Alvopetro Energy (ALVOF) – No surprises in quarterly results, time to shift focus to the future

Monday, August 15, 2022

Alvopetro Energy (ALVOF)
No surprises in quarterly results, time to shift focus to the future

Alvopetro Energy Ltd.’s vision is to become a leading independent upstream and midstream operator in Brazil. Our strategy is to unlock the on-shore natural gas potential in the state of Bahia in Brazil, building off the development of our Caburé natural gas field and our strategic midstream infrastructure.

Michael Heim, CFA, Senior Research Analyst, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

Alvopetro Energy reported 2022-2Q results significantly higher than last year and in line with expectations. Production of 2,359 boe/d (versus 2,361 last year and 2,501 last quarter) reflects a 5-day suspension of production in preparation for a processing plant expansion. The average gas price was $11.90/mcf. versus $6.06/mcf last year. With higher pricing, sales rose 93%, fund flow from operations rose 127%, and net income rose 74%. Results were in line with our expectations.

Positive pricing will continue for the immediate future and beyond. Contracted gas prices were set at $11.28/mcf. effective August 1, 2022. We believe the price Alvopetro will receive over the six months of this period’s pricing to be above $11.28/mcf and closer to $11.50/mcf. based on current exchange rates. Prices would have been set at a higher level had the increase not been constrained by a ceiling. In fact, Alvopetro management showed a chart with current prices indicating prices might have been as high $20 had there not been a ceiling. The indicated price is so far above the ceiling price that pricing will most likely be at the ceiling for the foreseeable future even if energy prices or the Real pull back from current levels….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Axcella Therapeutics (AXLA) – 2Q Included The First of Two Phase 2 Data Announcments

Monday, August 15, 2022

Axcella Therapeutics (AXLA)
2Q Included The First of Two Phase 2 Data Announcements

Axcella is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to treat complex diseases using compositions of endogenous metabolic modulators (EMMs). The company’s product candidates are comprised of EMMs and derivatives that are engineered in distinct combinations and ratios to restore cellular homeostasis in multiple key biological pathways and improve cellular energetic efficiency. Axcella’s pipeline includes lead therapeutic candidates in Phase 2 development for the treatment of Long COVID and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and the reduction in risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE) recurrence. The company’s unique model allows for the evaluation of its EMM compositions through non-IND clinical studies or IND clinical trials. For more information, please visit www.axcellatx.com.

Robert LeBoyer, Vice President, Research Analyst, Life Sciences , Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

2Q Included Long COVID-19 Data Announcement and An Increase In Cash.  Axeclla reported a loss of $21.3 million or $(0.40) per share, compared with our estimate of $19.4 million or $(0.47) per share.  During the quarter, the company raised about $25 million through a direct stock offering, bringing cash and marketable securities to $44.4 million as of June 30.  The highlight of the quarter, in our opinion, was the announcement of Phase 2a data in Long COVID-19.

Phase 2a Data Was Encouraging.  The company recently announced positive data from its Phase 2a trial testing AXA1125 in Long COVID-19.  These data showed statistically significant improvements in several measures of physical and mental fatigue.  The company reiterated plans to meet with the FDA to discuss the design of the next clinical test during the coming months….

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Sierra Metals (SMTS) – Unexpected 2Q Loss; Anticipate a Stronger Second Half

Monday, August 15, 2022

Sierra Metals (SMTS)
Unexpected 2Q Loss; Anticipate a Stronger Second Half

Sierra Metals Inc. is a diversified Canadian mining company with Green Metal exposure including increasing copper production and base metal production with precious metals byproduct credits, focused on the production and development of its Yauricocha Mine in Peru, and Bolivar and Cusi Mines in Mexico. The Company is focused on increasing production volume and growing mineral resources. Sierra Metals has recently had several new key discoveries and still has many more exciting brownfield exploration opportunities at all three Mines in Peru and Mexico that are within close proximity to the existing mines. Additionally, the Company also has large land packages at all three mines with several prospective regional targets providing longer-term exploration upside and mineral resource growth potential.

Mark Reichman, Senior Research Analyst, Natural Resources, Noble Capital Markets, Inc.

Refer to the full report for the price target, fundamental analysis, and rating.

Second quarter financial results. Sierra Metals reported an adjusted net loss of $11.6 million, or $(0.07) per share, compared with net income of $5.9 million, or $0.04 per share, during the prior quarter. We had forecast net income of $5.2 million, or $0.03 per share. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to $1.4 million compared to $16.0 million during the prior quarter. Second quarter financial results reflected lower metal prices and margin, along with an $11.0 million mark-to-market adjustment to unsettled open sales positions at the end of the second quarter due to the decline in metal prices toward the end of the second quarter. Revenue from metals payable decreased to $49.9 million compared to $57.2 million during the first quarter of 2022.

Adjusting estimates. Sierra lowered its 2022 production guidance and now expects to produce between 70.0 million and 78.0 million copper equivalent pounds compared with prior guidance of 79.5 million to 89.7 million pounds. The revised forecast reflects a slower operational turn-around at the Bolivar mine and the impact of underground flooding at the Cusi mine during the second quarter. EBITDA is now expected to be in the range of $61.0 million to $67.0 million compared to prior guidance of $90.0 million to $105.0 million. We have lowered our full year 2022 EPS and EBITDA estimates to $0.06 and $63.9 million from $0.18 and $89.1 million, respectively. …

This Company Sponsored Research is provided by Noble Capital Markets, Inc., a FINRA and S.E.C. registered broker-dealer (B/D).

*Analyst certification and important disclosures included in the full report. NOTE: investment decisions should not be based upon the content of this research summary. Proper due diligence is required before making any investment decision. 

Release – Comstock Announces The Sale Of The Daney Ranch



Comstock Announces The Sale Of The Daney Ranch

Research, News, and Market Data on Comstock Mining

VIRGINIA
CITY, NEVADA, AUGUST 15, 2022
 – Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) (“Comstock” and the “Company”) today announced that it has executed all of the closing documents on one of its three major non-mining assets, the Daney Ranch property, located near Dayton, Nevada, for a sales price of $2.7 million.

“We are pleased to close this deal and advance our monetization program. The buyer is a mining industry veteran and an outstanding neighbor. This is just one in a series of closings expected over the next 3 to 4 months, as we complete the rest of our non-mining asset sales,” said Mr. Corrado De Gasperis, Executive Chairman and CEO.

In 2020, the Company entered into an agreement with the owner of an established exploration and mine development drilling services company, to lease the properties for $9,000 per month, for up to 24 months, including the assumption of all maintenance, upgrades, and repairs. As the transaction closed within two years, about $200,000 of those lease payments were creditable to the purchase price, resulting in a net price at closing of $2.5 million. The transaction funds this week, resulting in an additional $1.5 million in cash and a $1 million secured, interest bearing note that is required to be paid off upon the sale of specific assets owned by the buyer.

About
Comstock

Comstock (NYSE: LODE) innovates technologies that contribute to global decarbonization and circularity by efficiently converting under-utilized natural resources into renewable fuels and electrification products that contribute to balancing global uses and emissions of carbon. The Company intends to achieve exponential growth and extraordinary financial, natural, and social gains by building, owning, and operating a fleet of advanced carbon neutral extraction and refining facilities, by selling an array of complementary process solutions and related services, and by licensing selected technologies to qualified strategic partners. To learn more, please visit www.comstock.inc.


Forward-Looking Statements 

This press release and any related calls or discussions may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” “plan,” “should,” “intend,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “potential” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of doing so. Forward-looking statements include statements about matters such as: future industry market conditions; future explorations or acquisitions; future changes in our exploration activities; future changes in our research and development; and future prices and sales of, and demand for, our products and services. Except as may be required by securities or other law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Neither this press release nor any related call or discussion constitutes an offer to sell, the solicitation of an offer to buy or a recommendation with respect to any securities of the Company, the fund or any other issuer.

Contact information:

 

 

Comstock Mining Inc.
P.O. Box 1118
Virginia City, NV 89440
www.comstock.inc

Corrado De Gasperis
Executive Chairman & CEO
Tel (775) 847-4755
degasperis@comstockmining.com

Zach Spencer
Director of External Relations
Tel (775) 847-5272 Ext.151
questions@comstockmining.com


Release – Ayala Pharmaceuticals Reports Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update



Ayala Pharmaceuticals Reports Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update

Research, News, and Market Data on Ayala Pharmaceuticals

August 15, 2022

Interim data from Part A of the RINGSIDE study
demonstrated substantial initial anti-tumor activity for AL102 as a single
agent and supports continued development

More advanced and comprehensive data set from RINGSIDE to be
presented at ESMO

REHOVOT, Israel and WILMINGTON, Del., Aug. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ayala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AYLA), a clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing and commercializing small molecule therapeutics for patients suffering from rare and aggressive cancers, primarily in genetically defined patient populations, today announced second-quarter 2022 financial results and provided a corporate update.

“We continue to make considerable progress across our pipeline, and we were particularly excited to announce interim results from the ongoing Phase 2/3 RINGSIDE trial evaluating AL102 in desmoid tumors. Although early, the results showed substantial initial anti-tumor activity and a favorable side effect profile,” said Roni Mamluk, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ayala. “Based on these positive results, our efforts are focused on finalizing the Part A of the study shortly followed by immediate initiation of Part B. For AL101, we were pleased with the latest interim results from the ACCURACY trial presented at ASCO, which demonstrated anti-tumor monotherapy activity and evidence of improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with recurrent/metastatic ACC.”

Second-quarter 2022
and Recent Business Highlights

  • In July, announced positive interim data
    from Part A of the Phase 2/3 RINGSIDE study of AL102 in desmoid
    tumors: 
    Data showed tumor shrinkage in substantially all patients who were evaluable at 16 weeks. AL102 was well tolerated at all three dosing regimens with no dose-limiting toxicities and no Grade 4/5 adverse events. The results from Part A will be used to determine the dose of AL102 to be evaluated in Part B of RINGSIDE, the randomized portion of the study, which Ayala is on track to initiate in 3Q 2022. More advanced and comprehensive data from RINGSIDE is expected to be presented at ESMO.
  • Data on AL101 in adenoid cystic carcinoma
    (ACC) presented at ASCO 2022 Annual Meeting: 
    In a poster at ASCO, the company provided an update from the 4mg and 6 mg AL101 cohorts in the ACCURACY study of AL101, a selective gamma-secretase inhibitor, in subjects with recurrent/metastatic (R/M) adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) harboring Notch activating mutations. An overall disease control rate of 66.7% was observed. The median PFS in each of the 4mg and 6mg dose cohorts was 3.7 months and 6.7 months among the patients who had a partial response.

Upcoming Milestones

  • More
    advanced data from the RINGSIDE trial in desmoid tumors:
     Ayala expects to present a more comprehensive data set from Part A of the RINGSIDE trial of AL102 at ESMO.
  • Initiation
    of Part B of the RINGSIDE trial
    : Part B will be a double-blind placebo-controlled study enrolling up to 156 patients with progressive disease, randomized between AL102 or placebo. The primary endpoint will be PFS with secondary endpoints including objective response rates, duration of response, and patient-reported quality of life measures.
  • Initiate
    Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating AL102 in T-cell acute lymphoblastic
    leukemia (T-ALL): 
    Ayala plans to begin an investigator-initiated Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating AL102 in R/R T-ALL around year-end.

Second-Quarter 2022 Financial Results

Cash Position: Cash and cash equivalents were $20.1 million as of June 30, 2022.

Collaboration Revenue: Collaboration revenue was $38 thousand for the second quarter of 2022, as compared to $761 thousand for the corresponding quarter in 2021.

R&D Expenses: Research and development expenses were $5.6 million for the second quarter of 2022, compared to $8.1 million for the corresponding quarter in 2021. The decrease is mainly due to the winding down of the ACCURACY study.

G&A Expenses: General and administrative expenses were $2.3 million for the second quarter of 2022, compared to $2.5 million for the second quarter of 2021.

Net Loss: Net loss was $8.2 million for the second quarter of 2022, resulting in basic and diluted net loss per share of $0.54. This compares with a net loss of $10.8 million for the second quarter of 2021 or basic and diluted net loss per share of $0.75 for that quarter.

For further details on the company’s financial results, refer to form Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2022, filed with the SEC on August 15, 2022.

About Ayala Pharmaceuticals

Ayala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing and commercializing small molecule therapeutics for patients suffering from rare tumors and aggressive cancers. Ayala’s approach is focused on predicating, identifying and addressing tumorigenic drivers of cancer through a combination of its bioinformatics platform and next-generation sequencing to deliver targeted therapies to underserved patient populations. The company has two product candidates under development, AL101 and AL102, targeting the aberrant activation of the Notch pathway with gamma secretase inhibitors to treat a variety of tumors including desmoid tumors, adenoid cystic carcinoma and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). AL101, has received Fast Track Designation and Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. FDA and is currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial for patients with ACC (ACCURACY) bearing Notch activating mutations. AL102 is currently in a Pivotal Phase 2/3 clinical trials for patients with desmoid tumors (RINGSIDE). For more information, visit www.ayalapharma.com.

Contacts:

Investors:
Joyce Allaire
LifeSci Advisors LLC
+1-617-435-6602

jallaire@lifesciadvisors.com 

Ayala Pharmaceuticals:
+1-857-444-0553

info@ayalapharma.com 

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including statements relating to our development of AL101 and AL102, the promise and potential impact of our preclinical or clinical trial data, the timing of and plans to initiate additional clinical trials of AL101 and AL102, the timing and results of any clinical trials or readouts, our participation at scientific or medical conferences, the sufficiency of cash to fund operations, and the anticipated impact of COVID-19, on our business. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations. The words ”may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “estimate,” “believe,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: we have incurred significant losses since inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. We are not currently profitable, and we may never achieve or sustain profitability; we will require additional capital to fund our operations, and if we fail to obtain necessary financing, we may not be able to complete the development and commercialization of AL101 and AL102; we have identified conditions and events that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern; we have a limited operating history and no history of commercializing pharmaceutical products, which may make it difficult to evaluate the prospects for our future viability; we are heavily dependent on the success of AL101 and AL102, our most advanced product candidates, which are still under clinical development, and if either AL101 or AL102 does not receive regulatory approval or is not successfully commercialized, our business may be harmed; due to our limited resources and access to capital, we must prioritize development of certain programs and product candidates; these decisions may prove to be wrong and may adversely affect our business; the outbreak of COVID-19, may adversely affect our business, including our clinical trials; our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations; our product candidates are designed for patients with genetically defined cancers, which is a rapidly evolving area of science, and the approach we are taking to discover and develop product candidates is novel and may never lead to marketable products; we were not involved in the early development of our lead product candidates; therefore, we are dependent on third parties having accurately generated, collected and interpreted data from certain preclinical studies and clinical trials for our product candidates; enrollment and retention of patients in clinical trials is an expensive and time-consuming process and could be made more difficult or rendered impossible by multiple factors outside our control; if we do not achieve our projected development and commercialization goals in the timeframes we announce and expect, the commercialization of our product candidates may be delayed and our business will be harmed; our product candidates may cause serious adverse events or undesirable side effects, which may delay or prevent marketing approval, or, if approved, require them to be taken off the market, require them to include safety warnings or otherwise limit their sales; the market opportunities for AL101 and AL102, if approved, may be smaller than we anticipate; we may not be successful in developing, or collaborating with others to develop, diagnostic tests to identify patients with Notch-activating mutations; we have never obtained marketing approval for a product candidate and we may be unable to obtain, or may be delayed in obtaining, marketing approval for any of our product candidates; even if we obtain FDA approval for our product candidates in the United States, we may never obtain approval for or commercialize them in any other jurisdiction, which would limit our ability to realize their full market potential; we have been granted Orphan Drug Designation for AL101 for the treatment of ACC and may seek Orphan Drug Designation for other indications or product candidates, and we may be unable to maintain the benefits associated with Orphan Drug Designation, including the potential for market exclusivity, and may not receive Orphan Drug Designation for other indications or for our other product candidates; although we have received Fast Track designation for AL101, and may seek Fast Track designation for our other product candidates, such designations may not actually lead to a faster development timeline, regulatory review or approval process; we face significant competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and our operating results will suffer if we fail to compete effectively; we are dependent on a small number of suppliers for some of the materials used to manufacture our product candidates, and on one company for the manufacture of the active pharmaceutical ingredient for each of our product candidates; any future collaborations will be, important to our business. If we are unable to maintain our existing collaboration or enter into new collaborations, or if these collaborations are not successful, our business could be adversely affected; enacted and future healthcare legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to obtain marketing approval of and commercialize our product candidates, if approved, and may affect the prices we may set; if we are unable to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce patent and other intellectual property protection for our technology and products or if the scope of the patent or other intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours, and we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets; we may engage in acquisitions or in-licensing transactions that could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders or reduce our financial resources; and risks related to our operations in Israel could materially adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2022 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 15, 2022 and our other filings with the SEC, could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. New risk factors and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risk factors and uncertainties. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

 

AYALA PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

 

 

 

June 30,

 

 

December 31,

 

 

 

2022

 

 

2021

 

 

 

(Unaudited)

 

 

 

 

CURRENT ASSETS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cash and Cash Equivalents

 

$

20,059

 

 

$

36,982

 

Short-term Restricted Bank Deposits

 

 

111

 

 

 

122

 

Trade Receivables

 

 

262

 

 

 

 

Prepaid Expenses and other Current Assets

 

 

2,322

 

 

 

2,636

 

Total Current Assets

 

 

22,754

 

 

 

39,740

 

LONG-TERM ASSETS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Assets

 

$

231

 

 

$

267

 

Property and Equipment, Net

 

 

1,039

 

 

 

1,120

 

Total Long-Term Assets

 

 

1,270

 

 

 

1,387

 

Total Assets

 

$

24,024

 

 

$

41,127

 

LIABILITIES
AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CURRENT LIABILITIES:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trade Payables

 

$

3,254

 

 

$

3,214

 

Other Accounts Payables

 

 

2,993

 

 

 

3,258

 

Total Current Liabilities

 

 

6,247

 

 

 

6,472

 

LONG TERM LIABILITIES:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long-term Rent Liability

 

 

414

 

 

 

497

 

Total Long-Term Liabilities

 

$

414

 

 

$

497

 

STOCKHOLDERS’
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Stock of $0.01 par value per share; 200,000,000 shares authorized at 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 31, 2021 and June 30, 2022; 14,503,743 and 14,080,383 shares issued
at June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively; 13,984,662 and
13,956,035 shares outstanding at June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021,
respectively

 

$

139

 

 

$

139

 

Additional Paid-in Capital

 

 

146,602

 

 

 

145,160

 

Accumulated Deficit

 

 

(129,378

)

 

 

(111,141

)

Total Stockholders’ Equity

 

 

17,363

 

 

 

34,158

 

Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity

 

$

24,024

 

 

$

41,127

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AYALA
PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF
OPERATIONS

(Unaudited)
(In thousands, except share & per share
amounts)

 

 

 

For
the Three Months Ended

June 30,

 

 

For
the Six Months Ended

June 30,

 

 

 

2022

 

 

2021

 

 

2022

 

 

2021

 

Revenues from licensing agreement and others

 

$

38

 

 

$

761

 

 

$

496

 

 

$

1,735

 

Cost of services

 

 

(38

)

 

 

(761

)

 

 

(406

)

 

 

(1,735

)

Gross profit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

90

 

 

 

 

Operating expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development

 

 

5,580

 

 

 

8,121

 

 

 

13,083

 

 

 

15,046

 

General and administrative

 

 

2,260

 

 

 

2,536

 

 

 

4,701

 

 

 

4,839

 

Operating loss

 

 

(7,840

)

 

 

(10,657

)

 

 

(17,694

)

 

 

(19,885

)

Financial Income (Loss), net

 

 

(156

)

 

 

(22

)

 

 

(140

)

 

 

(114

)

Loss before income tax

 

 

(7,996

)

 

 

(10,679

)

 

 

(17,834

)

 

 

(19,999

)

Taxes on income

 

 

(214

)

 

 

(162

)

 

 

(403

)

 

 

(410

)

Net loss

 

 

(8,210

)

 

 

(10,841

)

 

 

(18,237

)

 

 

(20,409

)

Net Loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted

 

$

(0.54

)

 

$

(0.75

)

 

$

(1.19

)

 

$

(1.46

)

Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic and diluted

 

 

15,312,766

 

 

 

14,417,423

 

 

 

15,306,823

 

 

 

13,954,676

 

 


Release – PsyBio Therapeutics Strengthens IP Portfolio through Filing of Data to Support Previously Submitted Provisional Biosynthetic Production Patent Application


PsyBio Therapeutics Strengthens IP Portfolio through Filing of Data to Support Previously Submitted Provisional Biosynthetic Production Patent Application

Research, News, and Market Data on PsyBio

Biosynthetic Production covers
Methylated Tryptamine Derivatives including DMT and 5-MeO-DMT

OXFORD, Ohio and DENVER, Aug. 11, 2022 /CNW/ – PsyBio Therapeutics Corp. (TSXV: PSYB), (OTCQB: PSYBF) (“PsyBio” or the “Company“), an intellectual property driven biotechnology company focused upon discovery and development of novel, psycho-targeted therapeutics to potentially improve mental and neurological health, today is announcing the filing of data to support the conversion of a previously submitted provisional patent covering the biosynthetic production of methylated tryptamine derivatives including 
N,N-dimethyltryptamine (“DMT“) and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (”
5-MeO-DMT“) as well as other related products.

“We are proud of the strength of our intellectual property portfolio, safeguarding our advancement of biosynthetic production of psycho-targeted molecules. This most recent filing of data extends our coverage to include DMT and 5-MeO-DMT,” stated Michael Spigarelli, MD, PhD, MBA, PsyBio’s Chief Medical Officer. “While these methylated tryptamine derivatives are well known, this filing covers numerous novel compounds that we expect will allow us to proceed with clinical development and build on our work to potentially improve mental and neurological healthcare for patients.”

The patent information submitted includes data concerning host strains, production methodology, and processes of production that support and allow PsyBio’s novel methodology to be successful.

“PsyBio continues to demonstrate its leadership in the biosynthetic development field through our continued commitment to strengthen our intellectual property portfolio, while also promoting scientific and methodologic advancements in the field,” stated Evan Levine, PsyBio’s Chief Executive Officer. “Intellectual property protection is paramount for our Company and our shareholders.”

About PsyBio Therapeutics Corp.

PsyBio Therapeutics is an intellectual property driven biotechnology company developing new, bespoke, psycho-targeted therapeutics to potentially improve mental and neurological health. The team has extensive experience in drug discovery based on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering as well as clinical and regulatory expertise progressing drugs through human studies and regulatory protocols. Research and development is currently ongoing for naturally occurring psychoactive tryptamines originally discovered in different varieties of hallucinogenic mushrooms, other tryptamines and phenethylamines and combinations thereof.  The Company utilizes a bio-medicinal chemistry approach to therapeutic development, in which psychoactive compounds can be utilized as a template upon which to develop precursors and analogs, both naturally and non-naturally occurring.

Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking information” (”
forward-looking information“) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as “expects”, or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, “plans”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “forecasts”, “estimates”, “believes” or “intends” or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results “may” or “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information. Forward looking-statements in this press release include statements regarding: the ability of PsyBio to proceed with clinical development and to build on efforts to potentially improve mental and neurological healthcare for patients; the ability of PsyBio to develop novel formulations to potentially treat neurologic and psychologic conditions and other disorders; the success of PsyBio’s novel methodology; the ability of PsyBio to build and protect its intellectual property portfolio of novel drug candidates; the ability of PsyBio to launch clinical trials; the ability to achieve cost competitive synthesis with reduced environmental impact over current production methods; and the ability of PsyBio to move target candidates into scaled commercial manufacturing and regulatory application.

In disclosing the forward-looking information contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions, including that: the filing will extend intellectual property protection coverage to include DMT and 5-MeO-DMT; the patent information submitted will support and allow PsyBio’s novel methodology to be successful; PsyBio will be successful in protecting its intellectual property; PsyBio will be successful in discovering new valuable target molecules; PsyBio will file one or more investigational new drug applications with the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA“); PsyBio will be successful in obtaining all necessary approvals for clinical trials; PsyBio will be successful in launching clinical trials; the results of preclinical safety and efficacy testing will be favourable; PsyBio’s technology will be safe and effective; a confirmed signal will be identified in PsyBio’s selected indications; and that drug development involves long lead times, is very expensive and involves many variables of uncertainty. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking information will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: compliance with extensive government regulations; domestic and foreign laws and regulations adversely affecting PsyBio’s business and results of operations; decreases in the prevailing process for psilocybin and nutraceutical products in the markets in which PsyBio operates; the impact of COVID-19; and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking information or otherwise.

PsyBio makes no medical, treatment or health benefit claims about PsyBio’s proposed products. The FDA or other similar regulatory authorities have not evaluated claims regarding psilocybin and other next generation psychoactive compounds. The efficacy of such products has not been confirmed by FDA-approved research. There is no assurance that the use of psilocybin and other psychoactive compounds can diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Vigorous scientific research and clinical trials are needed. PsyBio has not conducted clinical trials for the use of its intellectual property. Any references to quality, consistency, efficacy and safety of potential products do not imply that PsyBio verified such in clinical trials or that PsyBio will complete such trials. If PsyBio cannot obtain the approvals or research necessary to commercialize its business, it may have a material adverse effect on the PsyBio’s performance and operations.

The TSX Venture Exchange (the
TSXV“) has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of
this news release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as
that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE PsyBio Therapeutics Corp.

View original content to download multimedia: 
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2022/11/c9503.html

 


Why Wind Energy Optimization Requires Sub-Optimal Windmill Positioning



Image Credit: Victor Leshyk (MIT News)


A New Method Boosts Wind Farms’ Energy Output, Without New Equipment

David L. Chandler | MIT
News Office

 

Virtually all wind turbines, which produce more than 5 percent of the world’s electricity, are controlled as if they were individual, free-standing units. In fact, the vast majority are part of larger wind farm installations involving dozens or even hundreds of turbines, whose wakes can affect each other.

Now, engineers at MIT and elsewhere have found that, with no need for any new investment in equipment, the energy output of such wind farm installations can be increased by modeling the wind flow of the entire collection of turbines and optimizing the control of individual units accordingly.

The increase in energy output from a given installation may seem modest — it’s about 1.2 percent overall, and 3 percent for optimal wind speeds. But the algorithm can be deployed at any wind farm, and the number of wind farms is rapidly growing to meet accelerated climate goals. If that 1.2 percent energy increase were applied to all the world’s existing wind farms, it would be the equivalent of adding more than 3,600 new wind turbines, or enough to power about 3 million homes, and a total gain to power producers of almost a billion dollars per year, the researchers say. And all of this for essentially no cost.

The research is published today in the journal Nature Energy, in a study led by MIT Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Michael F. Howland.

“Essentially all existing utility-scale turbines are controlled ‘greedily’ and independently,” says Howland. The term “greedily,” he explains, refers to the fact that they are controlled to maximize only their own power production, as if they were isolated units with no detrimental impact on neighboring turbines.

But in the real world, turbines are deliberately spaced close together in wind farms to achieve economic benefits related to land use (on- or offshore) and to infrastructure such as access roads and transmission lines. This proximity means that turbines are often strongly affected by the turbulent wakes produced by others that are upwind from them — a factor that individual turbine-control systems do not currently take into account.

“From a flow-physics standpoint, putting wind turbines close together in wind farms is often the worst thing you could do,” Howland says. “The ideal approach to maximize total energy production would be to put them as far apart as possible,” but that would increase the associated costs.

That’s where the work of Howland and his collaborators comes in. They developed a new flow model which predicts the power production of each turbine in the farm depending on the incident winds in the atmosphere and the control strategy of each turbine. While based on flow-physics, the model learns from operational wind farm data to reduce predictive error and uncertainty. Without changing anything about the physical turbine locations and hardware systems of existing wind farms, they have used the physics-based, data-assisted modeling of the flow within the wind farm and the resulting power production of each turbine, given different wind conditions, to find the optimal orientation for each turbine at a given moment. This allows them to maximize the output from the whole farm, not just the individual turbines.

Today, each turbine constantly senses the incoming wind direction and speed and uses its internal control software to adjust its yaw (vertical axis) angle position to align as closely as possible to the wind. But in the new system, for example, the team has found that by turning one turbine just slightly away from its own maximum output position — perhaps 20 degrees away from its individual peak output angle — the resulting increase in power output from one or more downwind units will more than make up for the slight reduction in output from the first unit. By using a centralized control system that takes all of these interactions into account, the collection of turbines was operated at power output levels that were as much as 32 percent higher under some conditions.

In a months-long experiment in a real utility-scale wind farm in India, the predictive model was first validated by testing a wide range of yaw orientation strategies, most of which were intentionally suboptimal. By testing many control strategies, including suboptimal ones, in both the real farm and the model, the researchers could identify the true optimal strategy. Importantly, the model was able to predict the farm power production and the optimal control strategy for most wind conditions tested, giving confidence that the predictions of the model would track the true optimal operational strategy for the farm. This enables the use of the model to design the optimal control strategies for new wind conditions and new wind farms without needing to perform fresh calculations from scratch.

Then, a second months-long experiment at the same farm, which implemented only the optimal control predictions from the model, proved that the algorithm’s real-world effects could match the overall energy improvements seen in simulations. Averaged over the entire test period, the system achieved a 1.2 percent increase in energy output at all wind speeds, and a 3 percent increase at speeds between 6 and 8 meters per second (about 13 to 18 miles per hour).

While the test was run at one wind farm, the researchers say the model and cooperative control strategy can be implemented at any existing or future wind farm. Howland estimates that, translated to the world’s existing fleet of wind turbines, a 1.2 percent overall energy improvement would produce  more than 31 terawatt-hours of additional electricity per year, approximately equivalent to installing an extra 3,600 wind turbines at no cost. This would translate into some $950 million in extra revenue for the wind farm operators per year, he says.

The amount of energy to be gained will vary widely from one wind farm to another, depending on an array of factors including the spacing of the units, the geometry of their arrangement, and the variations in wind patterns at that location over the course of a year. But in all cases, the model developed by this team can provide a clear prediction of exactly what the potential gains are for a given site, Howland says. “The optimal control strategy and the potential gain in energy will be different at every wind farm, which motivated us to develop a predictive wind farm model which can be used widely, for optimization across the wind energy fleet,” he adds.

But the new system can potentially be adopted quickly and easily, he says. “We don’t require any additional hardware installation. We’re really just making a software change, and there’s a significant potential energy increase associated with it.” Even a 1 percent improvement, he points out, means that in a typical wind farm of about 100 units, operators could get the same output with one fewer turbine, thus saving the costs, usually millions of dollars, associated with purchasing, building, and installing that unit.

Further, he notes, by reducing wake losses the algorithm could make it possible to place turbines more closely together within future wind farms, therefore increasing the power density of wind energy, saving on land (or sea) footprints. This power density increase and footprint reduction could help to achieve pressing greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, which call for a substantial expansion of wind energy deployment, both on and offshore.

What’s more, he says, the biggest new area of wind farm development is offshore, and “the impact of wake losses is often much higher in offshore wind farms.” That means the impact of this new approach to controlling those wind farms could be significantly greater.

The Howland Lab and the international team is continuing to refine the models further and working to improve the operational instructions they derive from the model, moving toward autonomous, cooperative control and striving for the greatest possible power output from a given set of conditions, Howland says.

“This paper describes a significant step forward for wind power,” says Charles Meneveau, a professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved in this work. “It includes new ideas and methodologies to effectively control wind turbines collectively under the highly variable wind energy resource. It shows that smartly implemented yaw control strategies using state-of-the-art physics-based wake models, supplemented with data-driven approaches, can increase power output in wind farms.” The fact that this was demonstrated in an operating wind farm, he says, “is of particular importance to facilitate subsequent implementation and scale-up of the proposed approach.”

 

Reprinted with the permission  MIT News http://news.mit.edu/

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The More Impactful Fed Moves May Not Make Headline News



Image Credit: Stuart Richards (Flickr)


Is Quantitative Tightening Impacting the Economy on the QT?

The Fed has begun to reduce the trillions it has added to its balance
sheet
. With each dollar it added to the economy over the past two years, there was a new dollar available to provide capital for growth and investment. Or a new dollar to help hold borrowing costs down. Quantitative
tightening
(QT) is out of the spotlight relative to overnight bank lending rates. Yet, QT could have a much greater economic impact on all markets, from real estate to stocks, and more directly fixed income.

There is less understanding of QT. The Federal Reserve’s effort to shrink its balance sheet after buying trillions in bonds is somewhat complicated and less visible. But, although QT is on the quieter side of what is shaping tomorrow’s economy, investors need to know how shrinking the balance sheet, the other tightening, impacts investments.

The Fed stopped its bond purchases in May. That is to say, they stopped buying bonds that injected money into the system. This is referred to as quantitative easing (QE).

In June, after a period of tapering its purchases, the central bank began QT> Then it announced it would partially unwind roughly $4.5 trillion that had previously been purchased. The Fed officially said that it would start by letting up to $30 billion in US treasuries and $17.5 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) mature out of its holdings (balance sheet). During the previous months, it would have reinvested the maturing amount and even added to the purchases.  The announcement was, beginning in September, it’s shrinking the balance sheet could increase to $60 billion maturing bonds not rolled in treasuries and 35 billion not reinvested in MBS securities. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell shared a plan lasting 2½ years, which implies the Fed’s $9 trillion balance sheet could shrink by as much as $2.5 trillion. Roughly half of what was added to support the economy during the pandemic.


Lack of Awareness

The financial news likes to keep it simple. And quantitative tightening isn’t simple, so its impact isn’t reported to the extent that an overnight increase, which is easier to understand, is presented. With QT, there is no prior hype asking “what is the Fed going to do?” and there is little certainty to what they have done. It just happens, no fanfare, no commentary.

Historically, this kind of tightening has been attempted only once before, and it was derailed. The transparent Fed is ridiculed and criticized when it removes economic stimulus. So there may not be a strong overall belief that the Fed will actually remove the trillions of extra money now floating around and creating economic opportunity by inflating asset prices.   Also, overnight rate increases are much easier for economists to model and news for mass public consumption to report on.

So, the news of QT is underreported and ignored. What is being reported is a strong doubt that the Fed is following through on its balance-sheet tightening plan, particularly with MBS. For those that have looked at the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, the doubt is not without cause.

Barron’s spoke with a senior trader on the Fed’s open markets desk. This is what the well-respected investment publication was told. The Fed is conducting QT as it has said it would. The trader said people are confused because it looks like the Fed’s MBS holdings aren’t decreasing and even may be increasing.

The trader told Barrons that the saw-toothed pattern in the Fed’s MBS holdings is the result of accounting issues. First, there is a gap between when MBS purchases settle and when holders of MBS receive payments. Second, the Fed has a three-month window for settling MBS purchases. The Fed is the largest single investor in the MBS market, the Fed has the option of delaying settlements if it thinks that will create a better functioning market.

In effect, this means MBS purchased by the Fed, as it does when it reinvests pay downs, could just be showing up. QE ended, but if there are pay downs in excess of the Feds goal of runoff, the excess is reinvested. The settlement dates differ and cause the appearance of a balance sheet that may have grown. This isn’t the case, and investors need to know that longer-term interest rates are being tightened.

The Fed senior trader warned something is apt to break, not unlike what happened the last time the Fed tried QT, and chaos in the repo market prompted an early end to the return to “normalcy.” But he was more optimistic as he said the Treasury may be more supportive in smoothing the process of reducing liquidity while not disrupting markets.


Take Away

If quantitative easing (QE) mattered, then quantitative tightening should too. It isn’t reported on as prominently as direct interest rate hikes, but the impact is the direct inverse to what allowed so much economic growth. So, the savvy investor will pay attention, which may give them an edge. For the Fed to bring inflation back to 2%, the Federal Reserve would need to shrink its balance sheet by the almost $4 to $5 trillion it increased it a short time ago. This could increase longer-term interest rates by far more than the announced increases in short-term rates.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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Sources

https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttrends.htm

https://www.barrons.com/articles/intel-chip-stocks-to-buy-now-51660333062

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_tightening

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Release – ACCO Brands Corporation Announces Appointment of Joe Burton to Board of Directors



ACCO Brands Corporation Announces Appointment of Joe Burton to Board of Directors

Research, News, and Market Data on ACCO Brands

08/15/2022

LAKE ZURICH, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE: ACCO) today announced that Joe Burton has been appointed to its Board of Directors.

In his current role as Chief Executive Officer for Telesign Corp., Mr. Burton leads an organization that services global enterprises by connecting, protecting and defending their digital identities. Prior to his current role, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Poly (formerly Plantronics), a company that provides premium audio, video and conferencing products for businesses and consumers. Previously, Mr. Burton held various executive management, engineering leadership, strategy and architecture-level positions at Polycom, Cisco Systems, Inc. and Active Voice Corporation.

Boris Elisman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ACCO Brands, commented, “We are excited to have Joe join our Board of Directors. Technology is becoming a more significant part of our product portfolio. Joe’s extensive expertise in technology and product development, as well as success driving digital transformation, growth acceleration and corporate/go-to-market strategies, will help guide us in our transformation journey to transition to a global consumer and brand-driven products company.”

About
ACCO Brands

ACCO Brands, the Home of Great Brands Built by Great People, designs, manufactures and markets consumer and end-user products that help people work, learn, play and thrive. Our widely recognized brands include AT-A-GLANCE®, Five Star®, Kensington®, Leitz®, Mead®, PowerA®, Swingline®, Tilibra® and many others. More information about ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE: ACCO) can be found at www.accobrands.com.

Christopher McGinnis
Investor Relations
(847) 796-4320

Julie McEwan
Media Relations
(937) 974-8162

Source: ACCO Brands Corporation


Release – Lineage to Present at H.C. Wainwright & Co. 2nd Annual Virtual Ophthalmology Conference

 



Lineage to Present at H.C. Wainwright & Co. 2nd Annual Virtual Ophthalmology Conference

Research, News, and Market Data on Lineage Cell Therapeutics

CARLSBAD, Calif.–(
)–Lineage Cell
Therapeutics, Inc.
 (NYSE American and TASE: LCTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing allogeneic cell therapies for unmet medical needs, announced today Brian M. Culley, Lineage’s Chief Executive Officer, will present at the H.C. Wainwright
2nd Annual Ophthalmology Virtual Conference
, in a fireside chat hosted by Joseph Pantginis, Ph.D., Director of Research; Managing Director, Equity Research, H. C. Wainwright & Co. LLC. The fireside chat will be available to investors on demand, starting on August 17th, 2022 at 7am ET.

Interested parties can register to view on-demand replay on the Events and
Presentations
 section of Lineage’s website. Additional videos are available on the Media page of the Lineage website.

About Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs. Lineage’s programs are based on its robust proprietary cell-based therapy platform and associated in-house development and manufacturing capabilities. With this platform Lineage develops and manufactures specialized, terminally differentiated human cells from its pluripotent and progenitor cell starting materials. These differentiated cells are developed to either replace or support cells that are dysfunctional or absent due to degenerative disease or traumatic injury or administered as a means of helping the body mount an effective immune response to cancer. Lineage’s clinical programs are in markets with billion dollar opportunities and include five allogeneic (“off-the-shelf”) product candidates: (i) OpRegen, a retinal pigment epithelial cell therapy in development for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, is being developed under a worldwide collaboration with Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group; (ii) OPC1, an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell therapy in Phase 1/2a development for the treatment of acute spinal cord injuries; (iii) VAC2, a dendritic cell therapy produced from Lineage’s VAC technology platform for immuno-oncology and infectious disease, currently in Phase 1 clinical development for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; (iv) ANP1, an auditory neuronal progenitor cell therapy for the potential treatment of auditory neuropathy; and (v) PNC1, a photoreceptor neural cell therapy for the treatment of vision loss due to photoreceptor dysfunction or damage. For more information, please visit www.lineagecell.com or follow the company on Twitter @LineageCell.

Contacts

Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. IR
Ioana C. Hone
(
ir@lineagecell.com)
(442) 287-8963

Russo Partners – Media Relations
Nic Johnson or David Schull
Nic.johnson@russopartnersllc.com
David.schull@russopartnersllc.com
(212) 845-4242

 


Is Index Fund Popularity Going to Cool-Off?



Image Credit: Laura Pontiggia (Flickr)


Has the Bear Market Left a Permanent Mark on Indexed Investments?

As much as 25% of the S&P 500 index is comprised of only five stocks. Most active investors can guess them easily enough: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA), and Alphabet (GOOG). As of the end of the second quarter (2022), 7.1% of the S&P 500 index was allocated to Apple alone. Funds that mimic indexes have done extraordinary up until now as the trend has been toward index investing. In the first quarter of this year alone, which includes IRA season, these funds took in $8.5 trillion in retail investments. According to Morningstar, this is more than all active management strategies combined. They have been the go-to investment idea for financial advisors and the way this generation has learned to think about investing.


What Might Change?

The persistent sell-off in the markets earlier this year, and the surprise geopolitical events, may cause investors to question if these funds are properly diversified. Even an allocation of 60% stocks and 40% bonds would place an investor’s exposure, using an S&P 500 fund, to nearly 5% of AAPL. Worse yet, the top five, comprising 25%, often trade in lock-step, both up and down.

They are, after all, the big guys. They certainly have the power to grow further but also much further to fall than most. Will recovering from the bear market, with lessons learned, cause the popularity of these funds to lessen? The funds were viewed as ideal diversifiers when they first gained popularity, but their own success, that is, the amount of money that poured into this good idea, has given them weaknesses. An unsettling weakness is much higher average valuations among holdings than stocks just outside of any large index.


History Until Now

The history of Index funds’ popularity is easy to understand. For financial advisors, they found it provided low-cost diversification for their clients. They got this by placing assets in an indexed ETF; as a bonus, they avoided what were then large transaction fees with individual stocks. 

For most individual investors, transaction fees are no longer a barrier to personally managing accounts; the costs simply aren’t as high.  For individual self-directed investors, buy-and-hold and diversification have been drilled into their heads. So these indexed funds easily accomplish this set-it and forget-it (buy and hold) position. But, the level of diversification isn’t what it once was, and investors forgo the nimbleness of taking individual stocks out of their portfolio or more heavily weighting better risk/reward alternatives. 

For the fund managers themselves, especially those benchmarked off an index, no one can tell you you’re performance is horrible if it is in line with the index. It’s an easy job; just own the index in the same ratio the index weights the underlying stocks. With today’s computers, it is almost a back-office clerical function.


Lifecycle of Investment Products

But, like many products, they may have run their course, something better could replace them, or they more likely start to slide under the weight of their own success.

Index funds, especially those that mimic the large-cap Nasdaq100 or S&P 500, are in theory diversified as to names, but they are also capitalization weighted, which means even new money flows unevenly into the larger, more popular stocks. Over time, the combination of index fund popularity together with index construction favoring the more popular stocks has meant that more has flowed into fewer and fewer stocks. Therefore, capitalization-weighted equity indexing adds to the momentum of stocks that may not be worthy.

Much of this money might not otherwise be in these companies if not for the popularity of index funds and the self-perpetuating, dare I say bubble, that is the result of this setup.

According to an article in Barron’s this month, “The purveyors of indexes, being human, tend to make the concentration in a few expensive stocks even worse.” Barron’s wrote. The article then explains that the committee that oversees the S&P 500 has changed the make-up often, “and in the process tended to add stocks with price/earnings ratios more than twice that of those deleted.”


Are Investors Ready to Transition?

With more new money, in unfathomable amounts, reaching these funds each quarter and then being dispersed into the underlying stocks, weaker stocks fall even farther and strong stocks rise more than they may otherwise have risen. This undermines the efficient market theory as stocks that have sunk low enough to be worthwhile for many investors are not considered. The efficient markets theory is supposed to take into account all available information. Over the years, investors have set their portfolios on “in the market” or “out of the market,” with the market being one of the major indexes.

Could it be that as the market turns around and heads up, value hunters in individual stocks will lead, and indexes and index funds will not have as high relative performance?

Index funds, now that they have grown to the size they have, have developed other contradictions. Aside from ignoring the principle that the price paid represents a key determinant of long-term return, indexing ignores the flexibility to reward. Companies in an index that find themselves in trouble will keep receiving new money as investors add funds to their indexed accounts. This is without regard to how undeserving some companies in the fund are or whether they even will be in business in a year. In the meantime, companies not in the index find inclusion gets further out of reach.


Will Stock-Pickers Replace Index Funds?

In an ideal world, there is a selection of suitable products that all have similar results. For commuting, some take the bus to work, others drive, and still, others Zoom in. No one method of commuting is ideal for everyone. Those that wish to not worry about what many individual stocks are doing but instead concentrate on “the market” will keep adding money to these indexed products. Others that realize that they may be full of relatively expensive stocks will gravitate to old-fashioned stock selection – this time without all the commissions. And there will be those that keep their money in low-interest savings accounts that knowingly lose buying power to inflation.

The next “Apple stock” surely has more potential for growth than today’s top five stocks. Currently, the company may be just a hand full of people working out their idea from a handful of remote locations. Finding that company in the initial public offering stage (IPO) or after it has gone public is the dream of most active investors. It can’t be found in an indexed fund.

There is no functioning crystal ball, but there are resources, including no-paywall  Channelchek to help investors quickly review data on over 6000 small and microcap companies. And access the same research professionals consult with before making decisions. In addition, Channelchek has helpful videos and articles sent to your inbox daily to alert you to new perspectives and actionable opportunities.

Sign-up
here.

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

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Sources

https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1087146/us-value-funds-beat-growth-in-the-first-quarter

https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-bear-market-could-finally-break-index-funds-51660287600?mod=hp_LEADSUPP_1

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Michael Burry Uses Twitter to Offer More Proof of His Theory



Image(s): Wikimedia.org


Does Michael Burry Have a Problem with John Maynard Keynes?

There is no doubt that Dr. Michael J. Burry is familiar with Keynesian economics theory. Under the theory, the government should help control aggregate demand by infusing money into a weakening economy to create added demand or withdraw currency to reduce demand. But there is a caveat to this basic tenet of Keynes’ theory, and it seems Michael Burry, famous hedge fund manager at Scion Asset Management, has little patience for it.

Followers, both fans and haters, pay close attention to the tweets the Scion Asset Management founder often uses to share his thoughts. Burry’s tweets are usually deleted by him shortly after he sends to keep BOT benefactors down. So his Twitter account isn’t always the best place to see his thinking that is more than a few hours old.


What is Michael Burry is Saying

Burry’s recent tweets have indicated he believes retailers could cut prices to rid themselves of inventories caused by seasonal delivery inventory mismatches. Also, dwindling savings and soaring debt could spark a recession. He just offered more proof of his theory.

At about 4 am this morning (presumed Pacific time), Burry posted a Bloomberg chart on U.S. consumer credit use. The graph reaches back to 1991 and carries into the recent monetary policy tightening. Along with the chart, Burry tweeted, “Net consumer credit balances are rising at record rates as consumers choose violence rather than cut back on spending in the face of inflation. Remember the savings problem? No more. COVID helicopter cash taught people to spend again, and it’s addictive. Winter coming.


Source: @michaeljburry (Twitter)

When speaking of economic cycles, “winter” is often referred to as the downside of the cycle; there is death and dormancy among businesses in the winter. It’s miserable, but it leads to the spring part of the cycle with new growth.  Translating further, if the consumers continue to buy, despite having an unsustainable ability to continue at the previous pace, a more violent winter may fall upon the economy. 

The chart attached to the tweet shows the net change of consumer debt each month as recorded by the Federal Reserve. The historical average, including negative periods, is $27.5 billion.  The current monthly pace is $27.5 billion.

Burry noted in May that American consumers, faced with rising food, fuel, and housing costs, were pulling from their incomes, racking up credit-card debt, and poised to virtually exhaust their savings by the end of 2022.


What Keynesian Theory Says

Keynesian economic theory says the government should help free markets when they are faltering by injecting cash. The cash will then spur aggregate demand for goods and services. And the government should also pull money from the system to reduce demand in an overheated situation. Having a smoothing hand, in addition to the free market’s invisible hand, could lead to a more balanced outcome and a more even keel.

The theory also recognizes that if additional money is put into consumers’ hands today that it works its way into the economy quickly. The U.S. experienced this a couple of years ago with stimulus checks that began stimulating right after being announced – even before distribution. However, if money is removed from the system, spending continues at the same pace for a while as consumer spending habits don’t back off the consumption gas pedal as quickly.

Most consumers are no longer receiving benefits doled out through the pandemic and are now confronted with rampant inflation. Yet, despite worsening cash flow and higher prices, they are consuming at the same level, making up the difference by pulling from savings and increasing debt. This is right in line with what John Maynard Keynes would expect. At least at the beginning.

Keynes would also expect a turn to more conservative spending eventually, currently, consumer tapering on spending is just beginning. And based on his theory, it will be followed by a reduction in consumption.

 

Is Burry at Odds with Keynes?

The short answer is what Burry has been bringing to investors’ attention is right in line with what Keynes, in 1936,  said could be expected. Apparently, human nature related to consumption hasn’t evolved.

I am sure Dr. Burry understands that reactions when it comes to cutting back aren’t immediate. But what may frustrate him is that the markets (not the consumer) always take so long to spot what he is seeing. He has a habit of getting into trades much earlier than others. His expectations, more often than most, play out as he expects, with one exception. The exception is timing. Even in his famous “big short” of the mortgage market, he was a couple of years ahead on his credit default swap play. One can presume that he felt a good deal of pain as housing continued on its path for much longer than expected. 

 

Practical Use

The central bank has to be out ahead of the economy when the pace is heating up because taking the proverbial “punch bowl” away doesn’t cause immediate sobriety. Burry predicted consumer spending would drop as a result of tightening and believes retailers will cut prices to lessen overstocking and badly timed inventories. This would help derail inflation and put pressure on retail and other earnings by Christmas. The tweeted chart of consumer debt above shows the “party” is still raging as the government-supplied punch bowl has been removed, but people are tapering by using their limited stash. When that stash taps out, there will be an abrupt end.

Earlier this week he tweeted about the turnaround in the stock market, specifically Nasdaq. He warned that the big-tech heavy index may be 20% off its low, but history indicates that this doesn’t mean that it can’t fall dramatically as it did seven times after 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst.


Source: @BurryArchive (Twitter)

Frustration is a common theme of his tweets. Some of the frustration is a lack of patience for things like the nuances of Keynesian economics and the overall behavioral patterns of investors across many asset classes.

Burry He also has asserted the pain for investors might not end until they swear off owning tech stocks, cryptocurrencies, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Referring to the latest w/streetbets “meme-stock” additions AMTD (HKD) (which rose 21,000%) and Magic Empire (MEGL) (which rose 2,000%) he recently complained that market “silliness” is back after the two IPOs skyrocketed.


Source: @BurryArchive (Twitter)


Take Away

An investor can be consistently right about the future direction of individual stocks or the markets. If they perceive what is going to happen to be timed much sooner than the other players, they will miss other opportunities, or more frustrating, lose patience with the position and get out of it before it becomes profitable.

In the book about Michale Burry’s housing crisis position, it took a long time for what he was certain to happen, to become reality. He lost a lot of investors in his funds while waiting for what he believed to be inevitable, played out. Classic economic theory tells us that we should expect delays in cause and effect. As investors, we need to remind ourselves if we are long-term and willing to ride out the ups and downs to stick to the plan. Or if we are more active, we may try to take advantage of shorter moves that may be against our overall thoughts on the long-term direction.

Follow Channelchek’s Twitter account and let us know under this article your overall thoughts on the market, and favorite small-cap stocks. 

Paul Hoffman

Managing Editor, Channelchek

Suggested Content



Michael Burry is Predicting More Red



Is Michael Burry Frustrated that the Market Hasn’t Yet Crashed?




Are Consumer Price Increases Negatively Correlated to Stock Market Price Levels?



Cathie Wood’s Expectations for Inflation, Recession, Markets, China, and Jobs


Sources

https://twitter.com/BurryArchive/status/1557518533172477952/photo/1

https://twitter.com/BurryArchive/status/1557430160512524288

https://twitter.com/michaeljburry

W.
Carl Biven (1989). Who Killed John Maynard Keynes? Conflicts in The Evolution
of Economic Policy

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Release – Ocugen CEO to Present at H.C. Wainwright 2nd Annual Ophthalmology Virtual Conference



Ocugen CEO to Present at H.C. Wainwright 2nd Annual Ophthalmology Virtual Conference

Research, News, and Market Data on Ocugen

August 12, 2022

MALVERN, Pa., Aug. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ocugen, Inc. (“Ocugen” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: OCGN), a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel gene therapies, biologicals, and vaccines, announced that Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Ocugen, will deliver a virtual presentation at the 
H.C. Wainwright 2nd Annual Ophthalmology Virtual
Conference
 on August 17.

A video webcast of the presentation will be available on demand beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET on August 17, 2022 for those registered for the event and will be available on the events page of the Ocugen 
investor site. The webcast replay will be archived for 90 days following the event.

About Ocugen, Inc.
Ocugen, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel gene and cell therapies and vaccines that improve health and offer hope for patients across the globe. We are making an impact on patient’s lives through courageous innovation—forging new scientific paths that harness our unique intellectual and human capital. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with a single product, and we are advancing research in infectious diseases to support public health and orthopedic diseases to address unmet medical needs. Discover more at www.ocugen.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to
risks and uncertainties. We may, in some cases, use terms such as “predicts,”
“believes,” “potential,” “proposed,” “continue,” “estimates,” “anticipates,”
“expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “could,” “might,” “will,” “should,” or
other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify
these forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to numerous
important factors, risks, and uncertainties that may cause actual events or
results to differ materially from our current expectations. These and other
risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our periodic filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the risk factors
described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the quarterly and annual
reports that we file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make
in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Except
as required by law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking
statements contained in this press release whether as a result of new
information, future events, or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

Contact:
Tiffany Hamilton
Head of Communications
IR@ocugen.com