(By Rich Bieglmeier) A million dollars is still a lot of money, and whenever iStock see an insider pony up seven digits to buy his/her own stock, we pay attention. That's exactly what
LiqTech International's (
LIQT) CEO, Lasse Andreassen did last week.
LIQT's head honcho bought 537,000 shares at $2.65, or $1.4 million worth at $2.65. That's a major statement. LiqTech is a green technology stock that provides technologies for gas and liquid purification by manufacturing ceramic silicon carbide filters. It manufactures and sells diesel particulate filters for the control of soot exhaust particles from diesel engines that are used in various vehicles.
They are the only company in the world that supplies silicon carbide filters. How often can you say that any company is the sole provider of anything? These technologies will remove up to 99% of the particulate emitted by diesel engines, and the company is examining their potential to ease fracking fears.
While the company already does business with the likes of
Caterpillar Inc. (
CAT),
Deere & Company (
DE), and helps reduce bus emissions in New York and LA, emissions controls are just the start; although the market is expected to more than triple in the next five years.
Forbes reports that filtering water is where more big money can be found. The magazine estimates the market to be as big as $1 trillion within the next eight years. The World Health Organization call dirty water the world's "deadliest foe" and estimates that 14,000 people a day die from drinking unsafe H2O.
The potential is already starting to show up. In LiqTech's most recently reported quarter, March 31, 2012, the company announced quarterly sales of $6,341,721 compared to $2,917,395 in the same quarter last year – a 117% increase.
Gross profit increased 207%, climbing to $2,089,684 from $679,735, and net income followed suit to a profit of $322,601 compared to a loss of $128,202 for the comparable period in 2011.
On the plus side of investors, very little stock is owned by institutions. In fact, in total the big boys and girls own less than 3%. Additionally, there are no analysts with available research on the stock as of yet. The lack of attention could mean the stock is big time mispriced.
Once analysts or institutions jump on LiqTech International's (LIQT), you can forget about today's price. The price has been as high as $4.95 in the past 52 weeks. iStock believes that's a fair price target for LIQT's price in the next six to twelve months. Lasse Andreassen has 1.4 million reasons to hope we are right.