Gee no one cared about this thread when the stock was 10 and I rode it alone to 17.
Now that it's collapsed, suddenly there's interest.
Here's a brief take on what's happening -- I post on Yahoo cause more people are interested there.
Yahoo: Today's action is not about 3 cents...CAS1999
Sep 24 1998
1:30PM EDTsubtracted from analyst's eps estimate. It's about loss of confidence, panic, stop losses that MMs come to collect, margin calls perhaps, definitely an unclear near-term profit picture.
And the company is caught flat-footed in the face of rumor. They let a PR person quote that the problem in slower sales is due to an "education thing." Gee, well put! (not!).
Meanwhile, in the face of this sharp selloff, the company should have put out its own release and given quotes from the CEO or CFO. Very disappointing management response. When I spoke to the CFO on the phone two days ago, he was upbeat about the future. If so, why not counter this mess by putting out a release and calming the market???
Yahoo doesn't have much info in their news for VITX; Bloomberg had more (excerpt shown below). Investors don't like uncertainty and there's nothing but uncertainty in this release. How long will "education" take? How real can estimates be for 1998 and 1999 if customers must first be educated before they buy? Is American Red Cross doing all it can do to make consumers aware of what VITX offers?
The most hopeful thing here is that VITX has been in business for quite a while (10 years?) as a private company. They're down the road from me and not far from PALL. If this stock gets low enough and PALL believes in the blood wash process (it seems to since it has a stake in the IPO), then PALL can get the company pretty cheap.
I've searched the net for a website for VITX and can't find one. Is there one????? Or are they still acting like a private company that doesn't want to divulge info. Ah, maybe that's the problem.
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<<V.I. Technologies Shares Plunge on Sales Expectations
Washington, Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- V.I. Technologies Inc. shares fell 40 percent after an analyst lowered earnings estimates, saying sales of the company's new blood product are likely to be slower than expected...
While SG Cowen Securities Corp. analyst Katherine Martinelli reiterated her ''strong buy'' rating on the stock, she cut 1998 earnings expectations to a loss of 53 cents from 50 cents and scaled back her 1999 earnings estimate to 65 cents from 95 cents a share.
''It's just going to be a more metered roll-out than we had expected,'' Martinelli said. ''It's clear that it's going to take some work'' to get centers to adopt the new plasma product. ...
Martinelli said her confidence in the product's potential is undiminished. ''It's clear that viral inactivation makes sense,'' she said, and the technology is ''the gold standard in Europe.''
''Our sense is it's been a little bit challenging'' to get plasma centers to adopt the new technology, she said. Martinelli said she expects the company to break even and begin to make a profit in the fourth quarter of this year.
Company official also said that there were no problems with the washed blood plasma.
''We believe that its just an education thing,'' said Joe Mansi, a spokesman for V.I. Technologies. ''There is no problem with the product at all.''
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P.S. Mansi is just the PR guy from NYC, not a company official.
And this release was put out by American Red Cross, not VITX.
Ridiculously poor response from inside the firm itself. |
