NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Feb 28, 2014) - Daxor Corporation, (NYSE MKT: DXR) an investment company with medical instrumentation and biotechnology operations, will be filing a Form N-CSR today disclosing its schedule of portfolio holdings as of December 31, 2013. Copies of the form will be mailed to the Company's shareholders and are available on the Company's website at http://www.daxor.com/pdfs/daxor-form-n-csr-12312013.pdf.
At December 31, 2013, the Company had net assets of $26,370,847 or $6.45 per share versus net assets of $35,113,819 or $8.50 per share at December 31, 2012. The Company's Return on Average Net Assets for the year was (27.40%).
Net assets decreased by $8,742,972 during the year ended December 31, 2013. This was mostly due to a realized loss of $(13,202,491) from short sales of equities.
The Company paid a dividend of $0.05 per share on December 27, 2013. Management has a policy of paying dividends when funds are available.
The Company's investment policy is to maintain a minimum of 80% of its portfolio in electric utilities. At December 31, 2013, investments in electric utilities made up 91.1% of the value of the Company's portfolio. Dividends from the Company's investments in electric utilities made up 89.0% of the Company's total dividend income for the year ended December 31, 2013. The Company is receiving dividend income on 52 of the 64 common and preferred stocks in its investment portfolio at December 31, 2013.
The portfolio turnover rate for the year ended December 31, 2013 was 24.60% which indicates an average holding period in excess of four years for our investment portfolio. The investment approach of management is to buy stocks which it is prepared to hold for the long term. There are stocks in our portfolio which we have held in excess of 20 years.
At December 31, 2013, net fair value over cost of the Company's securities portfolio totaled $23,628,684. This was comprised of net fair value over cost of $23,953,711 and net cost over fair value of $(325,027).
The Company's results from investments for the year ended December 31, 2013 are disclosed in greater detail in the Form N-CSR which will be filed today.
Daxor reports to the public as an investment company. However, our primary mission has always been to promote our unique medical products and technology. We remain dedicated to increasing the public awareness of the benefits of storing one's own blood in case the need for a transfusion arises and for making blood volume measurement a standard of care.
Septicemia is caused by bacteria in circulation and is a common occurrence in intensive care units. Death rates vary from 20% to 40% depending on the institution. Dr. Mihae Yu is one of the senior authors of an article published in Shock (A Prospective Randomized Trial Using Blood Volume Analysis in Addition to Pulmonary Artery Catheter, Compared with Pulmonary Artery Catheter Alone, to Guide Shock Resuscitation in Critically Ill Surgical Patients, Shock, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 220-228, 2011), which showed the different survival rates in 100 patients (a death rate of 8% for the patients whose treatment was guided by blood volume measurement versus a 24% death rate in a control group whose treatment was guided by the usual clinical laboratory parameters without blood volume measurement).
The most widely read textbook in Critical Care Medicine is "The ICU Book (Intensive Care Unit)" by Paul Marino, M.D., PhD, FCCM. The fourth edition of this book was released in October of 2013. Dr. Marino is on the staff of Cornell University and is an internationally recognized authority on Critical Care Medicine.
In a chapter on Hypovolemia (Low Blood Volume) in the fourth edition of "The ICU Book," Dr. Marino wrote the following: "Blood Volume measurements have traditionally required too much time to perform to be clinically useful in an ICU setting, but this has changed with the introduction of a semi-automated Blood Volume Analyzer (Daxor Corporation, New York, NY) that provides blood volume measurements in less than an hour. When blood volume measurements were made available for patient care, 53% of the measurements led to a change in fluid management, and this was associated with a significant decrease in mortality rate (from 24% to 8%)." He also cited the article published in Shock which is co-authored by Dr. Mihae Yu.
Among the concluding statements Dr. Marino makes in this chapter are the following: "The clinical evaluation of intravascular volume, including the use of central venous pressure (CVP) measurements, is so flawed that it has been called a 'comedy of errors' and direct measurements of blood volume are clinically feasible, but are underutilized."
This is important recognition from a physician who is considered one of the top authorities on Intensive Care Medicine. We are making every effort to publicize this information as part of our ongoing efforts to educate the public about the importance of blood volume measurement.
Some of the benefits of storing one's own blood during surgery are: improved surgical outcomes, reduced costs, reduced risk of anemia at the time of surgery and greater protection against infection. Other benefits of storing one's own blood include: protection against heart and kidney failure, reduced risk of anemia and strengthening of the immune system.
Dr. Joseph Feldschuh, the President of Daxor, said: "I recently had a firsthand experience of the importance of storing your own blood. On February 4th, I slipped on ice outside my home and fractured my hip. As a result of surgery, I expect to retain the use of my own hip. My stored blood was thawed and shipped from Daxor's facility in Manhattan. At the time, my surgeons expressed the belief that I was not likely to need any transfusions. The next day my physicians noted that I had persistent tachycardia which is a fast pulse and it seemed to be increasing over the course of several hours."
"My one unit of frozen stored blood was administered with continuous monitoring over a period of one hour. My pulse gradually returned to normal as the transfusion was administered. Subsequent tests determined that I had lost 30% of my blood. It has been proven that there is considerable blood loss with hip and knee replacement which increases the need for blood transfusion. The study also shows that this is sometimes associated with infectious risks and other complications. This is yet another example of the importance of storing one's own blood before surgery."
"We realize there are no guarantees but remain hopeful that members of the medical community will understand the need for measuring patient's blood volume precisely rather than using surrogate tests and clinical guesstimates which can be grossly inaccurate. The precise knowledge of a patient's blood volume is essential for optimally treating critically ill medical and surgical patients. Our goal is to make blood volume measurement a standard of care for any patient experiencing a blood volume derangement."