Hoku's stock bounces back up 43.5% amid speculation
Shares of Hoku Scientific Inc. surged 43.5 percent yesterday -- the company's biggest one-day percentage gain since it went public a year ago -- as Internet message boards speculated that the stock had bottomed out.
The Kapolei-based developer of fuel-cell technology gained $1.16 to $3.83 on volume of 1.7 million shares, more than four times its daily average.
Dustin Shindo, chairman, president and chief executive of Hoku, said the company had no news to account for yesterday's stock movement.
"Our last public announcement (last week) was that the Navy had accepted the 10 fuel-cell systems that were installed at Pearl Harbor this year," Shindo said.
Hoku, which first offered shares to the public at $6 on Aug. 5, 2005, has traded as high as $13.43 intraday. It hit that mark on Oct. 3, 2005, before losing more than three-quarters of its value, sinking to an intraday low of $2.12 last Wednesday. Hoku announced the Navy agreement after the market closed that day.
Fuel-cell companies, in general, have lost about half of their value since April, when the stocks in the sector spiked after President Bush announced plans to tackle surging gas prices partly by developing the use of hydrogen as a fuel.
"As a company, we're very focused on creating long-term shareholder value," Shindo said. "That's something we've maintained since the day we founded this company. Because of that, we tend to not focus on the day-to-day stock price because that's not always a reflection of the company's long-term's growth and opportunities."