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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zebra 365 who wrote (18072)	1/23/1999 4:29:00 PM
From: VLAD	Respond to of 23519

It's very frustrating to see that Vivus stock continues to be under the influence of manipulation: Here is some data comparing VVUS to 2 very similar stocks: 1)VVUS Inustry: Biotech&Drugs Sector: Healthcare Number analysts following stock: 3 All time high: 41 7/8 (October 6, 1997) All time low: 2 1/16 (September 11, 1998) Current price: 2 11/16 Percent above 52 week low: 9.8% 1998 Q4 Estimate: -0.04 1999 FY Estimate: +0.36 Shares short as of 12/15/98: 7,413,805 (25.3% of the float) Shares Outstanding: 31.8M Float: 29.3M 2)LIPO Industry: Biotech&Drugs Sector: Healthcare Number analysts following stock: 3 All time high: 28 1/4 (June 12, 1997) 52 week low: 3 3/8 (September 4, 1998) Current price: 13 13/16 Percent above 52 week low: 309%!!!! 1998 Q4 Estimate: +0.01 1999 FY Estimate: +0.04 Share short as of 12/15/98: 663,660 (2.4% of the float) Shares Outstanding: 38.2M Float: 27.1M Notes: Lipo has NEVER reported a profitable quarter! 3)CEPH Industry: Biotech&Drugs Sector: Healthcare Number of analysts following stock: 3 All time high: 41 1/2 (December 1995) All time low: 3 7/8 (September 1, 1998) Current price: 9 7/16 Percent above 52 week low: 143.5% 1998 Q4 Estimate: -0.45 1999 FY Estimate: -0.81 Shares short as of 12/15/98: 1,010,968 (5.5%) Shares outstanding: 28.7M Float: 18.4M Notes: Ceph has never had a profitable quarter!!! Folks, any way you slice it or dice it, Vivus is in no way fairly valued in comparison to the closes matches in its industry. The agenda to keep the price depressed relates to the still very high short interest which remains over 25% of the float. As I see it, the only way Vivus will be able to break out of the manipulative control of the stock price is either to garner some strong institutional support or to approve a stock buy back program in the very near future in order to eliminate as many cheap shares from the float as possible. Once the deep pocketed manipulators have met their goals of covering their short positions, the end of shorting or selling on strength (above 3 in our case) will allow the stock to break to the upside and settle at a more reasonable valuation. If we were to valuate Vivus compared to LIPO or CEPH as it relates to 1999 earnings we should be looking at least at a $15.00 stock!