Real live ray-gun maker Ionatron
What analysts say:
- Buy, sell, or waffle? A single analyst follows Ionatron, rating it a buy.
- Revenue and earnings. This analyst performs the neat trick of predicting a $0.04 per share loss tomorrow ... without having any idea what kind of revenue Ionatron made.
What management says:
A quick scan of the most recent 10-K tells us that the firm lost $17.5 million on $10 million in sales last year -- a loss equal to 250% of the combined losses of the previous two years. This as sales plunged nearly 50%. Things are going downhill here, Fools, and quickly. (On the "plus" side, from a free cash flow perspective, the firm ran negative to the tune of $9.1 million -- only 60% worse than in 2005.)
What management does:
Unlike serious, profitable defense firms like Lockheed Martin
9/05 |
12/05 |
3/06 |
6/06 |
9/06 |
12/06 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gross |
8.1% |
5.9% |
5.9% |
5.4% |
2.7% |
(0.9%) |
Operating |
(18.9%) |
(22.7%) |
(24.0%) |
(36.4%) |
(58.4%) |
(112.1%) |
Net |
(20.1%) |
(19.2%) |
(25.3%) |
(44.1%) |
(78.4%) |
(174.6%) |
One Fool says:
In the days leading up to its earnings news (or rather, lack thereof), Ionatron gave its boosters a boost of their own in the form of a series of press releases.
One, issued April 30, describes a contract from the U.S. Navy to test out a "Dual Effects, Stand-Off IED Neutralization System" -- essentially, a bomb zapper -- for use by the Marines. Reporting on the story, AP misplaced a decimal when describing the company as having "a market cap about equal to the contract," however. At nearly half a billion dollars' market cap, Ionatron sells for nearly 1,000 times the value of the $500,000 contract in question.
Although the press release does not make this clear, the contract in question appears to be part of a larger, $9.8 million contract described in a separate release less than a week earlier. Missing from both announcements is any description of the time span over which Ionatron expects the funds from this contract to be disbursed. I suppose it goes without saying that the firm gives no indication of whether it expects to earn a profit on the work.
Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. The Fool has a disclosure policy.