Why is Energous (WATT) Stock Price on the Rise?
It’s been a couple of years since we explored the wireless charging technology space. We weren’t too bullish on what had been touted as the leader of the RF pack of wireless charging startups, Energous Corp. (NASDAQ:WATT). Energous had just gone public, and we didn’t like what we saw at the time, saying the stock seemed “highly speculative as the company has no granted patents, a prototype that is too large, just a small amount of cash on hand, no revenues, and some transactions in the past that could be considered conflicts of interest.” Those comments came while reviewing wireless charging competitor Powermat, which relies on more mature electromagnetic inductive technology.
Fast forward to January 2017: The San Jose company’s stock is trading over $18 a share, more than triple from where it opened on Jan. 1, 2016. At the end of the third quarter, it had $25 million in cash and cash equivalents with no debt. Revenue is still modest, to say the least, at about $1 million, versus $11.1 million in operating expenses, mostly spent on R&D. Energous President and CEO Stephen R. Rizzone said in the third quarter of 2016 that the company would reach cash flow break even in the 2017 third quarter. Of course, that’s what CEOs are paid to say.
And our qualms over patents? As of the end of September 2016, Energous had in excess of 250 pending patent applications in the United States and abroad. It has received its first nine patents and been notified that seven additional applications would be allowed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It also appeared to win a key victory
