Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ASTI) Inches Lower

The stock of Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ASTI) logged another red session yesterday. It dropped by close to 3% for a close at $0.056 per share. Currently the ticker is sitting just a cent above its 52-week low of 0.046.

ASTI has been having a hard time getting investors excited lately. Its last PR came on April 13 and talked about the agreement with the Germany based distributor KOMSA Kommunikation Sachsen AG for the exclusive distribution of ASTI‘s EnerPlex series of consumer products. Despite this meaning that the company could start seeing even bigger revenues the reaction from the market was extremely subdued with the stock closing less than 4% in the green on that day.

There is an explanation for the chart performance, though. ASTI may have reported record revenues for the last quarter of 2015 of $2.4 million but that achievement alone simply couldn’t offset the rest of the numbers found on the balance sheet. Opening the annual report shows the whole picture and it isn’t pretty:

• $326 thousand cash
• $8 million total current assets
• $10.1 million total current liabilities
• $6.5 million annual revenues
• $27.7 million loss from operations
• $45.8 million net loss

ASTI expect that for 2016 they could reach $10 million in revenues but even that amount won’t be enough to turn the company cash flow positive.

At least they have several financing agreements in place that should help the company meet its needs for funds. The problem is that this could cause further dilution of the common stock – last year ASTI‘s outstanding shares ballooned from 18.2 million to 155.2 million in just twelve months. As of March 9 2016 the O/S had surpassed 216 million shares. In our previous articles we warned you that ASTI plans to register 48 million shares for sale in 2016 under their committed equity line. There is also the securities purchase agreement from January this year for the sale of $7 million worth of the company’s newly designated Series F Convertible Preferred shares.

It cannot be denied that for a pennystock – ASTI was placed on the OTC Market after getting delisted from the NASDAQ back in February, the company is pulling in some impressive revenues. The red flags surrounding the company remain far too serious, though. Do your own due diligence and never put unaffordable sums of money on the line.