Tag - Acur

Radcom Ltd (Nasdaq:RDCM), Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc (Nasdaq:ACUR), Cornell Companies Inc (Nasdaq:CRN) and Value Line Inc (Nasdaq:VALU) are among the biggest percentage Gainers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

 

Also included among the results: Xenith Bankshares Inc (Nasdaq:XBKS), Nonasphere Inc (Nasdaq:NSPH), Washington Banking Co (Nasdaq:WBCO), Laporte Bancorp Inc (Nasdaq:LPSB) and Continental Materials Corp (Nasdaq:).

ADC Telecommunications Inc. (Nasdaq:ADCT), Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (Nasdaq:ENER) and Acorda Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOR) are among the most actively traded companies in Thurday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: CardioNet Inc. (Nasdaq:BEAT), Force Protection Inc. (Nasdaq:FRPT), Wind River Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND), Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:SPPI), Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ACUR) and Fuqi International Inc. (Nasdaq:FUQI).

Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ACUR), Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:HALO) and Actuant Corp. (Nasdaq:ATU) are among the biggest percentage losers in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Heritage Financial Group (Nasdaq:HBOS), Pzena Investment Management Inc. (Nasdaq:PZN), Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:SWHC), Cytec Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:CYT), Hexcel Corp. (Nasdaq:HXL) and American Dental Partners Inc. (Nasdaq:ADPI).

Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:HALO), Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:SWHC) and Century Aluminum Co. (Nasdaq:CENX) are among the most actively traded companies in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: A Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:APWR), Focus Media Holding Ltd. (Nasdaq:FMCN), Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:ACUR), Sterling Construction Co Inc. (Nasdaq:STRL), Sonic Corp. (Nasdaq:SONC) and AgFeed Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:FEED).

Small-cap stocks threw a gasket in teh final hour of trading Friday, giving back a lion's share of Thursday's stunning rally off new bear market lows while finishing with the lowest weekly close since August 2003. Today's biggest small-cap gainers are . . .

Small-cap stocks threw a gasket in the final hour of trading Friday, giving back a lion’s share of Thursday’s stunning rally off new bear market lows while finishing with the lowest weekly close since August 2003. Slumping tech stocks, dreadful retail sales and a risk-averse mentality took a toll on a market that is starting to get a penchant for wicked afternoon volatility. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed down 34.71, or 7.07% at 456.52 and is now down 40% for 2008, while the Dow is off 36% for the year and the S&P 500 is down 41%.

Small caps entered the day on a mildly weak note, unable to graft higher on modest gains in Europe and Asia and seemingly not able to revive the manic bargain-hunter push from Thursday afternoon. A big part of the problem is that no matter how hard investors try to write off ugly economic data, at some point the blows wear down psychology, kind of like a fighter who’s been absorbing body shots for several rounds.

The latest stinger on the data front was this morning’s retail sales report, which posted the largest October decline on record (the series only dates back to 1992). The slide was 2.8%, well below the forecast for a decline of 1.5%, but perhaps a little closer to the “worst case” scenarios that were floating about. It doesn’t help matters that consumer spending appears to be falling off a cliff into the holiday season and a fresh batch of earnings reports from retail firms simply added to the spending worries.

The S&P Retail Index tumbled about 7% today as a recurring theme played out for stores that we all frequent from time to time – everything from apparel to home improvement to electronics – they all basically warned that forward projections were at risk as the U.S. economy lurches through the recession. Speaking of recession, eurozone economists beat the official U.S. designators to the punch by . . .

Hooked on oxycodone, morphine, codeine or tramadol? Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ACUR) is on the way, intent on saving the world from addiction while defeating acute pain.

Acura wants to be the Superman of pain relief, but for now it’s just a Mighty Mouse in the making. As a development stage company, Palatine, Ill.-based Acura addresses what it terms the growing societal problem of prescription drug abuse. Its job is to make products that deter misuse but still ease discomfort. It has no revenue to date — only payments from a license agreement with King Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:KG), which agreed in October 2007 to market certain Acura products should they be approved for sale. 

Acura, actually, is just getting off the ground. Its shares moved onto Nasdaq in February after a reverse stock split, having traded previously on the OTC Bulletin Board. The company hoped to attract analyst coverage after its move to Nasdaq, but no analyst yet follows Acura. There also haven’t been presentations at investor conferences, so visibility into the company is limited.

But one thing is clear: becoming profitable depends on payments from King, and on the successful commercialization by King of future licensees of products using Acura’s Aversion Technology platform. The platform is key: Acura believes it has the power to develop a range of abuse-deterrent pain drugs. King expanded its arrangement in May, paying Acura $3 million for a license on a third Acura drug.

Acura’s agreement with King includes milestone payments for meeting goals of a late stage study on Acurox tablets — the company’s lead drug. An application for Acurox is expected to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval by the end of 2008. The most recent Acurox payment was $5 million in June.

Acurox is an immediate-release opioid analgesic that discourages misuse, including intravenous injection of dissolved tablets or capsules, nasal snorting of crushed tablets and swallowing pills in excessive numbers.

Mash a tablet and snort the powder, and your nose will burn. Try to separate . . .

Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ACUR)
Palatine, Ill.
http://www.acurapharm.com

52-week low/high: $5.79/$27
Shares Outstanding: 42.72 million
Market Capitalization: $331 million

More than 75 million Americans suffer from pain — more than the number of people with diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. Prescription medications exist; however, the abuse of such, especially by younger people, complicates physicians’ ability and/or willingness to treat pain. Enter Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ACUR), a company that specializes in prescription drug abuse deterrents. 

The company has seen broad-based institutional interest as of late. According to Nasdaq.com, seven new positions were initiated as of March 31, 2008 in Acura, while eight existing investors increased their positions. On the flip side, only one position was decreased and sold out. Those who initiated new positions as of March 31 were UBS (NYSE:UBS), Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER), Black Rock (NYSE:BLK), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB).

The Palatine, Ill.-based firm specializes in development of opioid pain medicines using what it calls Aversion technology, which is a patented platform designed to develop pharmaceutical products that are intended to relieve moderate to severe pain and deter common methods of prescription drug abuse (injection, nasal snorting and intentional swallowing). Acura’s lead product candidate is acurox — orally administered release tablets with oxycodone to treat severe pain.

In fact, Acura in conjunction with pharmaceutical company King Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:KG) recently reported positive results for a phase III study on the acurox tablets and expects to submit a new drug application to the FDA for acurox tablets by year end.

Acura also has a license agreement with King to develop opioid analgesic products using the aversion technology (opioid is a chemical used in drugs for pain relief). The two are currently jointly developing three immediate-release opioid analgesics using the aversion technology.

The alliance with King, consummated in December 2007, has proven to be a sagacious move, as the company is already realizing revenue accretion. In 2008, Acura recognized $17.1 million in revenues, adding to a strong first quarter.

For the first three months ended March 31, 2008, the latest quarter for which results were available, the company reported net income of $7.4 million, or $0.15 per, compared with a net loss of $9.2 million, or $0.26 per share for the same quarter in 2007.

Drilling down further into the financials, the company has just closed in on profitability. Acura swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of 2007. The company began generating positive cash flows from operations in 2007 and has been steadily increasing its cash position. As of April 30, 2008, the company had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $30 million with no term indebtedness.

Gross margins are higher than the industry at 100%, while the industry sits at 69%. Operating margin was 39.17% compared with -19.84% for the industry.

Small-cap stocks collapsed again Wednesday, unable to escape the glare of soaring energy prices that crimp consumer spending, raise business input costs and slice away corporate margins. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) shed 19.25, or 2.78%, to 672.34. This marked the fourth largest one-day decline of the year and the 15th decline in 2008 of 2% or more. In the end, small caps posted the lowest daily close since March 19.

Crude oil prices shot to new record highs after the weekly inventory report showed that crude stocks slipped below 300 million barrels for the first time since January. The prospect of tight stocks into a holiday weekend amid saber rattling between Israel and Iran ensured that a risk premium be priced into energy markets. In addition, spot gas prices jumped to a 30-month high, and it appears no commodity market will go without its turn in the sun. The Commodity Research Bureau Index of 19 commodity markets shot to yet another record high and is up 29% in 2008. In addition, new all-time highs were set in the small-cap commodity fund iPath GSCI Total Return Index, which is heavily weighted toward energy.

The dreary close in small caps was a far cry from this morning’s opening when rising European bank shares and talk that the capital-raising crisis had peaked fueled an opening bounce in stocks. That opening rise looked like a nice carryover sign of power in the shadow of Tuesday’s big recovery rally, but the resumption of selling fury today effectively clipped short any bottoming signs that may have been building off the bounce.

While soaring energy prices rightly gathered the lion’s share of attention during today’s collapse, bullish investors may have been scared into the cellar by this morning’s ADP National Employment Report, which showed a decline in payrolls of 79,000, the largest figure since November 2002. Although the correlation between ADP and the official Labor Department report has been unraveling of late, it’s still a scary figure . . .

Prescription pill abuse ranks second only to marijuana in the United States as the most prevalent category of drug abuse, according to the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Two relatively recent entrants into the war on pill-popping are Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ACUR) and Columbia Laboratories (Nasdaq:CBRX), which both specialize in abuse deterrent technology for prescription drugs.

Acura Pharmaceuticals develops drug candidates based on its Aversion technology drug delivery platform. Aversion technology is designed to prevent the misuse of commonly prescribed painkillers such as oxycodone, morphine and codeine. In addition to active pain-killing ingredients, Aversion technology-treated drugs contain proprietary active and inactive ingredients that discourage users from intravenous injecting of dissolved tablets, snorting crushed tablets and/or intentionally swallowing excess numbers of tablets. The added ingredients cause the dissolved or crushed tablets to form a viscous gel, trapping the opiate inside and preventing the user from getting high; if the user attempts to ingest an excess quantity of tablets, he or she will experience unpleasant side-effects such as flushing, itching, sweating and/or chills.

The potential market for Aversion technology is enormous. Approximately 235 million opiate prescriptions are dispensed each year in the United States and physicians estimate that nearly one in six prescriptions is abused. Well-known opiate . . .

MGIC Investment Corp (Nasdaq:MTG), BancTrust Financial Group Inc (Nasdaq:BTFG) and Atlantic Southern Financial Group Inc (Nasdaq:ASFN) are among the biggest percentage losers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Life Partners Holdings Inc (Nasdaq:LPHI), Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc (Nasdaq:ACUR), Citizens & Northern Corp (Nasdaq:CZNC), Security Bank Corp (Nasdaq:SBKC), EMCORE Corp (Nasdaq:EMKR) and First Bancorp Puerto Rico (Nasdaq:FBP).

Here are the biggest percentage losers among small caps:

Small caps opened lower, and remained in the red even after manufacturing data came out better than expected. The tone for a lower opening was forged overnight as credit crunch worries resurfaced in Europe and spilled over into investor psychology in the United States. At 10:05 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 8.02, or 1.07%, at 740.27.

The ISM Manufacturing Survey came out at 49.6, which was up from 48.6 last month, and well above the forecast of 48.5. Stocks trimmed losses just slightly after the number came out, but were unable to muster enough buying to dramatically cut into the opening losses as the sellers continued to dominate action even after the report. Construction spending data also came out this morning and was down 0.4%, slightly better than the forecast for a loss of 0.6%

The ISM data this morning was just the first salvo in a week chock full of big economic reports. As the week progresses, investors will have a chance to decipher data on manufacturing, vehicle sales, productivity and employment.

Bradford & Bingley (LON:BB), the largest mortgage lender to residential rental units, tumbled some 25% overnight and said that the housing market was getting worse, not better. The slide in mortgage lenders spilled over to the banking arena and to other financial shares as well. In the United States early losses were seen in JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM), which was off 0.9%. Also, Wachovia (NYSE:WB) opened down 3.3% on news that the bank’s CEO was terminated.

Large caps in the news to start the week included General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM), which rallied 4% early after a bullish article in Barron’s.

The U.S. dollar was in a rally mode before the ISM data, and retained gains against the euro and yen after the report. The dollar was up about 0.3% against the euro and up nearly 0.8% versus the yen. In general, a strong dollar of late has been linked to a positive for equities, suggesting an unravel of the long commodities/short dollar trade and a better tone for the struggling U.S. economy.

Speaking of commodities, the firm dollar sparked a retreat in many dollar-denominated physical markets, including crude oil, which slipped in overnight action and . . .