Biofronterrific’s Tuesday
Biofrontera, a biopharma company specializing in the treatment of precancerous skin lesions, had the best day of its f*cking life yesterday. The stock absolutely exploded Tuesday morning, with shares rocketing up from $4.70 to $9.00 before leveling off in the afternoon for a 112.87% gain. It’s like it’s, well, the cure for cancer.
- This insanity likely has nothing to do with BFRIW’s product, though. Instead the surge seems to be the result of a short squeeze after the company hit a short interest of 74% last week. Combine that with a low float and you’ve got r/WallStreetBets slobbering all over its conditioned paws.
- The US unit of the German company has had a brief but real volatile history, with shares straight-up tripling in value over the course of a week in November. So it’s sort of par for the course.
As mentioned above, none of what’s happening right now has much to do with Biofrontera’s product or fundamentals. It’s little more than another vessel through which short squeezers can wage a war against short sellers. Since they’re not concerned with the details of the technology so much as each other, spikes and dips are unpredictable. That’s not the kind of gambling I’m into, so I will likely stay away from this one till share value levels out.
Nikola is fined nickels by the SEC
-amount Nikola was actually fined
The SEC continues to do what it does best… by not making a strong statement when it comes to fining companies that commit fraud. It was announced Tuesday that EV truck “developer” (and we use that term lightly), Nikola, was fined $125M to settle a fraud case claiming that the company misled investors about its technology, product orders, and the details of its planned partnership with GM. So basically the entire company. Investors, not the defrauded ones obviously, clearly liked the announcement as shares of NKLA rose +1.84% on the day.
- Nikola (NKLA), which went public via SPAC (because of course it did), on June 4, 2020 reached its ATH of $93.99 5 days later.
- In September 2020, famed short-seller, Hindenburg Research, published a scathing article detailing the company’s fraudulent activities, one of which suggested, “videos of the company’s truck speeding down the road were filmed while an unpowered prototype was rolled downhill.” You can’t make this sh*t up.
- CEO Trevor Milton, stepped down as board chairman and CEO, and later was arrested. For some reason he doesn’t include his arrest on his LinkedIn.
- Shares of NKLA are down 90% from their ATH, yet the company still maintains a market cap of $3.8B…’merica, amirite?
Settling this lawsuit is a step in the right direction for Nikola, however, the company will have to start doing things that typical car companies do if they want to see their stock increase on a regular basis… like actually manufacturing and delivering vehicles. Buyers have consistently used the $9.00 level as support since its IPO. I’ll be watching for a move higher on increasing volume before I consider a long position in the company.
Single Citrix has two potential
SOs
Citrix the moment anyone flashes some Washingtons
Shares of Citrix Systems Inc. rose 13.63% yesterday after news broke that Elliot Investment Management and Vista Equity Partners were making a joint bid to acquire the SaaS company. This would be great for Citrix if it went through, because the cash earned from the deal would allow the company to fund its transition to the cloud without having to revamp its sales execution (read: prostitute themselves to clients, too).
- Both potential buyers have been grooming Citrix for a while. Elliot bought a 10% stake in Citrix back in September when they announced they were exploring a potential sale, and Vista sold Wrike, Inc. to Citrix for $2.25B at the beginning of this year. After they fatten you up, that’s when they eat you.
- It’s not a done deal, though. Citrix already tried selling themselves back in 2017, throwing themselves at the feet of Bane Capital and Thoma Bravo to no avail because their begging asking price was too high. So they’ve gotta tread carefully here.
Citrix has been hurting this year. Even factoring in the news of a potential buyout, the computing company’s shares have dipped 25.93% YTD. Their future probably depends on some kind of deal going through, but odds of success are high since both potential buyers have already been involved with Citrix for a while now. The healthier the deal, the healthier Citrix’s prospects.
