Buzz Stock of the Day- Exide Technologies (XIDE)

In early January, the Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Energy Policy Project released a study that said Kansas alone could create 11,500 jobs and draw $2 billion in investment in renewable energy.

“This analysis is not a prediction,” said George Sterzinger, who is with the Renewable Energy Policy Project and one of the principal authors of the report. “It is really an attempt to illuminate the potential (of renewable energy).”

It estimated that Saline County could see as many as 2,300 jobs and $430 million in investments, with the most potential coming from solar energy business and the large battery plant in Salina that’s owned by our Buzz Stock of the Day — Exide Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: XIDE).

Exide Technologies, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and supply of lead acid batteries used in transportation, motive power, network power, and military applications in the Americas, Europe, and internationally. Its transportation batteries include ignition and lighting batteries for cars, trucks, off-road vehicles, agricultural and construction vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, boats, and other applications.

Exide has supply agreements with for its batteries with Toyota and Penske, among others.

We like Exide Technologies because the company generates free cash flow, spends its money wisely, and plans for the future.

The company generated $74.7 million of free cash flow for the three months ended December 31, 2008–up from a burn of $129.4 million for the year ago period. Net income for the quarter was $15.4 million, or $0.20 per-share, down from $19.3 million, or $0.25 per share for the same quarter a year earlier. Excluding the impact of a few non-operational items, adjusted net income for the fiscal 2009 third quarter was $18.2 million or $0.23 per share. This compares with adjusted net income for the comparable prior year period of $17.3 million or $0.23 per share.

Exide has also spent wisely. The company announced plans for a $7 million expansion at its Kansas City lead-acid battery manufacturing facility earlier this year, and anticipated the expansion will result in increased production performance and volume capacity.

We also like the company’s long term prospects. Exide just announced a collaboration with Nano-Terra, a Cambridge, Mass.-based nanotechnology company to develop more efficient stored energy solutions. The solutions under development in this collaboration are based on the surface engineering methods pioneered by Nano-Terra and its Co-Founder, Professor George M. Whitesides of Harvard University.

“Exide is one of the world’s largest producers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries and the first in our industry to collaborate with Nano-Terra. This strong collaboration will allow our Company to draw upon unique nanotechnology resources to implement innovative energy solutions for the global marketplace.”

Join the discussion on Exide Technologies, Inc. on its official Buzz Board thread.

Here’s a cool video of Exide’s Liberator line of batteries in action (kind of):

Tags: battery, buzz stocks, fuel cell, green stocks, infrastructure stocks

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm by admin and is filed under Technology Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.