Not so fast:
By Anne Brady
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
PHOENIX (Dow Jones)--Shares of InVision Technologies Inc. (INVN) tumbled dramatically in the final hour of trading Wednesday, after U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced plans to deploy fewer expensive bomb detection machines, such as those made by InVision, in airports than previously expected.
The company's shares closed down 20%.
Mineta said the government now plans to deploy up to 1,100 of the large automated scanning devices and 4,700 less expensive machines that zero-in on explosive residue, or trace, and require screeners to operate them. Earlier government estimates called for the installation of more than 2,000 of the $1 million scanners.
However, stock analysts said the revised government spending plan would have no effect on InVision's financial picture this year, and may in fact amount to a delay, rather than a cancellation, of a widespread deployment of the technology.
"What this means for estimates this year is nothing," said analyst Ron Stone of SG Cowen. "What's being misinterpreted is they (the government) were never going to be able to do 2,000 this year. To now say 1,100 is just facing reality. That does not mean that the other 900 won't be purchased over the next two or three years. We see the opportunity for InVision as just as sizable as before."
Shares of InVision, Newark, Calif., finished down $6.91 at $27.44 on volume of 10.8 million, compared with average daily volume of 2 million.
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