, if not the only mutual fund to own shares of Entech Solar Inc. Some key points regarding the fund are listed below as sourced from yahoo and google finance, lipper.com, and marketwatch.com.
• 2 star Morningstar rating, 2.4 average PFWCX and PFWAX lipper fund rating (06/09)
• 4.82% fund ownership in less than 1% of Entech Solar, Inc.
• Managed by Santa Barbara Asset Management a division of Nuveen Investments
• Mid-Cap Growth fund with $11.9-$14.64 million dollars of assets in its portfolio
• 1.54%-2.7% expense ratio and lower than average investments turnover
• Fund established in October 1998
• Holding of 330,000 shares as of 3/31/09
• 94.98% of investment assets in equity (google.com/finance)
Since Entech Solar Inc. is traded on the over the counter bulletin board, major ownership by mutual funds may not comprise a significant share of this company’s ownership in the near future as gleaned from information from page 29 of Entech Solar Inc.’s Q1 2009 report. Thus mutual funds and/or exchange trade funds that do take ownership in this company may be seeking a high growth and risk strategy as OTCBB shares are often considered risky.
Summary
Entech Solar Inc. is not a widely held company by mutual funds. The mutual fund managed by Santa Barbara Asset Management is the primary mutual fund owner of shares of Entech Solar Inc’s stock. Entech Solar Inc. changed its ticker symbol from WWAT.OB to ENSL.OB in January of 2009 to better reflect the companies intended brand equity and/or other factors. The company was acquired by WatsWater Technology Inc. in 2008. As of the date of this article, specifically June 2009, the total amount of shares held by the owning mutual fund(s) add up to less than 1% of the company’s stock. Moreover, the fund which owns this stock has fairly low asset holdings no higher than $12 million for the PFWAX series and no lower than $2.8 million dollars for the C series and exchange traded fund.
Sources:
1.http://www.entechsolar.com
2.http://www.finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=ENSL.OB
3.http://www.investorideas.com/news/011209a.asp
4.http://www.google.com/finance?q=pfwax
5.http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/mutualfunds/overview.asp?symb=PFWCX
6. http://www.lipperweb.com/research/results.asp