Tag - Alti

Nanotechnology is still a business of the future. Although great strides have been made in creating the technology of the ultra small, very few commercial products have yet made any money for their developers. Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALTI) is a case in point. The Reno, Nev.-based company has so far delivered just 61 products — lithium ion batteries for electric cars — and those cars have yet to hit the market.

But the company has several development contracts and joint ventures with big corporations in the works, including paint maker Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE: SHW) and drug makers Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPPI). If those ventures play out successfully, its tiny particles could prove to have a very big future.

Altair was founded in 1973 under the name Diversified Mines Limited, acquiring and exploring mineral properties. For three decades it was a lackluster business. So in late 2003 it restructured with an eye on the future of Nanoparticles. CTO Bruce Sabacky, who has been with Altair since 1999, the year the company went public, began developing products based on nanomaterials.

In 2004 the company brought in a new CEO, Alan Gotcher, from Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE: AVY), where he had led the development and commercialization of the “Duracell On-Cell” tester for the popular batteries. He has been moving the company’s new technology into commercial products.

From a peak of nearly $8 per share in 2000, the stock dropped to penny stock territory by mid-2003. It has steadily recovered since then, closing at $4.43 on Monday, with a market cap of $312 million, and is now flirting with the low end of analysts' targets. Three brokers polled by Thomson/First Call have price targets ranging from $5 to $6. Its 52-week high is $5.45, reached in October, and the low was $2.48, reached in January.

In this week’s newsletter watch, we follow a nanotechnology expert on his coverage of Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALTI).

Josh Wolfe is a leading authority on emerging technologies, with a noted expertise in nanotechnogy. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Lux Capital, a prestigious group that was chosen by PowerShares to help develop the PowerShares Lux Nanotech Portfolio (ASE: PXN), an exchange-traded fund.

In the latest issue of his newsletter, The Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report, the advisor reviews PXN's largest holding, Altair Nanotechnologies, a leading player in the development of nano-enabled batteries for use in such areas as the electric car industry.

Wolfe says that electric cars are back on the industry radar and they're looking more promising than ever, but what has changed to make them potentially successful now?

“First, there's the ever-growing economic incentive driven by the steadily rising price of crude oil, now over $90 per barrel,” the advisor says. “Second, and more importantly, is the ever-improving technology. And the latest and greatest innovations in electric-powered vehicles are coming from, you guessed it, nanotech.”

According to Wolfe, if the electric car industry has been stalling over the years, it's primarily because of batteries. Either they're not efficient enough, not light enough, not cost-effective enough or they literally explode from time to time, Wolfe says. Nanotech companies, though, are starting to change all that by developing next-generation batteries, he says, to finally get electric cars on the road.

Nanotechnology, a broad field that essentially means the ability to create specifically designed compounds a few nanometers in size, has for many years been hailed as the next great breakthrough for solving a plethora of the world’s problems. At this size, the electrical, chemical and optical properties of the compounds are radically transformed, promising such things as more efficient electronic circuits, longer-lived batteries, improved drug-delivery systems, engineered biofuels, better lasers and more advanced imaging equipment.

But so far, successful commercial products based on the technology have been harder to find than a nanocrystal under a microscope. Nanophase Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: NANX,) founded in the late 1990s, has for the last several years been focused on getting real products to market rather than on simply creating new nanoparticles. It has partnerships with BASF, Rohm & Haas Company (NYSE: ROH), health care companies and others, through which it has developed more than 200 commercial products. Those products are now being used to create semiconductors with fewer flaws, better fuel cells, scratch-resistant and microbe-resistant coatings, and even better sunscreens and deodorants.

In April, it announced a new deal with Behr, a premium paint company that is using its nanoparticles to make a paint that resists mildew, has better adhesion and requires no primer. The paint will go on sale at The Home Depot, Inc.’s (NYSE: HD) stores soon. Last December Nanophase also signed a deal with a German company to produce a transparent coating that protects automobile paint from scratching.

Several analysts are hoping that signals a turning point for the company’s profitability and long-stagnant stock. Nikolay Tishchenko at Crown Global Capital, sees the potential for 30% to 50% annual revenue growth for Nanophase for the next several years. “Nanotechnology is breaking out of its limited applications and is at the early stage of exponential growth,” he says. “I like the company’s management and business model.”

U.S. stocks are posting small gains this morning, following news of major shakeups in the automotive industry.

At 9:49 a.m. ET the Russell 2000 was up 0.86 points, or 0.1%, to 830.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 46.65 points, or 0.35%, to 13,372.87.

Attention is focused on the U.S. auto sector this morning, following news that DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX) has sold its majority stake in Chrysler to private equity group Cerberus Capital Management for $7.45 billion.  Nine years ago Germany’s Daimler-Benz AG purchased Chrysler for $36 billion.

According to news report this morning, members of Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F) founding family are considering selling part of their controlling stake in the company.