X Investing

Beacon Power Corp
Is going Crazy!

BCON

Ok, this is highly subjective....
I have one eyebrow up when a company in alternative energy starts moving rapidly.
When this stock was below $2 I felt that BCON was a speculative trade....... any movement was subject to the whims of underwriters and/or traders. But there could be guesses about the market size for Beacon Power's technology that suggests future growth.

The company makes energy storage devices using flywheel technology......sort of like winding up a spring of magnets and releasing it in a controlled and efficient way. Flywheels are an alternative to batteries, which contain metals potentially harmful to the environment.

I still don't know, but buying this stock in March at $1 +/- would have been a good call considering today's (8-22-05) trading price over $4 a share......but did the energy bill have anything to do with the increase?
News on the Energy Bill is highly subjective. Everyone has and idea of the bill's impact. Some views are different than others Like Environmental Groups

FROM finance.yahoo.com 8/22/2005
Beacon Power Profile
24 employees.

(in thousands)
               0-Jun-05    31-Mar-05    31-Dec-04     30-Sep-04
Total Revenue       318           636           60           81  
Cost of Revenue     334           671           949          80  
Gross Profit        (16)          (34)          (34)        (899)  
 

What do I see on the Balance Sheet? Snoreville...but I am curious why BCON is moving up so suddenly.
For the year ending in Dec. 2004
R&D budget = $3,532,000

Operating loss was $9,049,000 and "Total other Income/expenses net" was $3,719,000. 2003 "Total other income/expenses net" was $526,000 and $72,000 in 2002.

This "Total other income" affects their Net Income. Net income is now -$5,330,000 (2004) which is propetionally a large improvement from -$20,839,000 in 2002. In 2002 there were non recurring charges of $6,456,000 and a larger R&D budget.

Interesting note: The company shows no long term debt on it's balance sheet. Also Total Stockholder Equity has decreased from $17.7 million in 2002 to $3.7 the period ending June 30th.

Losses are common with development stage alternative energy companies. They must continue with large R&D budgets.They also must spend money on selling expenses to convince consumers of their product's value compared to traditional energy sources in their market like American Power Conversion Devices (APCC).