A123 Declines on Concern That Battery Sales to Fisker May Stall
February 10, 2012, 8:08 AM ESTBy Ehren Goossens
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- A123 Systems Inc., a U.S. maker of batteries for electric cars, fell the most in more than six months after its largest customer stopped work on a factory and an analyst downgraded its shares.
A123, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, fell 18 percent to $2.02 at 1:08 p.m. in New York, the biggest intraday decline since Aug. 8.
Fisker Automotive Inc. said Feb. 6 that it fired 26 employees and stopped work at the factory it’s developing in Wilmington, Delaware, to make plug-in electric vehicles after the U.S. Energy Department blocked access to a federal loan.
The funding may never be restored “because it has become part of an intense political debate,” Theodore O’Neill, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities Inc. in St. Louis, wrote in a research note today.
Fisker is A123’s largest customer, he said, and “may not be able to afford any more batteries.” O’Neill cut his recommendation on A123 to “sell” from “hold” and his price target to 50 cents from $3 a share.
--Editors: Will Wade, Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter on this story: Ehren Goossens in New York at egoossens1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
