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Technology Stocks : Astropower (APWR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Randy Ellingson who wrote (78)	6/26/2000 9:54:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 214

Randy, those are good points. In regard to my estimate of annual increase in book value per share (a measure of the increase in shareholder wealth), I took data for the last three years and averaged it. Some people might argue that the result may overstate future growth. I would argue the opposite on the grounds that the value of plant facilities is carried at the lower of cost or market value. In this case, a plant which is good enough to produce silicon material in sheets is probably going up in value, not down (after applying nominal depreciation). So the book value per share should increase as a result of increasing earnings as well as increasing value of the manufacturing facilities. I also learned from a colleague who attended the annual meeting that APWR spends less than half the amount on marketing that its competitors are spending. That works out to higher margins from a company that is already the acknowledged low cost producer. Art