Like I said; "growing pains", new companies, as a rule, have little data to base projections upon, therefore most every projection is a "guestimate" young companies and industries make progress in fits and starts, lurching from focus on product to production to sales and back again, since no one can really know what the buyers will want until the product is actually offered for sale, then used and feedback comes in.
Had the company already been selling millions of units, they'd already have had a good idea of where to focus their efforts, since they didn't yet have that (and probably still don't), all they can do is try to estimate what the future will bring. Sometimes those estimates will be either too low or too high in one or another area and the co., will have to shift gears.
The new hires and plant is just the company dealing with the growing pains it's experiencing. Those were remarkable hires and the new plant and insider buying portends much good. The orders are still coming in and increasing and that's the life blood of any company.
So then, there's the question of a bottom and that's almost impossible to know. It's a question of how long will it take for investors to appreciate what the company is doing and might do going forward. Obviously no one can predict what the public will do.
Then there's the matter of shorters. As far as we, who have followed the short interest trends, can see, there is an institutional shorter who isn't above attempting manipulation of the share price. There's only one logic to a short seller averaging down and that is; by selling into low volume rises and falls, s/he hopes to exaggerate the downward pressure on the issue, in hopes of discouraging investors into selling off. When successful this strategy leads to oversold conditions that favor the short sellers overall stake. You can't expect a short seller with deep pockets to simply give up without a fight. But, the simple fact that a shorter is caught averaging down, is a red flag that profitable times are ahead, because that's what's driving the shorters fearful strategy. If he allows the stock to rise on low volume, he risks having momentum build up against him and that will be more difficult and costly to attenuate. So he sells even as the stock continues to fall.
Remember the short interest here was at 16 million shares and did not close, even when the stock fell to 28 dollars long ago. It didn't increase much all the way up to 96, but it began increasing dramatically after the stock had fell through the 70's, 60's and 50's.
So, not to worry, the company won't be filing for bk anytime soon, and it's a good bet that sales and profits will soar in the years ahead.
You can't ask for a better investment than that, even if you're presently underwater. Don't sweat it, don't fall into the trap of training yourself to sell at the first sign of trouble. That may benefit you with small gains in the short term, but it's only going to hurt your investment strategy over the long term. Because it almost guarantees that you won't be aboard for the long ride up to the top.
