Fortitude Group Inc (OTCMKTS:FRTD) Sheds Some Light on the New Business
The penny stock company that we now know as Fortitude Group Inc (OTCMKTS:FRTD) started life in 2003 and over the last nine years, it has went through no less than seven identities. The last name change took place in January 2013 and before it was effectuated, the company was led by two people called Norman Birmingham and John Stanton.
This is something of a red flag since the two former officers have something of a bad reputation among penny stock circles. Mr. Birmingham, for example, has been involved with numerous OTC listed ventures like Nx Global Incorporated (OTCMKTS:NEGS) and Ise Blu Equity Corp. (OTCMKTS:ISBL). Mr. Stanton, also held some management positions at several shady companies, but back in August 2013, he was forced to resign from all of them because he was sent to prison for tax evasion.
Fortunately for FRTD‘s shareholders, neither Birmingham, nor Stanton are a part of the company right now. They were replaced by the current CEO who goes by the name of Thomas Parilla. Sadly, he has yet to bring the company to its feet. And looking at the figures found in the latest financial report, he might have a tall order to fill. Here’s What FRTD had as of September 30:
- current assets: $2 thousand
- current liabilities: $1.2 million
- no revenue
- quarterly net loss: $75 thousand
- accumulated deficit: $21.1 million
Clearly, the company’s financial situation isn’t substantial enough to support the market cap which currently stands at nearly $11 million. And since we mentioned the market cap, we should note that it doubled during yesterday’s session.
39 million shares changed hands in just six and a half hours of trading resulting in a dollar volume of nearly $430 thousand. The ticker jumped from $0.009 and surged to $0.018. FRTD closed the session above the $0.01 for the first time since March 2013. But what’s the reason for the sudden and violent jump?
As we wrote on Monday, FRTD announced its entrance into the medical marijuana business last week and, somewhat predictably, this action drew investors’ attention towards the ticker immediately. Yesterday, the company issued another press release and it seems that this was enough to solidify the upward trend. But how long will it last?
The management team gave out some more information on the new business plan. FRTD won’t be growing cannabis and they won’t be selling it. Instead, they plan to acquire a couple of internet domain names that would be used for the creation of a pre-paid platform through which legal dispensaries can operate. They also said that the websites will be launched on March 17.
Unfortunately, considering the figures found in the Q3 report, they might have some problems meeting the deadlines. And even if they do manage to launch the platform on time we’ll need to wait for the future financial statements to see how successful it is.
In the meantime, we want to draw your attention back to Mr. Norman Birmingham and Mr. John Stanton. Both of them were once involved with another penny stock called Virtual Sourcing, In (OTCMKTS:PGCX). As you probably know, PGCX became the target of a large promotional campaign back in the summer of 2013. Birmingham and Stanton had resigned long before the pump started, but that didn’t stop PGCX from plummeting to the ground. The ticker has lost a whopping 98% since it hit its hype-induced high of $1.10 per share back in August.
