This stock is transparently manipulated (watching the B/A bounce around is the stock board equivalent of an LSD trip; usually the Bid is below the ask, but can be counted on to light up like a pinball machine the last few minutes of trade), but I bought cheap so I can afford this manipulation as big things are just around the corner.

The MRAP (basically, FRPT’s Cougar) is what the veto for funding our troops(plus the pork and a time-table for defeat), only Bush’s second, is all about. The bright side: they’re producing at full capacity now, while making several acquisitions recently.

Currently, 3 categories, from Cat I (smallest) to Cat III (largest; FRPT’s Buffalo has a lock on this category; 180 vehicle order (at $750k per plus 22% estimated spare parts – or ILS if you prefer acronyms – should result in about a million per.

FRPT has formed a joint venture with Gen Dynamics to produce these MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected) vehicles as FRPT was dead in the water for most of ‘05 as they went to an assembly line system. The joint venture, Force Dynamics, recently split a $490 mill order 50-50. The stock tanked on this news.

FRPT also has irons in the fires of Cat I and Cat II. If the Cheetah doesn’t become the hummer (destroyed in explosions, where FRPT vehicles get direct hits, drive back to base, then are back in the field in a couple of days) replacement, chalk it up to the Good Ol’ Boys network in the DOD.

Strong point: they have the license for the v-shaped hull, which is currently being “borrowed” by other co’s, so the possibility of a large settlement isn’t out of the question.

Check ‘em out at the Darlington (SC, where FRPT is located in Ladson) Avenger 500 race May 12. The Cheetah (clocked at 105 mph), the Cougar (which has about 5 versions – and acronymns! – including an ambulance), and the Buffalo, a behemoth with a 30-foot robotic arm with a spork and spike at the end (replaceable!) will be introduced at this race and are supposed to take a lap or two.

Troops and the DOD call the Cougar “the Gold Standard” for armored vehicles. One soldier noted that when they ran over an IED, exploding it, “the CD player might skip.”

You can’t buy at $2.50, anymore, but it’s at 20.99 right now (11:30 AM EST 5/2/07)…and as deliveries continue (timely delivery has been a problem in the past, hence the joint venture with GD, while having deals with BAE and several other def giants), those who follow this stock look for $30+ in the mid-term. At least.

Warning: Investor Frank Kavanaugh (without whom there wouldn’t be a there there) has an uncanny knack for selling off chunks of stock at exactly the wrong time and killing rallies, using pre-planned sell programs.

These guys have done wonders since ‘04, but if I were to judge them from the recent big red days we’ve seen recently (especially the price action), I would probably run from the room screaming. However, I have ridden in a Cougar, toured the plant twice, and these guys have exactly the right products at exactly the right time.

Put this on a watch list if you don’t buy now. That way, you can check at the end of the summer to see what you missed.

I have a son in the Army. These are the vehicles I would want him to be transported in.

Or do they make parts to the same unit? Anyone know anything about this?

And nick m.h: you’re a moron. And I mean that as antagonistically as it sounds.