Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ELTP) Crash-Lands on Endless Selling
Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ELTP) has crash-landed into a lower range, and now the question is if the price has been trimmed enough, or if in the end ELTP will not be able to hold on to any of the gains. On Tuesday, ELTP slid down by more than 11% to $0.321, on dollar volumes above $2.08 million. March proved a heavy month for this ticker as well, as days in the red were the majority, and selling sprees were only sporadically broken by net daily buying. 
The slide in ELTP is the direct consequence of a week without any news, since the last PR for the company came in at the end of March. But even then, ELTP just fluffed itself up with managerial tinkering, adding Ms. Barbara Ellison into the newly created position of Vice President, Quality Operations and Regulatory Affairs. 
Now, investors’ forums are busy with a postmortem of the fallout in the past weeks, and there are few signs of optimism. Notice was taken of significant insider holdings, as the company has more than 570 million shares outstanding, but so far an unknown free float.
In fact, it looks like ELTP is making big plans on the one hand, while on the other hand its very management seems to be abandoning ship, shedding their shares in the past days. The selling started on March 11th, and may explain the significant cuts. At first, officer Ashok Nigalaye sold more than 34 million shares. This was followed by other insiders and even beneficial holders of more than 10% disposing of a part of their portfolios.
And just in case this was not enough, ELTP decided it would increase the number of authorized shares, through a SEC statement at the beginning of April. The extra financing would supposedly be used for the anti-addiction drug program, one that ELTP has been showing off since 2013, but so far without direct results. Anti-opioids are potentially fast-tracked by the FDA, and stood behind the success of other pharmaceutical tickers.
Otherwise, ELTP shows the image of working company, though with serious pressures from debt:
- cash: $1 million
- current assets: $3.9 million
- total assets: $18.2 million
- current liabilities: $12.5 million
- total liabilities: $23.2 million
- revenues: $1.6 million
- net loss: $1 million
But the insider transactions and the shakedown of the stock price show that not all is clear-cut for this pharmaceutical choice.
Much hotter are the MMJ-related pharmaceutical choices, such as Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCMKTS:NVLX), currently at $0.36 and keeping in a range between 30 and 40 cents. More speculative Creative Edge Nutrition, Inc. (OTCMKTS:FITX) is stuck, a bit lower at $0.07.
If you still wait for a rebounce in ELTP, keep in mind that the many unknowns could only help to drag down the price and wipe out the positions of unwise investors.
