22nd Century Group, Inc. (OTCBB:XXII) Picks Up in Volume
The last trading session pushed 22nd Century Group, Inc. (OTCBB:XXII) near the top of the most heavily traded OTC stocks. Share volume on Friday was over 600 thousand and the ticker generated over $670 thousand in dollar volume – the largest figures for over a month.
The jump in volume was caused by a spike shortly before noon that is difficult to explain. The ticker had gone down to much smaller daily volumes after it roared up over $1.60 per share, then thundered back down to one dollar in August. Yesterday’s volume spike actually caused a dip in the price and XXII slipped below its previous close. The price recovered shortly after the volume surge and calmly proceeded to a 1.8% green close.
XXII have gone relatively quiet on the press release front, with the last bit of news coming out last Monday and informing that the U.S. patent authority issued allowance for the use of a transcriptor gene in tobacco plants. This is in line with XXII‘s field of work – the company deals in plant biotech, specifically in tobacco whose nicotine levels are altered. The catch is, this is done without introducing genes that are foreign to the plant and thus the product is not considered genetically modified.
The company’s latest available financial report is one dated June 30 and contains the following figures:
- $451 thousand in cash
- $3.1 million in total assets
- $10 million in total liabilities
- zero revenues for Jan-Jun 2013
- $2.9 million in net loss for Jan-Jun 2013
The company is still incurring considerable expenses while not generating any revenues. On the upside, XXII was never the target of stock pumpers and it moved in both directions on its own merits. While they have increased their cash position due to exercised warrants and a preferred private stock placement, the other aspects of their balance sheet may fall short of traders’ expectations, so caution is advised before making an investment decision.
Other OTC stocks that were hot in Friday’s session include Alkaline Water Company, Inc. (OTCBB:WTER) who crashed by almost 40% on furious late-afternoon volume. The latest pick of promoters Awesome Penny Stocks – PacWest Equities, Inc. (OTCMKTS:PWEI) managed to shift dollar volume of over $5 million on Friday and closed 2% up.
