this is a company who should fare well with the nanotechnology boom as they are the premier "picks and shovels" suppliers to co's engaged in nanotechnology research(according to Josh Wolfe of Forbes Nanotechnology Report).
Corporate Profile
About FEI: The Structural Process Management Company™
FEI (NASDAQ: FEIC) is the innovator and leading supplier of Structural Process Management™ solutions to the world's technology leaders in the fields of semiconductors, data storage, structural biology and industry. Its range of industry-leading DualBeam™ and single column focused ion and electron microscope products enables manufacturers and researchers to keep pace with technology shifts and develop next generation technologies and products. FEI's products allow advanced three dimensional metrology, device editing, trimming and structural analysis for management of sub-micron structures including those found in integrated circuits, high density magnetic storage devices, industrial materials, chemical compounds, biological structures and genomes. Further, FEI solutions deliver enhanced production yields, lower costs and faster time to market-critical benefits in highly competitive markets.
Headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, the Company has approximately 1,650 employees worldwide, with additional development and/or manufacturing operations in Massachusetts, Arizona, California, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic and India.
Picks And Axes For Nanotech Gold
John Dobosz, 01.15.04, 10:59 AM ET
NEW YORK - Josh Wolfe, editor of the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, strongly recommends buying FEI, the Hillsboro, Ore.-based supplier of charged particle-beam systems used in electron microscopes. At $24.56 a share, FEI trades at the higher end of its 52-week range of $13.55 and $28.75. The company's current market capitalization is $817 million and it has $252 million in cash; it burned through $25 million last year. FEIC is highly leveraged, with a debt/equity ratio of .91.
Although FEI (nasdaq: FEIC - news - people ) operates in the semiconductor and data storage markets, Wolfe likes it for its growing business as a "picks and axes" player in nanotechnology's metaphorical "gold rush." FEI's electron optics business manufactures and markets scanning electron microscopes and transmission electron microscopes, used by a growing number of firms, foundations, and academic institutions doing nanotechnology research. Last month, President Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotech Research and Development Act, which commits $3.7 billion to fund nanotech research over the next four years.
Several nanotechnology stocks have doubled since December, including Nanogen (nasdaq: NGEN - news - people ), Nanophase Technologies (nasdaq: NANX - news - people ), and nanotech investment firm Harris & Harris (nasdaq: TINY - news - people ). Altair Nanotechnologies (nasdaq: ALTI - news - people ) is up 60% in the four weeks since announcing a restructuring to focus their business on nanotechnology development.
Wolfe likes FEIC stock partly because it has lagged the performance of its peers in both the nanotech tool and semiconductor capital equipment markets over the past several months. Wolfe notes that the fourth quarter is traditionally a seasonally strong one for sales of equipment to research outfits. In addition, several of FEIC's semiconductor peers have guided expectations for fourth-quarter sales higher with positive pre-announcements. Wolfe is optimistic that the market will value FEIC significantly higher over the next several months, and he is confident in the company's future as a supplier to the growing ranks of nanotechnology researchers |
