Traders Snap Up Trimedyne Shares
Shares of Trimedyne Inc., an Irvine-based surgical laser manufacturer, jumped more than 26% for the second day in a row, apparently sparked by an investment firm’s bullish recommendation.
The stock moved up 59 cents a share to $2.84 in trading of 1.1 million shares, more than five times the average daily volume over the last three months.
The increase followed Tuesday’s 26.3% advance.
Trimedyne’s chief financial officer, Shane Traveller, attributed the rise to Gore Horvath’s decision to boost its rating on Trimedyne’s stock to buy from speculative buy.
The firm cited the Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of Trimedyne’s OmniTip side-firing laser needle, which enables doctors to suction or irrigate during laser surgical procedures.
The investment recommendation comes only a week after top officials at Trimedyne filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to sell 407,500 shares.
Chairman and Chief Executive Marvin Loeb plans to sell 260,000 common shares of his and certain family members’ stakes in the company. According to the filing, none of the proceeds will go to the company, and Loeb will be left with 731,000 shares and options to purchase shares, equivalent to a 6.7% stake in the company.
Traveller, the chief financial officer, is selling 35,000 common shares underlying stock options, which represents his entire holdings in Trimedyne. The filing states that the company would receive the exercise price from the sold stock options of about $593,000.
The company, which recently posted third-quarter losses of $1.1 million on revenue of $1.4 million, has said it needs substantial additional financing to continue development of its Cardiodyne unit’s products. As of March 31, the company had $11.85 million in working capital--sufficient to meet operating needs until next March.
