On Tuesday, the stocks of Westport Innovations (NASDAQ: WPRT, TSE: WPT) climbed over 21% at NASDAQ to close at 27.02. Based in Vancouver, Westport trades not only on the NASDAQ but also on the Toronto-based TSE. According to its website, Westport "is a global leader in alternative fuel, low-emissions technologies that allow engines to operate on clean-burning fuels." Income statements show that Westport has had negative operating income in not only each of the past 5 quarters, but also annually for each of the past 3 years. Profit margin was Q1-2012 was -20% as the company lost $22.63 million USD.
The stocks climbed Tuesday after a deal was announced between Westport, which has market capitalization of slightly above $1 billion and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), which has market cap of over $54 billion. The would focus on "[developing] fuel systems for off-road vehicles," including natural gas engines in locomotives. The incentive to focus on natural gas comes from the substantial price difference between natural gas and diesel fuel, which results in "strong financial incentive to
enable off-road applications to take advantage of low ... costs without sacrificing operational performance." Shares of Caterpillar climbed a meager 0.47% for the day.
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