Travis Johnson

Faulty Airport Sniffers Could Be Good News for American Science and Engineering

Error correction: I've got biotechs on the brain these days, the folks testing AS&E's equipment are, obviously, the TSA, not the FDA. Sorry.

Cheers,
Travis

American Science and Engineering: Global Security Needs Should Drive Growth

Well, as I posted on my site, I did buy both before and after earnings to hedge my bets -- I'm very confident in ASEI in the long run, but clearly neither I, the analysts, or management has any talent for predicting quarter by quarter earnings. The conference call was largely a dance between analysts desperate to glean guidance figures from the company, and the CEO and CFO deftly deflecting specifics but saying business is very good and large orders are "expected."

News today on the foiled plot in the UK has served to bring this company back to investors' attention, though so far their cargo and mobile scanning units are much more critical to the business than their nascent personal scanning and luggage scanning products that have airport implications (and the airport business, while large, also brings with it many more competitors with solid products, ASEI's technological lead in cargo scanning and scanning vans is much stronger).

Still, I think it's hard to argue against a trend of more security scanning at all sensitive locations, and it's hard to argue against a company with arguably the most advanced products in their core segments whose earnings, while lumpy, are giving it a current and forward PE well below the market average.