Tops in market value

What's a company worth? Whatever a buyer is willing to pay at that moment.

By that measurement, International Game Technology is the most valuable company in northern Nevada, and a couple of mediumsized mining companies rank second and third.

IGT's market capitalization stood at $11.6 billion at the middle of last week, a day before it announced its most recent quarterly earnings.

A day later, it stood at $10.4 billion as investors didn't like the quarterly news.

(Market capitalization is determined by a simple calculation:Multiply the number of total outstanding shares by the price that investors are paying.

The total represents the value of the company on any given day.) In fact, stock market investors say that IGT is worth five times more than Glamis Gold of Reno, next most valuable company in northern Nevada.

The investing world valued Glamis at $2.16 billion last week.

In third place was Meridian Gold, which carried a market capitalization

of $1.82 billion.

Sierra Pacific Resources, the state's major utility, was valued at $1.11 billion.

As the chart accompanying this story shows, profits or lack of profits don't have much to do with determining the value of a company in investors' eyes.

Rather, they're betting on companies' futures in the form of future earnings.

Look for instance, at Altair Nanotechnologies of Reno.

It's valued by the market at $128 million even though it lost $6.3 million in its last full fiscal year.

The Sands Regent, the casino operator that earned nearly $7 million in its last full fiscal year, is valued by comparison at a bit over $68 million.

The chart includes only publicly held companies in the region that file financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Some of the tiniest publicly traded companies aren't included, either because they don't file reports or because of limited operating histories.

How the market values northern Nevada companies Company Market Recent Net valuation share earnings price (last full year) IGT $11.6 billion $33.51 $488.7 million Glamis Gold $2.16 billion $16.53 $18 million Meridian Gold $1.82 billion $18.35 $36.8 million Sierra Pacific Res.

$1.11 billion $9.85 ($140.5 million) Monarch Casino $329.9 million $35.08 $9.6 million Altair Nanotech.

$128.1 million $2.57 ($6.3 million) Sands Regent $68.2 million $11.96 $6.9 million Bank Holdings $58.47 million $19.68 ($565,000) Golden Phoenix Minerals $20.8 million 18cents ($3 million) Itronics $12.9 million 8cents ($2.75 million) Hytek $3.32 million $1.02 ($97,000) Piedmont Mining $1.2 million 7cents NA1 Kingdom Ventures $960,000 2cents ($3.2 million) AccessPoint $948,000 5cents ($3 million) Harvard Scientific $645,000 2cents ($399,000) European-American Resources $117,000 5cents ($778,000) 1 Company doesn't have full year of operating history Source: Company filings with Securities and Exchange Commission