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Thanks for the link. The article would certainly make one wonder if the website of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations was infected from Capstone, as Casptone's site has been reported as being a "host" since September. Once infected it appears that the "intruder" has full reign on the target computer.
{U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, a high-level think tank, has been compromised by the same code since early December, and security firm FireEye confirmed that the site was still hosting malware as of 26 December.}
This is not the kind of press we need and shame on Capstone for failing to heed written notice that their site was compromised as far back as September. DJ needs to do a bit of 'splaining at the Q3 2013 CC this February; The damage has been done, but the fall-out will more than likely continue. I suspect that this story isn't going to go away anytime soon due the sophistication (State Sponsored Level) of the malware.
Just think of the number of hits, by high value targets, the Capstone Turbine website received related to The U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration and Capstone Turbine's coordinated U.S. Embassy Hosts Capstone Turbine Event for Forty-Five Leading Argentinian Oil and Gas Executives. When you are talking about someone taking over a Country's infrastruture the discussion pales in comparison to heating a swimming pool or keeping the lights on in a hotel.
Again...Why Capstone? This is not a random act of violence; It is a well planned and executed attack IMO.
Possible good news for Capstone?
From SSY Gas January 3, 2013
BG Group has obtained a US$1.8 billion loan facility from the US Export-Import Bank to fund the acquisition of services and equipment from US sources for use in its Queensland Curtis LNG project in Queensland, Eastern Australia. This would run on coal bed methane feedstock and is currently set to comprise 3 production trains, each of 4.25mtpa capacity, the first of which is due in service in 2014. If sufficient feedgas is found, a fourth train might also be built.
From BG Group
At this time I have no idea if Capstone is in the equation although Origin still is.
I personally haven't used IE since Mozilla Firefox was released. In addition to my normal "anti" tool sets I do use a very handy script blocker, NoScript, which blocks scripts including Flash, Java, and cross site scripting among others. It is fully customizable and contains a white list table. This and several other add-ons, plus deleting cookies (and deleting persistent cookies) as they are planted, gives me some protection, or the sense thereof.
In answer to Gene's question the answer is yes. Your computer could be infected if you logged on with IE8 and Adobe's Java 6. In either case I would definitely run the "fixes" issued by MS and upgrade to IE9 or 10.
What concerns me, as an investor, about this particular exploit is why Capstone, and why was it limited to a narrow MS Language Pack audience?
{malware attack..I'm not understanding the importance of this..what harm was done?}
This description of how the Watering Hole Attack works is described on Symantic's site in fairly simple terms. An excerpt from the description states that "The threat implements common back door functionality such as uploading, downloading, and executing files."
So, if you had visited the host, in this case, Capstone Turbine, within the time intervals described in the article, and your computer was found to be using a Java version 6, and IE 8 a series of cookies, disguised as jpeg files, were placed on the target computer. Another series of actions delivered the "payload" to the target and created a backdoor which provides the attacker complete control of the target computer, which in my mind would be an important issue.
Since Capstone participated worldwide trade shows, including Rio +20 many of the participants obviously communicate, and more than likely have their native MS language packs intalled (specifically looking for Chinese, Taiwan Chinese, United States English, Russian, Japanese, or Korean) would be prime targets. If you think of the world energy situation in terms of resources, supply, development, etc., this information could be of great use to competitors. Also, negating the wide open nature of the backdoor, I'm sure that there would be other information that counter-parties would like to be privy to including sales prices to potential customers although in the total scheme of things this is a minor consideration. Also, the conclusion of the Symantic article would scare off plenty of customers in my mind: "Conclusion
The use of zero-day exploits in targeted attacks is certainly not a new phenomenon. Many high profile incidents like Hydraq (also known as Aurora), Stuxnet, and Duqu used one or more zero-day exploits to accomplish their goal. As detailed in the Symantec Elderwood Project paper we have seen zero-day usage increasing in such attacks. However, most attackers still use common, publicly available, exploits to carry out their attack. In this particular case, use of a zero-day exploit suggests a high level of sophistication requiring access to resources and skills which would normally be outside most hackers' capabilities." When you are talking Stuxnet you are talking about taking industrial complexes down.
If potential customer's of Capstone Turbine had their computer systems compromised by simply visiting the CSPT website, I personally don't think that leaves a good impression of the company, especially since Capstone was notified of the vulnerability last September. One of Capstone's marketing tools is remote computer monitoring of the field operation of their installed equipment. Again, I don't think news like this will help that effort either.
Of course, all of the above is just my opinion. The details are all out there for all to read and study. Check it out.
{Here we are in 2013 hoping this is our year and we start out with wonderful news about a malware attack on their site.}
Yes, Google up Capstone Turbine and that is about all you read about now. To add insult to injury the company was notified in writing about this but did nothing about it. I'm sure all of our FRC friends were excited to know that their systems were infected after visiting Capstone's site.
Some heads need to roll on this one IMO.
Thanks to Terakauriimu over at IV
Energize Your Porfolio With Fuel Cell although the Seeking Alpha article demonstrates Capstone presently has better fundamentals.
Hopefully, like FCEL CPST can generate some significant orders and keep on keeping on. {The company should have plenty of capital for the next year; however, it is dependent on future orders. FuelCell needs to be on the edge of being cash flow positive by the end of next year if it is going to produce sizeable returns for investors.} The same applies to CPST imo.
{Are the Chinese siphoning off Capstone's intellectual property?}
I don't really understand if members of CFR site infected Capstone or the other way around. {The foreign-policy resource site includes many notable public figures among its members and directors. Researchers dubbed it a watering hole attack, where a website frequented by topically connected subjects is infected with malware hoping to snare those site visitors in drive-by attacks.} But since {Researcher Eric Romang told Threatpost that the CFR website had been hosting malware as early as Dec. 7, according to a Google cache, and researchers at FireEye said it was still hosting malware on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas} it might appear that Capstone was the source since their systems have apparently hosted the Watering Hole since September.
This is not good PR and let's hope that Capstone's IT folks are a bit more aggressive in responding than the CFRs IT folks are.
{Jindrich Kubec director of Threat Intelligence at avast confirm the presence of exploit in September on Capstone Turbine Corporation, "I wrote to Capstone Turbine on 19th Sep about the Flash exploit stuff they were hosting. They never replied. And also not fixed"} Perhaps Mr. Kubec should have wrote Capstone's "Ask Management" asking if they knew that had a JavaScript vulnerability and wide open door on their systems.
Makes one wonder also if Capstone has applied the patch or updated to IE 9 or 10. Running something as simple as NoScript could have prevented this. Are the Chinese siphoning off Capstone's intellectual property? From Microsoft: The attackers in past watering hole attacks such as Aurora and VOHO are thought to be state-sponsored and are ultimately after some kind of business, government or military intelligence.
Thanks Captain for finding this one.
{There are some incredible advantages and some major disadvantages to the product. I have some personal opinions about the business as well.}
With the exception of publicly available company or SEC information just about everything posted here is opinion. That being said I would love to hear you elaborate on the quote above.
There is a wealth of knowledge here about the company, its product line, potential markets, etc. and most believe that this company will make it. That of course remains to be seen.
Thanks,
{When everything says sell it's just about time to buy}
Perhaps VC's stockhouse will put out an article soon expressing the same sentiment. I suppose for a short term trade the last flirt with .86 would have made a good entry point for the traders.
I agree with you wholeheartedly and that being said I don't post to hurt the feelings of other Capstone holders/believers either, just call it as I see it. Your Barchart Opinion does list .86 as the support level and other indicators are red (sell.) My platform has a "Starmine" Equity Accuracy Score put together by independent analysis. Currently that score is 1.7 Bearish on a score of 0 to 10.
I agree too with your statement that {Long position holders need a fundamental change..large order..cost cutting..wage cuts..restructuring..etc..to break this trading range.} I would think that the "Mother of all orders" would cause the other variables to come into line.
So we wait although it is beginning to get somewhat painful and does hurt my portfolio more than my feelings. Just *isses me off that I hung in this long. I did divest 2/3 of my rather large position at the $1.06 range which eases the pain somewhat.
Thanks as always for your insightful input as always.
Yes all interesting and they will be answered in the future one way or another.
{So many questions and so little time.}
I like this one the best:
{I wonder if CPST heard of this micro-grid effort?}
Apparently not, or if they did they decided not to play. I think Capstone has missed the golden ring already, although of course I hope I'm wrong. All of the other questions are pure speculation at this point, but Wild-Bill's find about the DOE and EPA Micro-Grid Grant and Loan Pilot program is answered in the linked pdf.
Perhaps next year will be different, and that may well be the case. We'll see won't we, or at least those who are still here will.
Where's the bottom if we blow through .86?
No mention in Capstone in the following article that covers much of the E&P of natural gas.
By DANIEL GILBERT WSJ 12/25/12
Drillers Shift to Use of Natural Gas
Energy companies that want Americans to embrace the use of inexpensive natural gas are beginning to lead by example.
The three biggest providers of oil-field services in North America—Schlumberger Ltd., SLB -0.74% Halliburton Co. HAL -0.58% and Baker Hughes Inc. BHI -0.82% —are spending millions of dollars to retrofit pumps and drilling-rig engines to run on natural gas instead of diesel fuel.
[image] Bloomberg News
A Halliburton natural-gas drill in Colorado last year. The company is retrofitting gear to run on natural gas.
Oil and gas producers such as Apache Corp. APA -0.73% and Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK -1.49% are driving the shift. After years of promoting the wider use of natural gas as a cleaner, cheaper alternative to petroleum-based fuels, the companies are concluding that natural-gas prices will stay low for years to come, allowing them to save money by substituting it for diesel in their own operations.
Converting to natural-gas-powered equipment has also become more feasible, now that manufacturers such as Caterpillar Inc. CAT -0.40% have devised better technology to run heavy equipment with the fuel.
"We're starting to think about how we as an industry can do this," said Mike Bahorich, Apache's chief technology officer.
In partnerships with both Schlumberger and Halliburton, Apache is converting pumps that blast water, sand and chemicals deep underground to break up rocks and allow oil and gas to flow out—a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The retrofitted pumps use an engine add-on manufactured by Caterpillar that displaces as much as 70% of the diesel with natural gas.
Xstrata Says Cost Of Mine to Climb
Apache said its initiatives, in Oklahoma and Texas, will be the first to fracture wells using entire fleets of pumps converted to run on natural gas. The company estimates the shift will lower fuel costs for the jobs by approximately 40%, and could reduce its tab for drilling and fracking, estimated at more than $100 million in 2013, if expanded to other locations.
The boom in natural-gas production has far exceeded demand for the fuel, pushing prices to nearly the lowest levels in a decade. That has taken a toll on the balance sheets of gas producers and their contractors, forcing them to dial back drilling and look for other ways to reduce costs.
"We're trying to make the extraction of gas here commercially viable in a cheap gas environment," said Marc Edwards, a senior vice president at Halliburton, which is investing about $100 million in 2013 to convert its pumps, trucks and other equipment to run on natural gas. "If we can do that and our competitors struggle, then it creates a bigger market for our products and services."
The number of rigs drilling for gas in the U.S. last week had tumbled about 50% from a year earlier to 429, a level not seen since 1999, according to Baker Hughes data. The technology to convert diesel engines to run on natural gas has existed for years, but there hasn't been much demand for it until now.
Chad Peterson, a vice president in Schlumberger's pumping division, said that all of the company's new pumps would be able to run on natural gas.
"This is the direction we need to move in," he said. "We just never had this much gas before."
In late November, Baker Hughes fractured a well in South Texas for Cheyenne Petroleum Co., a small producer, using three pumps converted to run on natural gas. The new pumps reduced diesel consumption by 65% without a loss of horsepower, Baker Hughes said.
Royal Dutch Shell RDSB.LN +0.29% PLC is working with Green Field Energy Services, which employs a kind of pump that is powered by a turbine and uses 100% natural gas. The companies are preparing to fracture a well in South Texas that will use four of Green Field's gas-powered pumps.
Chesapeake, the country's second-biggest gas producer after Exxon Mobil Corp., XOM -1.06% is converting equipment as diverse as pickups, heavy-duty trucks, drilling rigs and fracking pumps to run on natural gas. The company estimates the conversions will cost about $250 million, but that it will quickly recoup its investment from lower fuel costs.
Even if the energy industry embraces the technology, the process is likely to be gradual. Despite the abundance of natural gas, it must be processed, then liquefied or compressed before it can be used to feed into engines. Many drilling locations don't have access to natural gas suitable for engines.
Caterpillar, though, is already looking at opportunities beyond the U.S., as energy companies step up their hunt for oil and gas in shale formations around the world.
"We see this trend moving out of North America and toward a more global market," said Joel Feucht, the general manager for gas engines at Caterpillar.
"Investing in it makes a lot of sense," he added.
{Nothing happens to CPST for 180 Days.}
I first read this and my brain read "at" rather then "to" CPST for 180 days. Should be interesting, or not, to see what the fat cat insiders do during this period.
{Unfortunately, they are not going out fast enough for us, and the days to cover has increased to 41 days.}
Thanks for the info? Ouch! I'm getting shorter as the days go by also, even without divesting shares.
It has been 67 days since the last order announcement. Management addresses this in one of the "Ask Management" Q&As
{September 14, 2012
Question:
No sales have been announced in months! Are you booking any sales we don't know about or are they slowing and will hurt this quarter’s results?
Answer from Capstone Management:
The Company only press releases orders or events it deems as material. Materiality is determined by overall size of the order, new market verticals or geography. Therefore, press releases are often sporadic and may not be a direct correlation to Company order momentum.}
This would be a good time to release some "materiality" related orders if there are any.
{One would think that this "event" has been baked into the price}
I suspect we'll be coughing up coal dust tomorrow as we eat the brownies and the non-official word is broadcast far and wide. Hope I'm wrong but nothing I've seen lately gives me much hope.
Yeah, yeah, we've been here before as we've heard before. Until "The Company" starts selling and receiving those A/Rs nothing is going to change unless those "various possible options" are executed. I feel like a canary being lowered into a dark and dank coal mine; the light gets dimmer and my eyelids heavier.
--BACK TO THE FORM 8k-- I don't know if NASDAQ rules would prevent a company from announcing the delisting notice on a short trading day, i.e. Monday, but I suppose it could have been released prior to the market opening this morning. Also, I have no clue as to what this will mean for the pps, same as the Capt'n mentioned last week.
I've been shaking that box under the tree and have been thinking that Santa brought a box 'o coal--too afraid to open it and verify my thoughts. Turns out I was right. I guess Mr. Edward I. Reich, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Capstone, didn't want to ruin our Christmas and held this one for after the Company party as he was officially notified of this action on December 21.
So, where do we go from here? Cut losses and run, or take the chance that all of those "improving" Q/Q--Y/Y numbers will translate into at least a buck for 10 consecutive days by June 17, 2013? One would think that this "event" has been baked into the price especially considering that 5.5% drop in the last few minutes of the 21st. About 2.5 million shares exchanged hands in the last 3 minutes.
{The Nasdaq notification has no immediate effect on the listing of the Company's common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market. The Company will monitor the closing bid price of its common stock and will consider various possible options if it does not appear that it will return to compliance.}
So what else is new?
Gene-- check out page 28 in the Word Doc 07/17/12 DEFA14A on the Capstone SEC Filing page.
{Following the 2012 Fiscal Year, in April 2012, the Compensation Committee determined that an adjustment to the base salaries of our Named Executive Officers would be appropriate to be competitive with the practices of comparable companies, which increased base salaries by an average of 3% (not many folks getting raises lately that I know of.) The Compensation Committee approved increases comparable to this benchmark. The base salary of Mr. Jamison was increased from $437,800 to $450,500; Mr. Reich from $258,000 to $267,000; Mr. Crouse from $235,700 to $240,000; Mr. Gilbreth from $281,900 to $287,000; and Ms. Brooks from $208,000 to $214,032.}
Since it states "Following the 2012 Fiscal Year, in April 2012..." I assume, but admit that I could be wrong, that the 3% raises were for Fiscal year 2013. I just looked at the links on the Capstone Page and can't find the entire 07/17/12 document that I quoted from last night.
Don't have time right now but will find it later for you if you don't find it first. If you do please post the link.
{All officers and BODS are actually acquiring shares..}
Yes, I read that also. Just felt post was long enough so provided the link for anyone who might want to take a closer look. Ya think they are feeling our pain today? Will the pps spur them onward in a renewed effort to secure new orders, or will we spiral down due "outside" forces? Yippee-ki-yay what a pathetic day.
{I for one would rather they NOT announce very time they sell something.}
I agree. I want to see some large orders from SA or Australia or anywhere else for that matter. That being said large order announcements are important to allow traders, or longs, to gauge the direction they think the company may be headed in and do have a confidence building affect. Lack of orders would have the opposite affect in my opinion.
Was Plan B the end of the world? We are still here so I guess we now have to worry about falling off a cliff. Yes, things have been real quite from Chatsworth. Last order was announced 10/22/12
{No disappointment here.} That's good LOL. I like your curly brackets for quotes so will start using same.
In the end all we can do is hope for the best. Speaking of hope...I hope that Mr. Crouse can earn another bonus. We need sales sales sales and A/R.
{incentives can be reduced or not given at all.}
Yes, but the shareholders voted in favor of "incentives" and Bonuses at the 2012 Annual Shareholder's meeting. I doubt they will go away, unless of course the goals are not met which none of us would want to see. They seem a bit outsized to me although I would have no problem with them if the company was showing a profit. Performance goals and incentives are great if the parameters are set correctly. Sometimes a bit of pain in not getting those lucrative inducements will work as equally well if management really believes in the product. I can read and of course understand the BOD's reasoning behind the inducements BTW.
See latest DEFA14A under Capstone Turbine Investor Relations SEC Filing Tab
•
Number of Shares Available for Awards is Increased. An additional 9,000,000 shares are added to the pool available for awards. This increase in authorized shares is needed because the current pool of shares is substantially depleted with only 468,074 shares available for grant as of July 2, 2012.
Following the 2012 Fiscal Year, in April 2012, the Compensation Committee determined that an adjustment to the base salaries of our Named Executive Officers would be appropriate to be competitive with the practices of comparable companies, which increased base salaries by an average of 3% (not many folks getting raises lately that I know of.) The Compensation Committee approved increases comparable to this benchmark. The base salary of Mr. Jamison was increased from $437,800 to $450,500; Mr. Reich from $258,000 to $267,000; Mr. Crouse from $235,700 to $240,000; Mr. Gilbreth from $281,900 to $287,000; and Ms. Brooks from $208,000 to $214,032.
The award for Mr. Crouse for the 2012 Fiscal Year was based on a percentage of revenue that exceeds the revenue achieved during the 2011 Fiscal Year. Mr. Crouse received an award that entitled him to bonus payments based on the following percentages of revenue: 0.75% of revenue over $82.9 million but less than $106.1 million and 2.0% of revenue greater than $106.1 million but less than $127.0 million.
{I think it was the 1Q that only the officer in charge of sales received a bonus, and well earned, imo.}
The Compensation Committee met on June 6, 2012 to determine if the performance objectives were met under the terms of the awards and determined and certified that we had achieved revenue of $109.4 million and operating cash flow of ($19.5) million. As a result, bonus payments pursuant to the Executive Performance Incentive Plan were authorized of $245,168 to Mr. Jamison, $65,016 to Mr. Reich, $71,039 to Mr. Gilbreth and $34,944 to Ms. Brooks, based on these achievements. A bonus payment to Mr. Crouse of $239,422 was made pursuant to the Executive Performance Incentive Plan based on our revenue for the 2012 Fiscal Year. In addition, Mr. Crouse received an additional bonus payment of $15,084 based on additional revenue generated in the 2012 Fiscal Year that was the result of Mr. Crouse's efforts but not factored into his award pursuant to the plan.
Fiscal 2013 Executive Performance Incentive Plan Awards
Award Opportunity(1)
Target Bonus CASH
Percentage of Salary 100 %
Executive Officer Darren R. Jamison
Intermediate($)180,200 Target ($)459,510 Maximum ($)675,750
The rest are available in the Annual Report
Long-Term Equity Incentives See page 30
Anyway, it is what it is and now we face the financial cliff if the world doesn't end today.
Thanks for the unintended nudge to encourage me to take another look at the latest Annual report.
No plot or conspiracy theory here, sorry to disappoint you. While I understand stock incentives very well, for someone to insinuate that the BOD's salaries are perhaps lower because of the incentives doesn't fly in my view. Heck, we all hope the company makes it and the pps increases, that's why we longs are still invested. These folks make a nice living for what they do and would leave in a heartbeat if that wasn't the case, stock incentives or not.
I personally think the floor workers should receive the best deal on stock incentives, as they no doubt work extremely hard to squeeze out a quality product and find efficiencies as they can. I applaud them for their dedication. If this company does make it those floor employees who have taken advantage of the options offered will be glad they did. If the company doesn't make it they will be out of work, the stock worthless, and will be on the street looking for work. They do fortunately have valuable and marketable technical skill sets.
All officers and BODS are actually acquiring shares. No doubt they are. I just wonder how many of those shares were bought on the open market or were not part of a stock incentive plan? Show me where they've actually bought any in the last year. Sure they have "ownership" but most of it came with their contracts, as well as with the last Annual Share Holder's agreements. As far as their "selling" we all know that is done to pay the taxes on the "new" shares they have acquired.
With their fat annual salaries, bonuses, and stock incentives, their pain is no where near what the actual shareholder feels. DJ at almost a million bucks a year better get this turbine up and spinning. So, now someone says that they are taking stock instead of salary to keep the cost down and encourage them to make the company profitable. Believe me, their salaries aren't a small part of the deal.
Just another thought about those 100,000,000 shares sitting on the shelf. If those started getting issued wouldn't it just bring in more shorts in the absence of profitability?
LMAO. Looks like the defibrillator thumps aren't establishing normal rhyme. Opps, Opps, look! It might have worked.
No, it would be a long slow death spiral in my opinion. I too go quarter to quarter and that's why I'm still here, although quarter to quarter pps hasn't been exciting either. If you recall, last quarter CC started the recent slide, despite all the happy talk.
Three seems to be no where to hide--even gold and silver are taking a beating in the last few days.
Wrightspeed is one of my favorite Capstone Turbine uses. If we could sell 10,000 of those we would be in the money. Nice video, thanks. Perhaps California will borrow some money to purchase some.
A S-3 Form was filed on 2/3/2012 which registered 100,000,000 shares.
So in the present worse case we could see 404 million shares outstanding. That is an incredible amount of shares for a company that has yet to turn a profit; Starting to sound like Zimbabwe dollars or helicopter Ben to me. Of course we wouldn't expect all of those shares to be dumped on the market at once, but at the current pps it would take us down to 61 cents or so wouldn't it?
I'm sticking with the Santa fantasy for now as it is more appealing.
I agree with chklingon that Santa is our best hope at the moment although I suspect we'll get a lump of coal.
Thanks gene for the well reasoned dire predictions. Too much dilution will certainly cause this baby not to fire. This is certainly not the way we want to go into the New Year. Orders, profits, and A/R are the only things that are going to push this above a buck imho.
If you really want Capstone to take off I could sell my shares.
Aren't we having fun again today. Definitely another nap day as far a Capstone goes. Its been quite a hiatus between order announcements, but I'm hoping that oft quoted backlog is keeping the shipping dock busy.
Henry Hub has increased a nickel today for some reason, but the mild winter has already depressed prices and they are likely to go lower. Interestingly, production has remained level despite the significant decrease in rig counts. Taking all of this into account it would seem to me that there is more than adequate supply and no up-tick in drilling is likely to happen in the near future. Has the domestic market E&P market for Capstone Turbines stalled?
From US Energy Information Administration
Overview:
(For the Week Ending Wednesday, December 12, 2012)
Natural gas prices registered overall decreases for the report week (Wednesday to Wednesday) at many of the country’s trading locations. The Henry Hub price rose last Thursday to $3.48 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), but closed yesterday at $3.33 per MMBtu, down 8 cents per MMBtu for the week.
Prices at the natural gas futures market continued to decrease—a decline which started at the end of November—trending lower throughout the week. At the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the January 2012 natural gas contract lost 31.8 cents per MMBtu overall to close at $3.382 per MMBtu yesterday.
Working natural gas in storage rose last week to 3,806 billion cubic feet (Bcf) as of Friday, December 7, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR). An implied storage build of 2 Bcf for the week positioned storage volumes 48 Bcf above year-ago levels.
The natural gas rotary rig count, as reported by Baker Hughes Incorporated on December 7, decreased by 7 to 417 active units. Meanwhile, oil-directed rigs fell by 4 to 1,382 units.
Nap time for sure. I think I will use some of the Capt'ns "monitor glue" to seal my eyelids shut.
chklingon -- I am of the same sentiment, and some-days it would be just as well to heed that yawn and take a nap.
Unless Santa has a big order for us in his bag of toys I too don't think the pps is going to move much in the near term. My Christmas wish would be that it will in the intermediate time frame or sooner.
Thanks for the clarification and again it wasn't my intent to "fear monger," certainly due to fact that I am still long. Perhaps "projecting my own fears" would be more apropos.
Nice little up-tick today so far--at least it is in the right direction.
Your response was taken down (okay it was put back up while I was composing my response,) but I will nevertheless attempt to clarify mine. First there is and was no attempt to spread fear, FUD, WAF, etc. We each have to deal with our investments the best we can.
Deficiency Notice. If a company does not meet the minimum bid price or market value of public float requirements for 30 consecutive trading days, Nasdaq sends a "deficiency notice" identifying the listing deficiency and informing the company that it will be delisted after 90 calendar days unless it meets the required minimum bid price or market value of public float for at least 10 consecutive trading days during the 90-day cure period. If the deficiency is based on insufficient market capitalization, the company is notified after 10 consecutive trading days and must achieve compliance for 10 consecutive trading days within 30 calendar days. Nasdaq employs an automated computer system to track compliance by each listed company with these requirements. If the deficiency is based on insufficient net tangible assets, total assets, total revenue or pretax income, the notice is usually triggered by public filing of an SEC report (typically a Form 10-K or 10-Q) disclosing the deficiency.
Capt'n -- This is why I sought input and debate. As you pointed out the deficiencies listed in the last sentence of the above may may negate the $1.00 minimum--I honestly don't know, but since we haven't received a notice yet perhaps you are correct. Sorry about the link--I had a Q&A link up and thought that I had linked to that.
As to my comment According to my charts Capstone has failed to maintain the pps above $1.00 for 10 consecutive days since October 8, 2012. I'll stand pat on that one as my charts support it.
I agree with you also that fuel cells have their own issues, but again, I started out the post with reference to Static UPS vs Rotary in Data Centers. The three alternative static solutions that I am aware of are fuel cells, batteries, and super capacitors. The later two still depend on another power source (grid or back-up) kicking in prior to them depleting to maintain UPS. I am certainly not a fan of a container, or basement full, of diesel engines and still believe that Capstone is a much better solution than that.
As far as ACPW they offer a box full of diesels--enough said on that subject.
High power UPS to see stiff competition from static suppliers
The shift from rotary to static has come from a combination of significant revenue potential and improved semiconductor technologies.
Certainly a worrisome trend for Capstone. What with fuel cells making large penetrations into the Data Center UPS market are we now the orphan step-child relegated to the oil patch? If our sandbox has shrunk to that I hope we still have some "keepsies" that will keep us in the game. Hopefully we'll see some serious orders start flowing in and the pps rising above a buck real soon as time is running short for continued NASDQ listing. According to my charts Capstone has failed to maintain the pps above $1.00 for 10 consecutive days since October 8, 2012. According to the NASDQ Continued Listing Requirements it would seem to me that Capstone should be looking for a letter notifying them of the "deficiency" any day (jmho.) There is an appeals process that can drag this out a bit, otherwise a reverse split is blowing in the wind. The shorter's aren't helping the situation and all the Foolish spin isn't going to cure the situation.
Speaking of reverse splits... The Captain mentioned ACPW several posts back in regards to former Capstone CEO Ake Almgren. The stock had a nice 13%+ run-up today, but the BOD will decide on the 17th to proceed with the previously announced 5-1 reverse split to regain compliance with NADAQ listing requirements. Is Almgren the undertaker? I've yet to see a reverse split "save" a company, but will watch this one to see how it plays out. Generally the reverse split just buys the company a bit more time before the inevitable.
Of course some of this is my opinion only, I therefore welcome dialog and a lifeline.
Wonder if Ake Almgren dusted off and climbed back on?
Active Power Up 10.75% for the day at the moment. Market Cap ~62 million. Consensus EPS estimates .01. Shares short 1.42 million. Nice trade today for some folks.
If we only had a crystal ball. In the meantime Capstone sideways ~ down .6 %. DJ needs to dig in his spurs and get that pony up and bucking.
LNG Export Race to Hit Supply The Australian
Major research to be released today shows the Gladstone region in central Queensland could face a gas shortfall from next year because demand from proposed projects in the area, which include Rio Tinto Alcan's Yarwun refinery expansion, exceeds the capacity of the pipelines to supply the gas.
"Competition for gas supply may impact the timing or scope of the large industrial projects currently proposed in Gladstone," says the Australian Energy Market Operator report.
Brisbane also faces possible insufficient gas supplies from 2018 and Townsville from 2021 unless extra pipeline capacity is built.
While there are sufficient gas reserves to meet demand, if these are not developed quickly enough to meet Asian-led demand for LNG exports, supply shortfalls to both the export and Queensland domestic markets could be seen by about 2016.
The above excerpt is about the only "good" info for us that I see in the article.
The AEMO modelling reveals that there will be no need for baseload gas-fired generation -- known as combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants -- for at least a decade.
This is an extraordinary turnaround from 2010, when AEMO was forecasting large-scale CCGT plants would be built across the national electricity market.
The new modelling finds that, to compete with coal, CCGT would need a higher carbon price and lower gas prices; it also cites much lower electricity demand growth and competing investment in wind farms. However, there is still a need for open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) generation to supply power occasionally when demand is peaking.
My, my. How fast things change.
If Capstone could get its act together, then maybe it and the industrial giants in this sector could bring the utilities business to its knees. Right. Don Quixote tried that once.
Pretty long article to end with that. Its only a matter of time! Believe us! Fine...show me some accounts receivable, a profit, and a giant order.
pps allowed to drift up a bit today. Will it be taken back down again tomorrow? Yes, its nice to look at the "big" picture, but so far the credits have been running and this movie is still on the cutting floor.