Baltia Air Lines Inc (OTCMKTS:BLTA) Remains Volatile
On Friday the stock of Baltia Air Lines Inc (OTCMKTS:BLTA) made a rather impressive jump up the chart. Opening at $0.01 it quickly moved to a high of the day of $0.0119 and although it closed a bit lower at $0.0115 it still gained nearly 20% in value. The traded volume for the session of over 16 million shares was above the monthly average of 11.4 million shares. The problem is that there is no immediately obvious reason for the positive chart performance.
Rumors about BLTA’s mini evacuation test have been influencing the movement of the stock for months now. It seems that this time the reason for the spike is no different with the latest date floating around being May 5th. You should remember that there is absolutely no guarantee that this date is more valid than the numerous previous dates mentioned by investors. The last official PR issued by BLTA was published nearly three months ago on February 6.
More recent information was provided by the company on their Facebook profile. In a post dated March 26 BLTA stated that they are dealing with information that cannot be released to the public but elaborated that outside factors temporarily impacted their Mini Evacuation procedure. If you have followed our articles however you should know that even if the company successfully completes this next phase of their Air Carrier Certification process the red flags around them will remain as alarming as ever.
On April 15 BLTA submitted their annual report for 2014 and it contained some truly horrendous numbers:
• $185 thousand cash
• $210 thousand total current assets
• $3.1 million total current liabilities
• ZERO revenues
• $15.4 million annual net loss
Although such results speak volumes even on their own investors have an even bigger problem to worry about – the devastating dilution of the common stock.
In our previous article we talked about the fact that the company seems to be having trouble keeping up with the exact count of its outstanding shares as of December 31, 2014. As of March 20 however there were approximately 5.8 BILLION shares outstanding out of the 5.96 BILLION authorized. Last year Baltia were able to raise around $9.9 million which may seem as an impressive sum but in order to receive that amount they had to sell 1.9 billion shares. This means that each share had an average price of just $0.005. The 52-week low of the stock is $0.008.
A Form 4 filed just a couple of day ago revealed that Mr. Vick Luis Bolanos purchased a total of 16,8 million shares on the open market at $0.01 each. The fact that insiders of the company have spend $168 million buying stock on the open market is definitely a positive sign. Is it enough to keep the ticker going in an upwards direction though?
If today’s early trading is any indication the answer to that question is quite clear – BLTA are currently trading over 8% in the red at $0.0105. If you are determined to invest in the company be sure to do extensive due diligence before putting your hard-earned money on the line.