All Jokes Aside, Are These Penny Stocks On Your Radar?
The S&P 500 rolled over on March 31 after trying to hold gains for most of the session. But despite the Dow having its worst quarter in recorded history, penny stocks were some of the top performers. You can’t argue the fact that risk plays a huge factor when it comes to trading penny stocks. With that risk can come big rewards. We saw this first-hand on March 31st with multiple small-caps rallying hundreds of percentage points.
We aren’t talking low trading pink sheets right now; we’re talking about main-listed names that started as penny stocks but ended up leaving that range by the closing bell. SG Blocks (SGBX) was discussed when shares were trading around $4. After the closing bell, it reached highs of $12.75 on Tuesday. VIVUS Inc. (VVUS) was trading around $1 this morning when we picked up on its pre-market news and ran as high as $4.55 during the morning session. These are just a few of the numerous examples of penny stocks that scored serious percentage gains while the broader markets actually declined.
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Now that the first quarter is behind us, it’s time to look ahead. We’ve got a whole new month and a whole new quarter to bank on. Let’s make it count. April first may be a day of fun and games for some but it’s all business from where I’m sitting. With the huge momentum gained on March 31st, it would be great to start April with just as big of a bang. Will these be penny stocks to buy or avoid at the start of the new month?
Best Penny Stocks To Buy [or avoid]: InflaRx
Less than a year ago, InflaRx (IFRX) was trading above $30 a share. After reporting more than bad data, it became a penny stock. This is when we first started to track its progress. Over the months to follow, InflaRx managed to trade between $2 and $4 all while working to rebuild its business. Late last month we brought it back into focus after the company announced suitably positive initial data from the Phase 2a open-label study of its product IFX-1. This is the same product that had bad results last year.
In any case, the initial data suggested that the product could prove to be effective. IFRX stock soared to highs of $6.18 during the week to follow. After retreating back to around $3, it’s back on watch following some big news on March 31. The company announced enrollment of the first patient into a randomized clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of IFX-1.
This time the focus is on patients with severe COVID-19-induced pneumonia. While this pandemic wasn’t around last year, this could be a well-time scenario for InflaRx, this year. Furthermore, the company received initial positive human data from 2 patients suffering from COVID-19-induced pneumonia treated with BDB-001. This BDB-001 was produced by its licensee, Beijing Defengrei Biotechnology, from the IFX-1cell line in China. Based on this, InflaRx has decided to initiate a clinical development program with IFX-1 in COVID-19 patients with severely progressed pneumonia. Given the circumstances, IFRX could be one of the top penny stocks to watch later in the week.
Best Penny Stocks To Buy [or avoid]: Soligenix Inc.
Back in December, we started picking up more consistently on Soligenix Inc. (SNGX). At the time SNGX stock traded around $1.15. Over the course of the months to follow, we watched it soar to highs of $3.54 (Read more SNGX articles). But as the market pulled back earlier this month, so did Soligenix stock. Fast-forward to this week, however, and SNGX is back in the spotlight.
Now, if you’re just coming across Soligenix for the first time, here’s a little backstory. The company develops and commercializes products to treat rare diseases. Sine the increased exposure of coronavirus, the company has made it a major focus. Earlier this month the company announced a collaboration with the University of Hawai’i at Manoa to assess potential coronavirus vaccines.
In its latest year-end update, CEO of SOligenix, Dr. Christopher Schaber said, “Under our Public Health Solutions business segment, we continue to progress our heat-stable ricin vaccine, RiVax®, with the support of a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease contract award of up to $24.7 million. We are also excited to advance our work with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa beyond filovirus vaccines (protecting against viruses such as Ebola and Marburg) to the development of vaccines to potentially combat coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19.”
This was further emphasized in a research note from Zacks analyst, Dr. David Bautz. He not only gave it a $12 valuation but also explained that the company’s “technology has a number of advantages over other vaccines in development, and given the safety of protein subunit vaccines we expect it will enter human testing relatively quickly.”
Best Penny Stocks To Buy [or avoid]: Aytu Bioscience Inc.
Aytu Bioscience (AYTU) is no stranger to a strong list of penny stocks to watch. In fact, we first caught onto this in late February and watched it ever since. Not only has it managed to jump as high as $2.99, on a daily trend, but the 1-day spikes have also been good for big gains for day traders.
However, this time around there was no news release on March 31 to prompt interest. Aside from delaying its annual meeting and regaining compliance with NASDAQ, you won’t find much recent news to justify any type of momentum like AYTU stock is seeing during after-hours trading on Tuesday.
However, what’s something we always say here? Look for information beyond the headlines. Aytu has received a lot of media attention. If you remember from earlier in March, the company was featured on a local Fox affiliate for its rapid test platform. How does this come into play? Late Tuesday afternoon, a twitter feed from another Fox local reporter shared some information that could appeal to those with AYTU on their list.
At the time of the screenshot, it was around 7 PM EST. In response to several questions, the reporter, Rob Low repeated the fact that he hopes to have updates “tomorrow”. Now, whether or not these updates or groundbreaking is another story. As reporters, we always hope for some updates but if we don’t get them, it’s typically not an issue. But it would appear that many looking at AYTU aftermarket may have taken Low’s statements to mean something more. We’ll have to see what may amount from all of this during the April 1 session.
Penny Stocks To Buy [or avoid]: Qumu Corp.
*Updated April 1, 202 7:35 AM EST* If you’ve been following this coronavirus coverage from the beginning, you’ll know one of the hot topics is medical attention. Specifically, the ability to see a doctor without actually going to a doctor. Well, another popular thing right now isn’t so much a doctor-focused asset but an overall human-focused one. Zoom Video (ZM) for instance, has gotten a ton of attention thanks to people using it as the chosen video conferencing platform. Qumu Corp. (QUMU) is sort of the “penny stock version”.
The company’s Qumu Cloud enterprise video solution is up over 30x as far as its userbase is concerned. Thanks to the new “stay at home” orders by local governments, businesses are using video conferencing to get work done. “What we’re seeing at Qumu is global organizations hardening their video infrastructures on an unprecedented scale, as they massively increase their use of video conferencing technology,” said Vern Hanzlik, President, and CEO of Qumu.
The company reported this information late last night. On April 1st, trading momentum was already building by the time the pre-market session began. With less than 15 million shares outstanding according to recent figures, QUMU doesn’t have a “low float” necessarily, but it doesn’t have a large one either. In light of this, it may be worth taking a closer look at. But you may also want to be prepared for some volatility as well.
