Author: Muhammad Ali

Shares of the Bakkt Holdings, Inc. (BKKT) stock were climbing in the premarket trading session today on January 19, 2022, following the announcement of its partnership with Nexo. BKKT stock price saw a push of 7.44% to reach $5.63 a share at the time of this writing. The stock was gloomy in the previous trade and went down by 6.09% at closing. Let’s deep dive to explore more of it.

What’s Happening with BKKT stock?

BKKT stock became hot among the investors after the company announced that it has partnered with Nexo, a leading regulated digital assets institution. Under this partnership, the company will custody the cryptocurrency assets in the Bakkt Warehouse which is the regulated custodian of the company. Bakkt Warehouse ensures the safe and secure storage of Ethereum and Bitcoin.  Previously on December 21, 2021, the Manasquan Bank selected the Bakkt to offer retail clients access to cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency market is expanding at a rapid pace and the leading crypto companies are diversifying the custody of their assets. In such circumstances, Bakkt is aiming to diversify its network of operations in order to increase its revenue. Secure custody is the main pillar of the company’s strategy to achieve this goal.

Bakkt Warehouse

Bakkt Warehouse was established in 2019, which consists of both offline and online air-gapped digital asset storage. It reduces the risks owing to warm storage by rebalancing between cold and warm storage tiers. Bakkt is providing further protection to Nexo users through its warm and cold wallets along with multizone physical security which also includes bank-grade vaults.

Financial View of BKKT stock

The company in November announced third quarter 2021 financial results according to which

• The net revenue of Bakkt was $9.1 million in the third quarter of 2021. This represents an increase of 38% as compared to $6.6 million in the same tenure of the previous year. The increase is mainly attributable to high customer loyalty redemptions and large financial institution addition in the company’s loyalty platform.
• The operating expense of the BKKT stock was $39 million, representing a 60% increase as compared to the same quarter of the last year. This increase is attributable to investments for business growth and the closing of the transactions.
• Net loss of the BKKT stock in the last reported quarter was $28.8 million, higher than net loss in the same quarter of last year.

Wrap Up

BKKT stock is getting hype after the announcement of Bakkt’s partnership with Nexo, which is obviously a positive sign for future growth. In the last six months, the stock has lost approximately 47%.

Shares of the Molecular Partners AG (MOLN) stock were gloomy in the current market trading session today on January 18, 2022. MOLN stock price saw a decline of 16.84% to drop at $26.52 a share at the time of this writing. The trading volume on the last check was 136,170.

What’s Happening?

MOLN stock is falling amid the announcement of finalizing the license agreement between the Molecular Partners and Novartis for Ensovibep for COVID-19. The company has signed the license agreement with Novartis according to which the latter will in-license global rights to Ensovibep from Molecular Partners. For your intuition, Ensovibep is a DARPin antiviral therapeutic candidate intended to treat patients with Covid-19. Ensovibep showed positive topline results in the Phase 2 EMPATHY clinical study, according to the data.

The finalization of the agreement represents the 150 million milestone payment of CHF to Molecular Partners. According to the agreement, the company will be able to receive a 22% royalty on sales in commercial countries. The company will not receive the royalties in the lower-income countries to ensure affordability in these countries.

Molecular Partners AG is operating as the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is developing therapies to treat wet age-related macular degeneration. The company is also involved in the development of COVID-19 antiviral therapeutic candidates. This antiviral therapeutic inactivates the SARS-CoV-2 and is currently in phase II clinical trial. MOLN stock has a market cap of $860.79 million and a 50,112 average trading volume.

Financial Guidance of the MOLN stock

The management is optimistic that the company will report CHF 133 million cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021. The addition of CHF 150 million from Novartis will enable the company to run its operations well till 2025 excluding any potential royalty income and potential cash flows to or from R&D partners. This means that Molecular Partners is in a stable position, which is a positive sign for the long shareholders of the MOLN stock.

Conclusion

The sentiment is not positive for the MOLN stock following the announcement of an agreement with Novartis regarding Ensovibep for COVID-19. The stock has performed well in terms of per-share price as it gained 36.33% in the last six months. It would be interesting to see, how this stock performs in the year 2022. Investors eyeing this stock need to do detailed research before making any decision.

CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CASI) stock was rising in the premarket trading session today on January 18, 2022.  The CASI stock price saw a push of 2.39% to reach $0.74 a share at the time of this writing. The stock was declining in the previous trade and went down by 5.79% at closing. Let’s take a closer look to understand the reason behind this bull.

What’s Happening?

CASI stock became bullish after the company reported that the U.S Food and Drug Designation has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) to its partner Juventas Cell Therapy Ltd. The grant is for CNCT19, which is CD-19 directed CAR-T therapy to treat patients suffering from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).

Juventas is currently developing CNCT19 independently in order to meet the needs of patients suffering from hematologic malignancies across the globe. Previously in November 2019, the National Medical Products Administration granted the CTA approval to the Juventas for two indications. The company is evaluating the CNCT19 in Phase II clinical trials. The clinical data previously presented in the December 2021 ASH annual meeting reflected the good tolerance and safety profile for this product.

Previous News of CASI stock

CASI in the first week of January received a deficiency notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market’s Listing Qualification Department. The company received the notice after the CASI stock had closed below the minimum requirement of $1 per share for the consecutive 30 business days. However, the deficiency letter had no immediate effect on the listing of CASI common stock. CASI has now got a period of 180 days to regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule, in accordance with the Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A). The company will get written notification of its compliance if the CASI stock closes above $1 for ten consecutive days.

CASI Stock Repurchase Program

On December 17, 2021, the company reported that its board of directors had approved the stock repurchase program under which the company will repurchase the USD 10 million shares of its common stock. The company doesn’t need to acquire any specific no of shares in the specific period under this stock repurchase program. The company can extend, discontinue, or modify the program at any time.

Wrap Up

Investors responded positively to the recent announcement by the CASI. The performance in the last six months is not so much attractive as this stock lost 44.83% in this period.

Shares of the Guardforce AI Co., Limited (GFAI) stock were rising in the current market trading session today on January 14, 2022. GFAI stock price saw a push of 92.85% to reach $2.02 a share at the time of this writing. The trading volume on the last check was 8,270,132, higher than the average trading volume. Let’s understand the reason behind this rally

What’s Happening?

GFAI stock became bullish in the current market trading session after the company announced that it is expanding Robotics as a Service (RaaS) to China’s Greater Bay Area. The company will expand RaaS offering via the proposed acquisition of Shenzhen Keweien Robot Service Co., Ltd (“SZ”) and Guangzhou Kewei Robot Technology Co., Ltd (“GZ”). The proposed acquisition is expected to end by the end of February 2022.

The purchased price is estimated to be US$10,000,000, which represents 0.55-times five years (from the year 2022 to the year 2026) projected average revenue for both GZ and SZ. The company will pay this payment in the form of a 10% mix of cash and 90% restricted shares of GFAI stock at $4.20 per share price.

Preliminary Financial Results of GFAI stock

GuardForce on January 11, 2021, reported preliminary unaudited full year 2021 financial results. According to the results, the company expects

• Revenue in the range of $33 million to $35 million, which means the revenue will decrease 9.3% to 14.5% for the full year 2021.
• Inorganic revenues of approximately $0.5 million which represents 1.4% of total net revenues.
• Non-cash revenues of approximately $0.8 million, which represents 2.4% of total net revenues.

Outlook of GFAI stock for 2022

For the full year of 2022, GuardForce AI expects that

• Net revenue for the full year 2022 will be in the range of $55 million to $60 million. This means that the company is expecting a growth of 66% from 2021.
• The company has projected inorganic revenues of $21 million approximately for the full year of 2021. This represents 36% of the total net revenues.
• The company is anticipating non-cash revenues of $25.5 million This represents 44% of the total revenues.

Conclusion

So far so good for GFAI stock as far as market sentiment is concerned.  The stock is performing well for the past 30 days and gained 14.60% last month. However, the stock has lost 64.11% in the last six months.

Shares of the Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN) stock were rising in the premarket trading session today on January 14, 2022. WYNN stock price saw a push of 8.04% to reach $91.00 a share at the time of this writing. The stock was gloomy in the previous trading session and went down by 1.83% at closing.

Wynn Resorts is operating its business via designing, developing, and operating integrated resorts. The company’s Wynn palace segment operates 424,000 square feet of casino space and the Macau segment operates 252,000 square feet of casino space. WYNN stock has a $9.74 billion market cap and a 2,379,075 average trading volume. Let’s deep dive to understand the current bullish sentiment.

What’s Happening?

The sentiment is positive for the WYNN stock in the stock market today. However, there is no press release or any announcement by the company in today’s date to support the bullish sentiment. It seems that this stock is hot among investors in the social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, StockTwits, causing an increase in the per-share price of this tock.

Recently the Official in Macau announced a plan of limiting the number of casinos in the gaming hub of the world. The gaming licenses tenure will now reduced from the current level of 20 years to 13 years. The officials indicated that the ownership requirements will rise from 10% to 15% according to the new plan. WYNN stock after the appearance of this news surged in the premarket today.

Previous News of WYNN stock

Previously on December 10, 2021, it had been reported that the company will host Paramount+ Star-Studded World Premiere of “1883”. Taylor Sheridan – stars Tim McGraw, Academy award-nominated, Sam Elliott, Academy award winner, and Billy Bob Thornton, Academy award winner created this series. This event represents the first collaboration between Wynn Las Vegas and 101 Studios in order to establish the connection between Hollywood and Las Vegas

Financial View of WYNN stock

According to third-quarter 2021 financial results, the operating revenues of the company were $994.6 million in the three months ended September 30, 2021. This represents a huge increase of $624.2 million from the same period of the previous year. The company suffered a net loss of $166.2 million in the third quarter of 2021. Net loss per diluted share of WYNN stock was $1.45.  WYNN reported an adjusted EBITDA of $154.6 million in the last reported quarter. Adjusted net loss of the company in the third quarter of 2021 was $141.7 million, or $1.24 per diluted share.

Shares of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) stock were rising in the premarket trading session today on January 14, 2022. LVS stock price saw a push of 9.67% to reach $41.30 a share at the time of this writing. The stock was gloomy in the previous trade and went down by 3.31% at closing.

Las Vegas Sands Corp is involved in developing owning and operating integrated resorts in Asia and United States.  LVS stock has a market cap of $28.77 billion and an 8,093,077 average trading volume. Let’s explore more about this stock to understand the current bullish sentiment.

What’s Happening?

There is no recent announcement or press release by the LVS stock today to support the bullish sentiment in the stock market. No analysts’ upgrades or increased targeted per share price of the LVS stock in recent times. It seems that the stock is rising due to some external factors or discussions between investors in the social media platforms like Reddit, Stock Twits, etc. So what do you need to know now at this point? Let’s understand some recent events of this stock.

Recent Event of LVS stock

National Hispanic Institute recently on January 12, 2021, announced the progressive leadership training program for Latino high school students in Las Vegas, along with Las Vegas Sands. This program has been made possible by a $150,000 commitment of cumulative three years from Sand Cares. NHI will build a volunteer alliance in order to lead its leadership development curriculum through funding. Furthermore, in the first year of the training program, 38 students will get a scholarship for participation in the program.

Financial View of LVS stock

In the third quarter of 2021, the company reported $857 million in revenue as compared to $446 million in the same tenure of the previous year. The operating loss in the three months ended September 30, 2021, was $316 million, lower than $523 million in the same tenure of the previous year. Net loss from the continuing operations of the LVS stock was $594 million in the third quarter of 2021. This compares to a $664 million net loss from continuing operations in the same quarter of last year. The company spent $192 million in capital expenses in the last reported quarter. By the end of the third quarter of 2021, the company had $1.64 billion in unrestricted cash balance.

Wrap Up

LVS stock is getting momentum in the stock market due to positive sentiment in social media platforms. It would be interesting to see how long this trend will persist. LVS stock gained 3.55% in the last thirty days and lost 24.86% in the last six months.