4/16/2008
Stock Pressure Drives Red Light Camera PlacementNestor Inc places red light cameras in locations designed to shore up falling stock price.
Pressure from Wall Street is driving a vendor to position red light cameras at intersections that will help drive up its stock price. Next Monday, Nestor Inc. faces Nasdaq stock exchange delisting, a humiliating process that began nearly one year ago when the Rhode Island based company's stock fell under the minimum level of $1 per share. The stock currently trades at 22 cents.
In San Bernardino, California City Attorney James F. Penman was led last week to issue a memo to the city manager warning that red light cameras were not being installed at intersections based on their accident rate. One camera in particular generated just $53,176 in revenue from alleged red light running violations over three months. But the same camera generated $572,424 from people who slowed before turning right on red, the San Bernardino Sun reported.
Throughout the US and Canada, Nestor's growing collection of 302 red light cameras and eight speed cameras secured a 42 percent increase in revenue over last year, but the company still managed to post a net loss of $2.6 million in the last quarter of 2007, according to results released to market investors yesterday. Thirty new cameras are expected this year in California, Texas and Canada.