Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Etc., EV/Plug-in, Green Daily
Motley Fool sez AltairNano stock "missed the mark"
The popular Motley Fool investment site today published a list of "3 Stocks That Missed the Mark." One of those is the common AutoblogGreen presence Altair Nanotechnologies. Now, AutoblogGreen doesn't get into investment tips or anything like that, but the Fool is not the only one to dampen the good news that Altair puts out. Part of the problem, writes Anders Bylund of the Fool, is that, "One key customer reportedly delayed a $3.2 million order for Altair battery packs while waiting for the federal standards wheels to grind out a battery interface specification." It's no secret that Phoenix Motorcars is a Altair customer, and is keeping the company's nanotech batteries for the Phoenix SUT, but in smaller versions than previously announced.Bylund also says that "Altair keeps burning cash at an alarming rate" and that investors looking to fund nanotech companies might want to look elsewhere.
[Source: Motley Fool / Anders Bylund]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ShadesTrades 8:16PM (11/12/2007)
FYI, technical charts were also showing that ALTI (Altair) was set up to fall. In fact, today ALTI was down over 11%. I got in a few weeks back at $4.23 and got out early last week at $4.63. Now it's under $4 and in free fall.
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Mike Z 9:31PM (11/12/2007)
I sold my stake at $4.70 (and paid $3.50) so I made a nice little return. But I agree, Altar's management is terrible. They are betting the ranch on EVs and not going after things like power tools, camcorder batteries and a like to generate cash flow and allow for higher initial margins on their batteries. Overall ALTI's approach is ultra high risk with little upside.
Overall a piss poor business. The only thing keeping me watching is hoping they get bought out for the patents.
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rick 9:37PM (11/12/2007)
They're moving forward. Listen to the conference call for info on the 2 Megawatt battery they will be delivering to AES before the end of the year, the 2.5 Meegawatt battery ordered by the Navy and the 20 Megawatt battery they have on the drawing boards. The stock got hit becasue it went up 60% in two months and the market is getting whacked all over.
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Chris M 10:15PM (11/12/2007)
part of the problem is Altairnano started out as a nanotech research lab, concerned mainly with pharmaceutical applications. Their "nano titanate" battery was developed almost by accident, and they are having a difficult time making the transition from research to manufacturing. I suspect they will end up licensing the technology to another battery maker, and perhaps supply nanotitanate electrodes, rather than manufacture themselves.
A123, on the other hand, quickly transitioned from research to manufacturing, and is now well ahead in the race to sell products to customers.
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Domenick 4:08AM (11/13/2007)
@rick: Where does one find this conference call. I'm thinking this may be a good opportunity to get in. I have a feeling this stock may do well over the next six months.
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BlackbirdHighway 4:26AM (11/13/2007)
Making money in the stock market, and helping the environment are two different things. Sometimes they overlap, mostly they don't.
Exxon-Mobil stock has performed very well, and the company has made more profit than any company ever in the history of the world.
But I sure wouldn't recommend Exxon for there environmental practices. On top of their FUD compaign on global warming, they are still fighting against paying for the Exxon Valdez disaster.
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rick 8:07AM (11/13/2007)
Domenick,
Go to their website and click on the "Third Quarter Financial Results conference call" link over on the right side of the page. There are quite a few analyasts covering the company now and it was a very interesting call.
http://www.altairnano.com/index.html
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Domenick 8:44AM (11/13/2007)
Thank you, rick. I can't believe I didn't see that. >_
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Tim 10:04AM (11/13/2007)
Blackbirdhighway - "Making money in the stock market, and helping the environment are two different things. Sometimes they overlap, mostly they don't."
NOT TRUE: Helping the environment is almost always about the stock market!
General Electric's lobbing budget is more than the top 3 US oil companies combined. They are heavily invested in "green" tech and they funded much of the "man-made global warming scam science" because they will make $BILLIONS from the new environment laws.
FACT: Over 19,000 American scientists have signed this petition to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals.
http://www.oism.org/pproject/
These 19,000 scientists also rebut Al "Green" Gore's 2,000 scientists who badly skewed the data because their income depends on global warming research grants. Man made global warming is a for-profit FRAUD!
According to the research conducted by these 19,000 scientists:
"The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind."
"There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."
For each “scientist” who thinks man is causing global warming, there are 9 scientists who believe this is simply a big socialist government/big greedy business scam.
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Domenick 1:34PM (11/13/2007)
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls but... I looked at that oism link. Wow, I can't believe someone takes it seriously. Anonymous financial backers and all not to mention obvious mistakes on the first page.
Here's some reading for you Tim. http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462
Or if you'd just rather continue believing it's a big conspiracy you might prefer this.
http://educate-yourself.org/lte/globalwarming13sep06.shtml
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Tim 2:25PM (11/13/2007)
Domenick- How about this:
Of course, GE owns dozens of broadcasters including NBC and uses them to promote “green” government initiatives.
http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=ge
Peter O'Toole, head of public affairs at GE's Ecomagination initiative, says that it's doing reasonably well. "We closed 2006 with $11 billion for Ecomagination, so we're more than halfway on revenue, and we spent $1.2 billion on research." There are now 45 products in the Ecomagination portfolio (up from 17), ranging from hybrid locomotives to wind turbines and clean coal technologies.”
http://www.worldbusinesslive.com/article/647182/energy-green-business/
"Man-made global warming is about money and power.. and of course religion, dogma and herecy. People who believe that man and not the sun is causing global warming are the same who would buy snake oil or that bridge in Florida.
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Tim 2:41PM (11/13/2007)
Man made global warming is a scam and Co2 credits and the like just transfer wealth from the gullible to the powerful and Kyoto will create a global socialist government while starving millions.
Peak Oil on the other hand is not a scam and neither are all the health problems, pain and suffering caused by pollution. We therefore need to replace oil as the planet's primary power source ASAP! We must be very careful NOT to follow in our father's footsteps and we must NOT addict our children to another monopoly like hydrogen. Electricity is the only thing that makes sense.
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Andrew G 4:53PM (11/13/2007)
Hey guys ever heard of a thing called sourcewatch,
"The Oregon Petition, sponsored by the OISM, was circulated in April 1998 in a bulk mailing to tens of thousands of U.S. scientists. In addition to the petition, the mailing included what appeared to be a reprint of a scientific paper. Authored by OISM's Arthur B. Robinson, Sallie L. Baliunas, Willie Soon, and Zachary W. Robinson, the paper was titled "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" and was printed in the same typeface and format as the official Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Also included was a reprint of a December 1997, Wall Street Journal editorial, "Science Has Spoken: Global Warming Is a Myth, by Arthur and Zachary Robinson. A cover note signed "Frederick Seitz/Past President, National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A./President Emeritus, Rockefeller University", may have given some persons the impression that Robinson's paper was an official publication of the academy's peer-reviewed journal. The blatant editorializing in the pseudopaper, however, was uncharacteristic of scientific papers."
"When questioned in 1998, OISM's Arthur Robinson admitted that only 2,100 signers of the Oregon Petition had identified themselves as physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, or meteorologists, "and of those the greatest number are physicists." This grouping of fields concealed the fact that only a few dozen, at most, of the signatories were drawn from the core disciplines of climate science - such as meteorology, oceanography, and glaciology - and almost none were climate specialists. The names of the signers are available on the OISM's website, but without listing any institutional affiliations or even city of residence, making it very difficult to determine their credentials or even whether they exist at all"
Why don't you do a little research before you go rambling....
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kavih7 10:04PM (11/14/2007)
Back to ALTI and conspiracies. I haven't heard of any conspiracies surrounding ALTI and since their batteries for EV applications are better (*generalization*... you do the research) than A123, they are a great company to get in with, while the market for EV's is still in the works. I've done my own research and haven't found many other companies with fully EV battery applications this promising. While A123 may have already put into production non-vehicular efficient batteries, as well as okay batteries for plug-in/Non-plug-in batteries and therefore, cornered a big part of that market, Altairnano is trying to corner a different market. A market that is more green than A123 (in the vehicular section), so that is where my faith (money) goes. I'd rather spend money on a company that creates technology for a more green future than one who is creating transition technology just to make money of the green transition. I know we must transition, but I'd rather see a transition from gas to EV, rather than gas to hybrid to plug-in hybrid to EV...
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