With the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic worsening south of the border, posing a risk to strangle the fragile recovery of its economy, investors who were hoping this return to normalcy would be a spring are likely realizing it will actually be a long and hard struggle.
But even during a painful slog, there are bright moments of relief and Stockhouse’s Bullboards have been active talking about all things, be they positive or otherwise. Looking at the positive ….
The steady rise of
PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (TSX-V:PYR, Forum) was already more than impressive before last week, but now it is truly head-turning. The high-tech plasma processing company topped the Stockhouse Bullboards as shares rose steadily from around $2.33 in June 22nd to $4.54 (just shy of a 52-week high at the time) on July 7th to $4.63 nearly a week later on July 13th and hitting a new high of $4.67 on July 22. That gives PYR a one-month rise of 100% and a three-month rise of 820% since April.
(PyroGenesis Stock chart – Feb 2020 – Jul 2020.)
Some major news that contributed to PYR’s climb was the company’s
Q1 2020 results: Revenues of $736K, Gross Margin of 37%, Current Backlog $30 million. Investors have also been chewing on PYR’s Q2 2020 and year end guidance.
“We expect that Q2 2020 and the six months ending June 30, 2020 will be profitable as will year end results. As such, management has modified several notes in the financials, for the first time since inception, to reflect this outlook.” - P. Peter Pascali, CEO and President of PyroGenesis Canada Inc.
The Company also recently confirmed that all terms and conditions for two PyroGenesis waste destruction systems, for the US Navy’s two-ship build, have been agreed to for approx.
$11.5 million. The formal agreement is expected to be signed around this time includes a first payment of roughly $4 million. This project should be completed within 18 months.
A relatively new name to the top Bullboard charts making an appearance is
Gatekeeper Systems Inc. (TSX-V: GSI, Forum), who was recently covered by Stockhouse Editorial in a multipart series, recently announced that it is pursuing COVID-19 contact tracing solutions that interface to the company’s Platform-as-a-Service platform and allow government authorities to
trace cases on transit applications and school buses. The company is researching its own applications and seeking to partner with other companies who have developed specialized contact tracing software.
A leading provider of intelligent video solutions for public transport and smart cities, GSI recently reported that over the past seven years, the Company had installed approximately
28,000 intelligent mobile data collectors and 97,000 video cameras on school buses, transit buses and trains, which forms the foundation of the Company's recently-introduced PaaS business model.
The cannabis industry has been trying to mount a COVID-19 bounce-back and has seen a welcome respite in the storm that wreaked major havoc on the industry for most of 2019 and early 2020.
Aphria Inc. (TSX:APHA, Forum) seemed to alleviate investor concerns when it opted to back away from
merger discussions with fellow LP
Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB, Forum) in what would have been one of the biggest blockbuster deals the industry has seen. Over the last few weeks both companies have been discussing the merger but failed to agree on board composition and compensation for some senior executives.
It isn’t all good news, as
Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED, Forum) is reportedly laying off
another 30 employees from its Smiths Falls, Ont. Headquarters and two top executives have also left the company.
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Medical company
StageZero Life Sciences Ltd. (TSX: SZLS, Forum) continues to perform at the top of the medical boards, holding on to the #1 spot for a second week, hot off the news that it will use its recent financing to advance its COVID-19 tests and cancer studies.
Liminal BioSciences Inc. (TSX: LMNL, Forum) is also advancing its own COVID-19 strategy.
The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company recently announced that its subsidiary, Prometic Plasma Resources, has joined the
CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance to contribute to the acceleration of the development of a potential new therapy for COVID-19.
“The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance aims to put public and patient health first by working together and is combining all efforts to collect convalescent plasma to develop a potential plasma-derived COVID-19 therapy. We hope that our expertise in developing plasma-based therapeutics and our plasma collection centers in the U.S and Canada will go some way to contributing to this important cause.” - Kenneth Galbraith, Chief Executive Officer of Liminal BioSciences.
Stockhouse readers were nearly split on our last Pulse Poll asking if this is an ideal time for Canada’s central bank to move ahead with another interest rate cut … just over half of you said now is not the right time.
For this pulse poll, we want to know which sector you think is set to see the most recovery coming out of the recent economic slump caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. We have come to learn a lot about how markets will shake out and how our society and economy are changing in these unprecedented times. Click the poll below to cast your vote.
This week has shown what many previous weeks have proven - you never know what to expect when it comes to each sector’s performance, or the general market. Investors should stay as up-to-date as possible, and for the latest on small-cap stock movements. Next week we’ll dive back into the Bullboards and see where the small-cap markets are headed. PyroGenesis may be on top for now, but no king lasts forever, and an uncertain market demands constant attention from investors to stay up-to-date and ready. For previous editions of Buzz on the Bullboards:
click here.
FULL DISCLOSURE: PyroGenesis Canada Inc. and Gatekeeper Systems Inc. are clients of Stockhouse Publishing.