“Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.” -Napoleon Hill
Record Order For NIHK
Yesterday, I spent my afternoon watching the game and thinking about work. I just hate how that always seems to happen! At any rate, there I am recumbently watching a slow going game on a warm afternoon when I can no longer control the urge and decide to see what was on CNBC.
However, to my utter confusion, the remote was not next to me as it should be. I was suddenly hit with panic. Where could that darn thing be?
To think that fifty years ago, the first television remote control (besides the kid of the house) was called “Lazy Bones” and was actually on a string. Before that, the public reveled at the newly released garage door opener and its many wonders.
Power: On!
Now I don’t mean to get into the history of the remote control (as fascinating as I am sure you would find it) but it got me thinking what I always think: 1. Who was the genius who created the remote? and 2. Who were the forward thinking investors who backed it?
These days, the remote control is not only a staple for televisions viewers across the world, but also used in every other area of life you can (but likely don’t) think of.
Why, you may ask, do I spend my afternoons pondering the nuances of 
remote controls? Well it happens that one of the companies I really like these days is in the market of making every kind of remote you have likely never thought of - and doing it well.
I think it is shaping up to be a record year at Nighthawk Systems Inc. (OTCBB: NIHK). After announcing not long ago that Q2 revenues are expected to be the highest in 48 months, NIHK is out with big news this morning noting the company’s largest single sale ever.
Company Keeping Good Company 
The order is from Avista Utilities of Spokane, Washington and trumps the largest sale in corporate history announced back on 5/31 to the Town of Smyrna, Delaware (a 300 unit order a la Rumsey Electric, a leading U.S. electrical wholesaler).
This should provide a nice boost to Q3 & year-end financials and also bolster the company’s rapidly growing utility customer base while opening the doors to a solid recurring revenue prospect (in the past, repeat orders have typically been larger for NIHK).
One important thing to note here is that although relationships with Verizon Wireless, SkyTel, and American Messaging all pack the punch to change the face of Nighthawk with just one order - NIHK has developed a nationwide distribution network chock-full of leading players capable of bringing in record orders themselves.
Leaner and Meaner By The Day
In addition to becoming more operationally efficient and attracting new and repeat business, seemingly on a daily basis, NIHK also benefits from playing in some surging markets - Utility, Industrial, and Building Automation to name a few.
As smart metering/smart grid programs roll out nationwide, commercial/industrial energy users continue to consume nearly 63% of US produced energy, and the need to become more efficient in the design and development of energy infrastructure reaches paramount heights, the demand for Nighthawk’s products has never been greater.
The beauty of it all is, NIHK products can be used to conserve energy everywhere - from a diesel generator, to turning off the power in 24C when the bum doesn’t pay his bill.
Sales and Stock - Both in Uptrend
If that doesn’t scream that NIHK has the macro trends on its side, check out this recent commentary from England & Company - a Washington, DC-based investment bank focused on the middle market:
“With oil circling $75 per barrel and natural gas trading at $6.50 per million BTUs and likely to go higher, conservation is on the minds of all Americans. Although oil is a critical component in transportation and an important feedstock into many manufactured goods, its role in the production of electricity is limited to approximately 3% of generation output in the US in 2005. With its cost, natural gas is predominantly used to fuel smaller plants, accounting for 19% of total megawatt output. As measured in megawatts of generating output, coal is king, producing approximately 50% of electricity generated in the US. With the continuing increase in demand (especially peak load) over the next several decades, the US Department of Energy estimates that an additional 258 gigawatts generating capacity will be required by 2030, representing a total investment of approximately $412 billion dollars. (Source: US Energy Information Administration.)”
“We believe that the challenges inherent with balancing economic growth and good stewardship of the environment present tremendous opportunities for companies involved in infrastructure and industrial technology markets.”
Don’t forget also that Chartwell Inc. revealed back in 2004 that 55% of utility organizations used, planned to use, or were using technologies that allow for the remote connect/disconnect of energy meters AND also that approximately 2.3% of U.S. electric meters were individually disconnected and reconnected on more than 4 occasions resulting in estimated costs of more than $1.2 billion to utility providers.
I’d wager that if you took a head count now, these figures are much higher. Chartwell’s research accurately predicted an ongoing surge in utility organization investment in process improving technologies.
NIHK goes to show that remote controls not only occasionally keep lazy people like me from working my Sunday afternoon away but meet needs that never even occurred to me before - and in a big way! I can’t help but wonder how many more uses there are for the remote control. How will this little invention continue to make the world even more efficient and convenient?
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The question is not whether or not the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank will cut its benchmark lending rate today, but if in fact the cut will have any impact on our wounded economy.
Whether the cut is .25 or .75 points – either of which would bring the rate to an all-time low, economists fear that the benefits simply won’t trickle down the consumer. Recent rate cuts have done nothing to boost the consumer credit market because given current economic conditions, the banks that aren’t going under find that issuing consumer loans at anything else than a premium is far too risky.
A great example of this is the current market for auto loans. Typically influenced by the prime rate, which was roughly 4%, Monday, the interest for a 48-month new car loan is 6.8%.
With Americans now hoarding their money and growing increasingly content with simply not losing their hard-earned greenbacks, the Fed may need to expend some of its “extra ammunition” in addition to its imminent rate cut to get consumers to start spending again.
So, what happens when the rate hits zero and its back to the drawing board for Big Ben and his crew? Here’s a great report written by Ben Bernanke himself on potential strategies for monetary policy when the key rate hits zero.
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