Another new year means another chance for the tech industry to show off at the Consumer Electronics Show.
It’s extra special for Nova Scotia-based nanotech company Meta Materials Inc. (MMAT:NASDAQ; MMAX:CSE; MMAT:FSE), which will exhibit its NANOWEB® technology installed in the window of a microwave at the convention in Las Vegas on Jan. 5-8.
META was named a CES 2023 Innovation Awards Honoree for the NANOWEB® transparent EMI shielding film, which promises to make it easier to tell when your leftovers are ready in the microwave by clearing up the radiation shielding used on the window.
The technology is also used to de-ice auto sensors and manufacture antennas and electrochromic lenses for augmented reality and 5G reflector films.
The company will also demonstrate its electric vehicle (EV)-related products, like its NPORE® nanocomposite ceramic battery separator and current collectors, to reduce copper usage and improve safety at the show.
It promises to be a busy year for the company, analyst Graham Mattison of Water Tower Research wrote.
It promises to be a busy year for the company, analyst Graham Mattison of Water Tower Research wrote in a Dec. 19 research note.
“We expect that META will announce at least one production contract this year, delivering a major milestone in the company’s growth of commercial revenues,” Mattison wrote. “While META has yet to announce anything, we see NANOWEB® as the likely technology to be commercially incorporated into a product.”
The Catalyst: NANOWEB®
But it’s the microwave application of the technology that may attract crowds for META in Las Vegas. Mattison said an estimated 70 million microwaves are sold every year.
“All microwave ovens produce radiation, which is why windows within their doors have significant shielding,” wrote ROTH Capital Partners analyst Gerry Sweeney in a research note.
“But this also obscures visibility into the oven. MMAT EMI shielding uses nanostructures to divert radiation waves back into the oven, allowing for a clear window. Furthermore, initial testing indicates lower amounts of radiation escape. Initial testing, results, and NANOWEB® line production likely open the door to increasing conversations with OEMs in coming quarters.”
ROTH has a Buy rating on META with a target of US$2.
“META is at the early stage of what we expect will be a significant growth curve as its technologies are incorporated into many of today’s products in a range of industries,” Mattison wrote.
“The company’s growing portfolio of technologies, along with its production capabilities, partnerships, and deep patent portfolio, give META a competitive advantage as it works to penetrate addressable markets that are collectively well in excess of US$50 billion.”
META’s total revenue grew year-over-year (YOY) in the third quarter by 329% to US$2.5 million and 388% to US$8.8 million over the first nine months versus the same period in 2021.
But operating expenses also doubled YOY to US$23.9 million following several important acquisitions, analyst MacMurray Whale of Cormark Securities pointed out.
The company’s Q3 net loss increased to US$24.5 million, or US$0.07 per share, on 362.2 million weighted average shares, compared to US$11.4 million, or US$0.04 per share, on 280 million weighted average shares in Q3 2021.
But operating expenses also doubled YOY to US$23.9 million following several important acquisitions, analyst MacMurray Whale of Cormark Securities pointed out.
“MMAT has many early-stage projects across a number of different verticals, most of which have not entered into commercial-scale production,” he wrote.
Hundreds of Patents
Metamaterials were first developed in the 1960s but only came into their own in the 2000s, when design and manufacturing capabilities caught up to the technology. The company is using them to develop nanotechnology products like self-deicing and defogging car and truck headlights and windows, see-through antennas, augmented reality glasses that look like regular glasses, and special eyewear that protects pilots’ eyes from laser strikes.
META is applying its futuristic technology to the communications, health and wellness, aerospace, automotive, and clean energy sectors.
ROTH has a Buy rating on META with a target of US$2.
The company has 472 active patent documents, of which 292 patents have been granted across all its technologies.
“META has been innovating over the last ten years,” President, Chief Executive Officer, and founder George Palikaras said in a video on META’s website. “We start with the design using computer algorithms that design the functions of the designed material . . . We can use a single computer with a single engineer and reduce the time to designing and innovating in the material space from six months down to a few hours.”
He said that reduces costs and makes META “a preferred partner and a preferred developer that enables a wide range of applications in the industry.”
Its NANOWEB® product is the “most transparent and conductive film available today on the market,” Palikaras said.
The global market for lithium-ion battery separators was estimated at US$5.1 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach US$9 billion by 2025, Yano Research Institute Ltd. said.
META also was granted U.S. patents for its second-generation NPORE® nanoporous ceramic separator and its third-generation NPORE® ECS (electrode-coated separator) for lithium-ion batteries.
The global market for lithium-ion battery separators was estimated at US$5.1 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach US$9 billion by 2025, Yano Research Institute Ltd. said.
META also has entered a memo of understanding with DuPont Teijin Films and Mitsubishi Electric Europe to use Meta’s PLASMAfusion to scale a high-volume manufacturing system for film-based, coated copper current collectors. The process reduces the amount of the red metal needed for EV batteries.
Ownership and Share Structure
Major shareholders include Thomas Gordon Welch, with 6.64% or 24 million shares; Anne Barber Lambert, with 6.39% or 23.14 million shares; Lamda Guard Technologies Ltd., with 6.35% or 22.98 million shares; Nova Scotia Innovation Corp., with 3.45% or 12.5 million shares; and Georgios Palikaras, with 1.92% or 6.96 million shares. About 14% of META is held institutionally held.
The stock is covered by numerous analysts, including SingularResearch's Christopher J. Sakai, ROTH Capital Partners' Gerry Sweeney, as well as Cormark Securities' MacMurray Whale, and newsletter writer Clive Maund of Clivemaund.com. Click "See More Live Data" in the data box above to review more.
The company has a market cap of $419.84 million with 361.9 million shares outstanding, 267 million of them free-floating. It trades in a 52-week range of US$2.95 and US$0.63.
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