RE: Good News coming....Hi GB888. Thanks for your comments.
With respect to your point that "the action in the stock suggests that the market is not impressed with the recent news and activity", let me just say that your point depends entirely on the period of time through which you make the assessment. You are right, the market did not today greet the financials with wild enthusiasm or, really, any enthusiasm. However, there wasn't a heck of a lot of selling either. As you know the stock price has floated around, above and below, today's closing price for some time. On the other hand, if you look at your thesis in light of the share price of ATQ in late December of 2003, the conclusion is entirely different. ATQ could then be purchased for between .28c - .32c. Today's close is almost a double (I'm being extremely general) over those X-mas season prices. In this light it appears that the market since last December anticipated today's results with considerable enthusiasm, hence the double. As well, given the relatively minor adjustment to the price as a result of today's pretty thin trading, the market was not overly, that is substantially, surprised with the financials either positively or negatively. I think its fair to say that a double in 5ish months isn't bad and that it takes some market enthusiasm to achieve a double in five months, wouldn't you? And the story even looks better if you go back further. Less than one year ago the the shares were available at 19.5 c. This was the share price on June 23/03. Indeed, the shares could be had for even slightly lower prices before then. Based on the share price of June 23/03, today's close is almost a triple. So, put in a broad context, over the last year or so, the market has been enthusiastic and impressed by ATQ. Today's reaction to the financials reflects that the market was certainly not pleasantly surprised. But it was also not negatively surprised in any significant way.
Where do I expect massive growth in the top line? Well I'm not sure I could responsibly utilize the term "massive" but I do think we could see substantial, really meaningful growth in ATQ's underlying business. The sources of this growth would be increases in the size and number of conventional orders that ATQ seems poised to get as the economy improves and, secondly, orders in new areas of manufacture. We know, for example, that ATQ is doing some RFID manufacturing. There is, if you are familiar with RFID, very considerable upside potential in this technology and hence commensurate upside potential for manufacturers of this cutting edge technology. As well, margins may well improve if the U.S. dollar remains strong, though as I pointed out in an earlier post, I wouldn't count on that. Whether there is room for improving margins through other measures, I'm not certain.
Will, $1 M contracts take us to .70 c? Well, of course, that depends on the number of $1 M contracts. Several such contracts will nudge the share price closer to .70 c and, no doubt, larger contracts will contribute even more to the share price.
As to your comments on ATQ's promises about profitability, I can't personally vouch that these promises have been made; assuming they were indeed made, I'm not aware of the the precise content of the promises or the context in which they were made or any qualifiers that were included in the promises; and, of course, I have no knowledge of the number of times the promises of profitability may have been made. What I do know is that ATQ was not alone in the EMS sector in doing poorly over the last few years. And, as I think is clearly the case, the price of ATQ has moved more significantly in percentage terms over the last year than that of most electronic manufacturers. No doubt this was possible because ATQ's price dipped so badly that it had considerable scope for upward movement. But clearly looking at the improvement of the share price over the last year or so, the market is more confident in ATQ then it was one year ago. And, many, if not most of those who have invested in ATQ over the last year, have done very nicely. Whether any promises that were made were based on reasonable expectations, I can't comment on. What I can say is that if the share price does poorly because the overall economy or the EMS sector is in the tank, then though I may be disappointed in the result of my investment, I don't lay responsibility for this on management. I think it would be unreasonable to do so, unless of course management could have done something about it.
How long will we have to wait for profitability? I certainly don't know. But I do like the trend. I look forward to Friday's release of 1st quarter numbers. I do hope that just as today's release looked over the horizon into the first quarter, that we get a peek into the 2nd quarter. If we do and its positive, I think there is some potential for some movement in share price.
Cheers