OXIS International, Inc. (OTCMKTS:OXIS) Remains Volatile

Last time we covered OXIS International, Inc. (OTCMKTS:OXIS) it had made an impressive leap up, fueled by an optimistic announcement. It then proceeded to crash and lose most of its gains, then recovered some ground in yesterday’s session, so the question remains – where will it head now?

Well, seeing as how OXIS just sold 1.7 million shares of its common stock at a rate of approximately $0.34, it is unlikely that the ticker will be able to climb much further than that in the near future. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will know how many of those shares have already been cashed in and how many are still threatening OXIS investor value any time soon – which means that investors should definitely be on their toes from now on.

Then again, having to watch out for dilution should be nothing new for OXIS investors – after all, even long before it printed its latest batch of discounted shares, it had quite a bit of debt that could be transformed at rates of “60% of the average of the lowest three trading prices occurring at any time during the 20 trading days preceding conversion”.

On a happier note, the more than half a million dollars worth of funding should prove a welcome cash injection that could keep OXIS operating for a while more. Then again, investors should probably ask themselves another question – what is OXIS doing right now?

Sure the company keeps bragging about “its most promising cancer drug, OXS-1550”, but a brief look at its latest financial report reveals that during the last reported quarter the company spent just $167 thousand on operating activities. Has cancer treatment really become that cheap to research?

Still, even if it has, and OXIS manages to keep its expenses to a minimum, it is just now entering the first or second stage of its clinical trials – so it still has a long way to go before it can roll out a product on the market. This means that the company will need quite a bit more funding down the line – which in turn could mean that its investors would have to bear even more dilution in the future.

All in all, OXIS may be talking big, but its actual situation doesn’t seem to be as peachy as the company makes it out to be – and it doesn’t seem like it will get better with time.