Comparator Reports Another Quarterly Loss
Comparator Systems Corp., which has been under regulatory investigation since its stock set trading records and soared 30-fold in price earlier this month, reported a $289,442 loss for its third fiscal quarter that ended March 31.
The latest loss was slightly smaller than a $292,187 loss reported in the comparable quarter a year earlier. Sales in the third quarter totaled $142,858, up from $17,923 a year earlier. Comparator has never reported a profit in its 17 years as a public company.
For its nine-month period, Comparator reported a loss of $1.34 million on sales of $399,234, compared with a year-earlier loss of $894,693 on sales of $36,855.
Trading in shares of Comparator Systems was halted last week by the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, which regulates the Nasdaq market where Comparator’s stock trades. On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in Comparator until May 29.
Both the NASD and the SEC are investigating what prompted an inexplicable burst of activity in Comparator stock earlier this month. Comparator officials have said the activity may have been caused by investors anticipating the release of the company’s new fingerprint identification device at an Atlanta trade show this week.
But Comparator was compelled to acknowledge last week that it doesn’t have the money to bring the fingerprint system to market, and that it might have overstated the value of 77% of its corporate assets.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Comparator listed total assets of $5.84 million, and shareholder equity of $3.25 million. If the company is required to reduce those numbers, it could jeopardize Comparator’s ability to continue trading its stock on the Nasdaq SmallCap stock market.
The filing also shows that Comparator continued in its third quarter to issue large chunks of stock to pay executives’ salaries and to cover debts. This reflects a long-standing practice at the tiny company, which has about 610 million shares of stock outstanding, more than computer giant Microsoft Corp.
