New York, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 23, 2014 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced that it has initiated coverage on Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: APDN) with a 12-month price target of $5.40.
The report is available here: APDN Initiation Report. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, Capital IQ, FactSet, and Zack's. The report will also be available on these platforms. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
"APDN offers biosecurity solutions across a broad spectrum of supply chain security, brand protection and property and business security applications. At the core of all of its biosecurity solutions is APDN's SigNature DNA, which is based on full, double-stranded plant DNA. SigNature DNA can be incorporated into labeling, packaging and even into products themselves, giving manufacturers a wide range of options. The company recently received a Popular Science Best of What's New 2014 Award in the Security category for SmokeCloak DNA, and its products and solutions are gaining visibility within many industries looking to enhance product security," stated Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity. "APDN has also taken some significant recent steps to increase visibility in the company and strengthen the balance sheet. These include a 1-for-60 reverse stock split, an uplisting to the NASDAQ and a $9.1mn public offering. APDN is actively looking to expand the end market potential for its products, and has announced a string of contract wins over the past few quarters. We see the opportunity for significant growth in the upcoming quarters for APDN. We are initiating coverage with a 12-month price target of $5.40 per share."
Additional investment highlights are as follows:
Unique solutions for growing, global counterfeiting crisis
According to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, the projected value of global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods could approach $1.8 trillion in 2015. According to research from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the market for counterfeit goods and pirated property represents approximately 5-7% of global trade. This translates to between $500 billion and $600 billion annually. APDN uses the DNA of everyday plants to mark objects in a unique manner that it believes cannot be replicated, and then identify these objects by detecting the absence or presence of the DNA. APDN offers a variety of marking and biosecurity solutions, and looks to seamlessly customize the insertion of its markers into a manufacturer's production process.
Wide variety of end market applications for APDN's technology
APDN has been very measured in expanding into its current markets of microelectronics, textiles and security marking solutions. APDN plans to continue to focus its efforts on target vertical markets that are characterized by a high level of vulnerability to counterfeiting, product diversion, piracy, fraud, identity theft, and unauthorized intrusion into physical locations and databases. Future target markets of note include homeland security, law enforcement, identification cards and secure documents, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, fine wine and art and collectibles. APDN's DNA technology can be embedded into a range of host carriers such as ink, varnish, thread, laminates and metal coatings. It can also be incorporated into liquids, plastic, fiber, metals and other composite materials, making the end market potential practically limitless.
NASDAQ uplisting and private placement highlight recent events
On October 29, 2014, APDN announced a 1-for-60 reverse split of its common stock. This was done in part to prepare the company for an uplisting to NASDAQ, which was then announced on November 17, 2014. The common stock and warrants of APDN both trade on the NASDAQ under the symbols APDN and APDNW, respectively. On November 17th, APDN also announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering. The offering closed on November 20, 2014 and the gross proceeds to APDN were approximately $9.1 million before deducting the underwriting discount and other offering expenses. APDN intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund working capital, repurchase warrants, and for business development and research and development purposes. The uplisting and capital raise should give APDN increased visibility to a broad new range of investors.
Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.
About Applied DNA Sciences Inc.
APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions and services that can help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature(R) DNA describes the uncopyable marker that is at the heart of all of our security and authentication solutions. SigNature DNA is at the core of a family of products such as DNAnet(R), our anti-theft product, SigNature(R)T, targeted toward textiles, and digitalDNA(R), providing powerful track and trace. All provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.
For more information, please visit the company's website at www.adnas.com.
About SeeThruEquity
SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. We do not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. We are approved to contribute our research to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks and distribute our research to our database of opt-in investors. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.
Contact:
Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com
SOURCE: SeeThruEquity