Patriot One (PAT.V) – a weapons detection company – just issued a meaty Q2, 2018 update. The market shrugged (the stock went down 1.25% to $1.55 on 705,000 shares traded). We’ll get into that update in a minute.
Canaccord remains bullish, with a $2.50 target.
“The May 31, 2018 release hinted at some partnership developments which were referred to as being in advanced discussions,” wrote the Canaccord analyst.
We continue to model a material ramp in revenue in F2019 though we have trimmed our near-term forecast as the company continues to emphasize “getting it right” as opposed to rushing out a half-baked offering.
“Product development continues to march forward,” added the analyst, “though a fully commercialized solution still seems to be months away.”
This last point is the rub.
Patriot One is not a brand-new company, and some investors are getting itchy for the “fully commercialised solution”.
This phenomenon is not unique to Patriot One. Tesla (TSLA.NASDAQ) investors are also craving black ink. Despite selling 8,200 cars last quarter, the electric car company posted a USD $709 million net loss.
We have been tracking PAT for about a year and a half.
- December 20, 2016 PAT signs on Homeland Security Boss
- February 22, 2017 PAT expands its proprietary database of weapons “signatures”
- March 15, 2017 PAT signs a deal with University of North Dakota for a pilot study
- May 15, 2018 PAT goes to Washington
As you can see from the above chart, we’ve been through good times and bad.
Nobody is going to deny that the U.S. has a gun violence problem.
On a typical day in the U.S., 7 American children are shot dead. A deadly recent high school shooting in Florida brought the gun control debate to a boil.
Crazy voices make headlines: “Arm The Teachers”, “Pornography Causes Gun Violence” “Kids are Dying Because Schools Have Too Many Doors”.
But amidst the irresponsible, shrill voices – saner ones are emerging.
Steve Bullock is the governor of Montana. It’s a state with a lot of guns.
In a May 31st, 2018 USA Today Op-Ed, Bullock explained his special relationship with guns.
“In the spring of 1994 I learned my 11-year old nephew had been shot and killed on a playground by another student in Butte, Montana,” wrote Bullock. “Jeremy Bullock was the unintended victim of what was, at the time, our nation’s youngest schoolyard shooting.”
Last fall on the opening day of hunting season, Bullocks’s son shot his first deer.
There are 22,000 suicides and 13,000 homicides involving guns each year. Literally hundreds of thousands of parents and loved ones have felt the way I felt since that day in 1994, and how I feel to this day.
We need to work towards a society where mass shootings and schoolyard deaths are not only illegal, they are unheard of,” continued Bullock, “Arming teachers is absurd…thoughts & prayers are not solutions. They are excuses.”
Bullock states that the issue of U.S. gun violence will require a measured, multi-prong approach.
Surely, one of these prongs should be employing non-intrusive weapons detection technology to tell us who is packing – and what they are packing.
Dear Patriot One Shareholders & Partners,” began CEO & President Martin Cronin’s Q2, 2018 update, “We have been working aggressively to complete and commercially introduce Patriot One’s PATSCAN CMR microwave radar technology, coupled with machine learning capabilities.”
Q2, 2018 Update Highlights
- PAT is obliged to announce material events as they occur. But PAT is “currently in the midst of negotiations and thereby constrained from offering specifics” on these negotiations. Details will be published as soon as negotiations are concluded.
- PAT is in “advanced discussions regarding key strategic partnerships”. These potential opportunities include additional threat detection technologies that could augment and enhance PAT’s solution across diverse environments.
- PAT’s management and engineering teams are focused on “developing and honing the PATSCAN CMR antennae system”. Engineers are fine-tuning the management of “background anomalies found in real-world environments.”
- PAT’s product will play a front-line defensive role in potential life and death situations. For this reason, the company believes there is a need to ensure the technology works perfectly before commercial release.
- PAT systems have been rolled out a Midwest U.S. university and another in a Southeastern U.S. school district. Testing operational functionality across diverse environments is a key precondition to product release.
Last month, the Patriot One team visited both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government in Washington D.C.,” wrote Cronin, “to share information on our PATSCAN CMR concealed weapon detection radar device and software solution.”
“Our motto is also our goal,” stated Patriot One CEO Martin Cronin in our first interview, “We aim to deter, detect and defend against random acts of senseless violence anywhere innocent people work, live, and play.”
We picked up PAT stock all through 2017. We could bail out now with a useful profit, but that is not going to happen. Why? Because (for once) we agree with Canaccord. PAT is going higher.
We also happen to think this technology is going to save children’s lives. Using the diamond-hard metrics of wealth-creation – that’s not a reason to own the stock. But as a kicker – it has value to us.
Hell, it might even have value to Canaccord.
But they’d never tell you that.
Full Disclosure: Patriot One is an Equity Guru marketing client, and we own stock.