Buy Maxwell Technologies Inc (MXWL)

For an early-stage technology company like Maxwell Technologies (MXWL) the question isn’t “How is business today?” Instead, investors want to know if the company is growing into its future potential and if it has the cash to get to that tomorrow. In the case of Maxwell Technologies the first quarter of 2009 was a big positive on both of those fronts. The company grew sales by 31% from the first quarter of 2008, no mean feat when one of your biggest customers, the auto industry, is sputtering. The Bootstrap line of ultra capacitors, the company’s leading edge product, saw sales growth of 41% and sales of that product line represented 34% of sales in the quarter. At the end of May the company addressed its cash needs by closing a stock offering that raised $18.5 million. That’s a lot for a company of Maxwell’s size since the operating loss in the first quarter was just $1.8 million. As of July 3, I’m setting a new target price of $18 a share by March 2010. That’s up from a prior target of $11 by December 2009. (Full disclosure: I own shares of Maxwell Technologies in my personal portfolio.)