Arrowhead Research Corp. (ARWR) soars on news of positive data from weight loss drug
Posted on: November 10th, 2011Written by:
Nanomedicine company, Arrowhead Research Corp. (Nasdaq: ARWR) announced on Thursday that data from its subsidiary’s obesity drug demonstrated weight loss, reduction in body mass index and abdominal circumference in obese rhesus monkeys.
The data, which was published in Science Translational Medicine (Sci Trans Med 3, 108ra112 (2011) DOI: 10.1126/scitraslmed-3002621), demonstrates that monkeys treated with Adipotide lost an average of 11 percent of their body weight after only four weeks of treatment.
Adipotide-treated animals also showed marked improvements in insulin resistance, suggesting the potential for use in treating type-2 diabetes.
Shares of the Pasadena-based Arrowhead Research Corp. touched a new 52-week high of $1.19 on Thursday, up 120 percent from Wednesday’s c losing price of $0.54.
“Safely and effectively treating the obesity epidemic is one of the great unmet needs in medicine today,” said Dr. Christopher Anzalone, President and Chief Executive Officer of Arrowhead in a November 10 press release. “This study is a radical step forward for both Ablaris’ technology and the treatment of obesity.It is uncommon for an obesity treatment to be successfully translated from rodent studies to non-human primates. Ablaris’ approach is distinguished from others in the field by its unique mode of action. By acting directly on the vasculature that supports fat tissue rather than on the brain, we believe that we can avoid many of the safety issues that have blocked other anti-obesity drug candidates. We are extremely encouraged by the results achieved to date with Adipotide and believe that Ablaris’ unique technology offers a significant advantage to combating obesity as we prepare to enter the clinic in the near-term.”
Deer Consumer Products (DEER) gains on recent financial strength
Posted on: September 7th, 2011Written by:
Deer Consumer Products (Nasdaq: DEER) shares charged ahead 8.4% Wednesday to $4.37. Volume for the stock neared 600,000 shares toward the closing bell, or better than double its daily average of 233,000.
A news release that came out in early August pointed to second-quarter results that were truly impressive. The New York-based company, providing small household and kitchen appliances for global customers, revealed revenues of $45.1 million, an increase of $10.7 million or 31% from $34.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2010.
Approximately 65% of the sales in the second quarter were generated from China’s domestic markets while approximately 35% were from export markets. The increase in revenues was a result of the company’s expansion of sales in the China domestic market. The company was also able to raise the average selling prices of our products during the quarter and maintained healthy profit margins across our product lines.
Deer’s gross profit margin was approximately 29% for the three months ended June 30, 2011, which reflects blended profit margins between its higher-margin China domestic sales and generally lower margins from export sales.
Second-quarter net income was $7.3 million, an increase of 22% from Q2/2010. Fully diluted earnings per share were $0.22, an EPS increase of 22% from Q2/2010.
On that occasion, company CEO Bill He commented: “Deer is pleased to report record second quarter financial results. In 2010, Deer entered China’s domestic markets with a strong push by putting our ‘DEER’ branded products on the shelves of approximately 3,000 retail locations across China.
He continued, “’DEER’ branded products did especially well in the Guandong Province, Sichuan Province, Shaanxi Province, Zhejiang Province and Shandong Province. In 2011, Deer plans to continue to expand such store presence across China while adding in-store promotional staff to further enhance sales and sell-through. During the second quarter, we experienced strong customer product re-ordering from existing and new customers, as well as various levels of product sell-through. In certain product lines and during Chinese holidays, some of our products sold out completely. We made great efforts to replenish empty shelf space in some markets.”
FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCEL) stock leaps on great Q3 figures
Posted on: September 7th, 2011Written by:
FuelCell Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: FCEL) sprang in price 20.4% Wednesday to $1.24, on exciting third-quarter sales figures. Volume for the stock more than doubled its daily average at 4.5 million shares ahead of noon ET.
A news release out Sept. 6 told the investing world that the Danbury, Ct.-based FuelCell reported total revenues for the third quarter of 2011 of $31.2 million compared to $18.9 million in the same period last year, an increase of 65 percent. Product sales and revenues in the third quarter were $29.4 million compared to $16.2 million in the prior year quarter, due to increased demand for Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plants.
Product sales and revenues for the third quarter of 2011 included $21.2 million of power plants and fuel cell kits, $5.5 million primarily from installation services and revenue from the 100 kilowatt (kW) joint development agreement with POSCO Power, and $2.7 million from service agreements.
The Company generated a gross profit for the third quarter of 2011 from products and services of $0.2 million, an important milestone on the path to profitability and the first quarterly gross profit since commercializing its DFC technology.
The same release quoted FuelCell CEO Chip Bottone, “The team at FuelCell Energy achieved an important milestone this quarter by generating a gross margin for the first time since we began the commercialization process of Direct FuelCells.
“We are executing our revenue growth plan and benefitting from operating leverage that is driving down costs. We have record product and service backlog of $230.6 million and we are producing at a record rate as our Operations Group, led by Tony Rauseo, Chief Operating Officer has substantially increased our production run rate to a level of 56 megawatts annually compared to 22 megawatts of production for fiscal year 2010,” Bottone concluded.
Direct FuelCell(R) power plants are generating ultra-clean, efficient and reliable power at more than 50 locations worldwide. The Company’s power plants have generated over 850 million kWh of power using a variety of fuels including renewable biogas from wastewater treatment and food processing, as well as clean natural gas.
Linktone Ltd. (LTON) rises on Q3 results
Posted on: November 30th, 2010Written by:
Shares of value added telecom service provider, Linktone Ltd. (Nasdaq: LTON) were up about 29 percent in mid-day trading on Wednesday after the company announced strong revenue growth and a slight decrease in third quarter profit, over the same period last year.
Linktone reported GAAP net income of $600,000 or $0.02 per ADS for the third quarter, compared to $700,000 or $0.02 per ADS in the third quarter of last year. Gross revenue increased 43 percent to $19.8 million from $13.8 million a year ago.
Linktone anticipates gross revenues to fall in a range between $20 million and $21 million in Q4 of this year.
Cash and cash equivalents as well as short-term investments available for sale totaled $89.2 million, or $2.12 per fully diluted ADS, as of September 30, 2010, compared with $88.1 million as of June 30, 2010.
“As a result of effective marketing initiatives and our efforts to differentiate our services during the highly competitive season of summer school vacation, we achieved another strong quarter, with revenue from all segments of VAS data-related services, audio-related services and sales of licensed edutainment and entertainment products achieved sequential growth,” Chief Executive Officer Hary Tanoesoedibjo said in a statement. “Our healthy cash balance remains a valuable asset as we continue to assess opportunities for growth, expansion and diversification.”
Linktone seeks to capitalize on the opportunity created by the demand for mobile data services in China by offering a wide range of content and applications to mobile phone users in China and Southeast Asia. Linktone’s business model is based on revenue-sharing relationships with China’s telecom operators, including China Mobile and China Unicom, the two major mobile operators, and China Telecom and China Netcom, the two major PHS operators in China. Linktone offers a diversified portfolio that includes SMS-based wireless value added services, including ringtones, icons and screen savers, multiplayer games, horoscopes, jokes, fan clubs and news.
TeamStaff, Inc. (TSTF) shares rebound slightly on news of executive leadership changes
Posted on: September 23rd, 2010Written by:
TeamStaff, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSTF), reached 60 cents today after dipping to 54 cents at Friday’s close, after announcing this morning the appointment of Mr. John E. Kahn as Chief Financial Officer. TeamStaff, a leading logistics and healthcare services provider to the Federal Government and Department of Defense, conducted the executive search with the assistance of DHR International.
Bringing over 25 years of financial experience to the corporation, Mr. Kahn will be responsible for all elements of accounting and finance for the organization. Leading up to his appointment at TeamStaff, Mr. Kahn served as CFO of Financial Asset Management Systems, an American Capital backed government and business services group. Furthermore, Kahn has over a decade of experience as a CFO and extensive experience in publicly traded organizations. Mr. Kahn began his career with what is now BAE Systems, before joining a large public accounting firm.
Zach Parker, Chief Executive Officer of TeamStaff commented on Kahn’s appointment, stating, “We are delighted to welcome John to TeamStaff. With his appointment, we are in an even stronger position to deliver on our objective of becoming a nationally recognized leader with the Federal Government and DoD in the logistics and healthcare fields.”
Mr. Kahn holds leadership roles with several professional associations including Financial Executives International (FEI), the Association of Chartered Accountants in the United States (ACAUS) and the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).
“John not only has a proven track record in corporate finance, growing businesses and managing complex capital structures, but he also has a depth of financial and operational experience in the government services and defense industries that will be invaluable in helping TeamStaff achieve its business objectives,” Parker concluded.
EntreMed, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENMD) shares soar on Q2 results
Posted on: August 19th, 2010Written by:
Shares of EntreMed, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENMD) jumped 28 percent from Wednesday’s closing price early Thursday, after the company announced less-than positive second quarter financial results. EntreMed reported a second quarter net loss of $4.9 million, or 62 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.1 million, or 46 cents per share for the same period a year ago.
For the first six months of 2010 EntreMed reported a net loss of $7.1 million, or 95 cents per share as compared to a net loss of $6.6 million, or 98 cents per share in the same period a year ago. As of June 30, 2010, EntreMed had cash and short-term investments of approximately $8 million.
Additionally, EntreMed announced a 1-for-11 reverse stock split on June 30, 2010, to better enable the company to maintain its listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. As a result of the reverse split, the number of shares of outstanding common stock will be approximately 9.5 million, excluding stock options and unexercised warrants and subject to adjustment for fractional shares.
“During the second quarter, we achieved a critical milestone with the initiation of a multi-center Phase 2 study for ENMD-2076 in ovarian cancer patients,” EntreMed’s Executive Chairman Michael Tarnow said in a statement.
Last month, EntreMed announced the publication of preclinical data for its Phase 2 oncology drug candidate, ENMD-2076 an Aurora A/angiogenic kinase inhibitor, which demonstrated significant activity against multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines and in MM models in vivo. Results of the study, conducted by EntreMed’s collaborator, Sherif Farag, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The results of the study were published in the on-line version of the British Journal of Haematology on June 15, 2010 and were scheduled to be published in print in the August 1.
Preclinical studies with ENMD-2076 demonstrated significant antitumor activity, including tumor regression, in multiple solid and hematological malignancies. ENMD-2076 has been shown to inhibit a distinct profile of angiogenic tyrosine kinase targets in addition to the Aurora A kinase. Aurora kinases are key regulators of mitosis (cell division), and are often over-expressed in human cancers.
