Knickerbocker Stock Declines Sharply
Was it something Louis L. Knickerbocker said at his company’s first annual meeting of shareholders two weeks ago?
Since then, shares of collectibles maker L.L. Knickerbocker Co. have dropped nearly 28% on the Nasdaq market system.
The stock recorded its steepest decline Wednesday--$1.25 a share--to close at $9.50.
At one point Wednesday, the price fell to $8 a share--less than half of its all-time high of $16.25 a share, reached less than seven weeks ago.
Knickerbocker, the chairman, said in prepared remarks Wednesday that he wasn’t aware of any reason for the stock drop.
He said the company’s celebrity-endorsed products and other ventures “continue to progress.”
The company is doing well, said Mark Jazwin, an analyst at W.B. McKee Securities in Phoenix.
The drop in the overall market explains Knickerbocker’s fall of $2.375 in the last week, he said: “What we’re seeing is a lot of pullback in the stock market.”
The company’s stock is now trading at its level during the first five months this year.
It was the fast-rising stock price, boosted by broker Rafi Kahn, that first gained attention for Knickerbocker last summer. The price shot from $4 a share to $52 before the company issued a 5-for-1 stock split.
The company relies on one product and one medium for most of its revenue. The Marie Osmond porcelain dolls account for 40% of its revenue, and the QVC home-shopping channel accounts for 60% of the company’s sales.
However, at the annual meeting, Knickerbocker focused on Pure Energy Corp., a Rancho Santa Margarita company that owns the exclusive rights to make and market an alternative fuel being developed at the Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory. Knickerbocker has a 40% stake in Pure Energy.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
On the Down Side
L.L. Knickerbocker’s stock price has declined almost 30% in less than three weeks. Daily closing prices:
June 24: $13.13
June 25: $12.50
June 26: $11.88
June 27: $11.75
June 28: $11.75
*
July 1: $11.88
July 2: $11.88
July 3: $11.88
July 5: $11.25
July 8: $10.25
July 9: $10.75
Wednesday’s close: $9.50
Source: Bloomberg News Service
