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$BANT News: Bantec, through Bantec Sanitizing, Sold Training, Equipment and Covid Sterilizing Products to an Ivy League University
Click here:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bantec-through-bantec-sanitizing-sold-training-equipment-and-covid-sterilizing-products-to-an-ivy-league-university-301439037.html
$AMIH - Why Telemedicine Is the Future of Healthcare
From safety to ease of access, from reduced costs to AI-driven customized care, why virtual appointments are and will continue to be the proverbial win-win-win-win.
Click here:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/399591
AMIH is the future of healthcare.
American International Holdings Corp. (“AMIH”) is an investor, developer and asset manager diversified across the healthcare supply chain. Today the AMIH portfolio encompasses telemedicine and other virtual health platforms, subscriber based primary care and concierge medicine plans, preventative care solutions and wellness related assets such as proprietary nutrition-based products, mental & behavioral health services as well as its own proprietary life coaching platform. AMIH provides its various services through direct-to-consumer and business-to-business distribution channels. AMIH’s focus is on developing, acquiring and bringing to market technologies and solutions that advance the quality of life for the global community.
Learn more at: https://www.amihcorp.com
Achiko CEO says Indonesian-launched COVID-19 Rapid Test "dramatically more accurate" than others.
In an interview with multi-media news platform Proactive, Achiko CEO Steven Goh shares the exciting progress of the Company's DNA aptamer-based COVID-19 rapid test AptameX™ in Indonesia and the plans to bring the test kit to other parts of Asia, the Middle East and northern Africa (MENA), and Europe.
Watch Interview:
One board over ...
Coronavirus COVID-19 Medical Science Plays
$KNDI Pursuant to the terms, companies will promote the implementation of the “300,000 government-accredited pure EVs with battery swap model within 5 years of rideshare” program. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3647687-kandi-technologiesplus-15-after-announcing-agreement-hangzhou-branch-of-agricultural-bank-of
$IDEX Ideanomics Co Sees Continued Growth In MEG's Sales, Products, And Services
$RGGI is making disinfecting & sanitizing robots to allow safer reopenings for all kinds of facilities. Strong financing just announced to move forward with this very valuable technology:
Resgreen Group International, Inc. Signs Letter of Intent with RB Capital Partners, Inc.
Clinton Township, Michigan--(Newsfile Corp. - December 16, 2020) - Resgreen Group International, Inc (OTC PINK: RGGI), a leading mobile robot company, today announced that it has executed on a signed letter of intent with California based RB Capital Partners, Inc. ("RB Capital") to receive $500,000+ of financing over the next six months. The Company has already received the first tranche of $100,000 from RB Capital as the demand for its UV-C products and Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) is growing.
Much of this funding is dedicated to the purchase of inventory needed to finish assembly of the Wanda II and Pull Buddy orders, as well as to prepare additional equipment inventory for impending sales that are anticipated from the early interest we have received.
CEO, Parsh Patel stated, "I am overly excited to have the fine folks with RB Capital Partners as true partners. I see the terms of the note as an extraordinarily strong vote of confidence from them of the future value of the company. Consequently, this will also mean that we will not be raising any capital from the REG A registration at this time."
To watch video of Wanda disinfecting mobile robot in action, please visit
$ACB Aurora Cannabis Inc.
The cost? Do you need to exhibit "flu-like" symptoms?
$RXMD - Progressive Care Expands COVID-19 Testing With 15 Minute Antigen Rapid Tests
Click here:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/progressive-care-expands-covid-19-110000985.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=tw
Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), through its subsidiaries, is a Florida health services organization and provider of prescription pharmaceuticals, compounded medications, provider of tele-pharmacy services, the sale of anti-retroviral medications, medication therapy management (MTM), the supply of prescription medications to long-term care facilities, and health practice risk management.
$EPAZ News: Epazz, Inc. (OTC Pink: EPAZ) - Signs more Healthcare and Government Contracts - Covid-19 Solution https://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=83279537
DELL, INTC, ZM - Covid-19
https://emerginggrowth.com/dell-dell-and-intel-intc-backing-iabras-virolens-20-second-covid-19-test/
$NEVDF Copper / Can copper protect against the new coronavirus? Here's what the evidence says. https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/06/25/copper-masks
$SMME SmartMetric Analysis of the Post Corona Virus World and the Impact on Public Touch Points in the Credit Card Industry
Press Release | 05/15/2020
SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCQB: SMME) sees that the Covid-19, Corona Virus will have a lasting impact on how consumers interact with the physical world. This impact will be most pronounced in the aversion the public will have to touching commonly used devices such as the credit/debit card PIN pad at a checkout counter.
This aversion to using public touch points will no doubt accelerate the use of contactless credit cards with a growing demand for the abandonment altogether of needing to enter a PIN on a numeric pad at the checkout. The death of the PIN has been coming for a long time given that a four-digit numeric code is today seen as one of the weakest forms of security imagined. Code breaking software you can carry in your smartphone can crunch numbers in seconds to defeat PIN codes. It is just that until now, there hasn’t been the impetus to bring about credit card industry wide change especially in an industry that is so large that implementing change is at best, not an easy task.
“SmartMetric sees that Covid-19 will cause a rethink across all areas that have public touch points ushering in a total rethink on how consumers will interact with devices including the processing of their credit card at a checkout," said today Chaya Hendrick, SmartMetric’s President and CEO.
The SmartMetric fingerprint activated dual interface credit and debit cards, having both contact insertion into a card reader along with contactless RFID/NFC wireless reading, use biometrics to provide a much higher level of card security to that of PIN based cards. At the same time the card's enhanced security that stops the card from being able to be used unless there is a 100% fingerprint match with the card user's fingerprint, provides Banks with a much safer card platform. Even the card's RFID/NFC contactless feature is only activated following the biometric fingerprint match.
Using biometrics that are built into the card delivers a quantum leap in card security while now making contactless card payments even safer than the standard credit card. This means that Banks can now rethink the transaction dollar amount limit now in place on contactless credit and debit cards. With a card that can now only be used by the person the card is issued to, contactless “no pin pad touch” transactions can be safely used by the consumer while mitigating card fraud for the Banks.
The global contactless credit/debit card payment market size is expected to grow from USD 10.3 billion in 2020 to USD 18.0 billion by 2025. This is at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.7% during the forecast period according to report published by the research group, MarketsandMarkets 1.
SmartMetric is ready to move aggressively forward in making available its new card to card issuing Banks around the world, in association with its global banking partners.
SmartMetric is a USA based company with sales and marketing partnerships in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Engineering of the biometric card electronics is done in-house and is the owned intellectual property of the company.
To view the SmartMetric Biometric Card please follow this link - Video of the SmartMetric Biometric Card. To view the company website: www.smartmetric.com.
1 MarketsandMarkets™ provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies’ revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets™ for their pain points around revenues decisions.
Safe Harbor Statement: Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Also such forward-looking statements are within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Our actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by us and our management, are inherently uncertain. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among others, if we are unable to access the capital necessary to fund current operations or implement our plans for growth; changes in the competitive environment in our industry and the markets where we operate; our ability to access the capital markets; and other risks discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which filings are available from the SEC. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any of these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable laws. If we update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. Investors and security holders are urged to carefully review and consider each of SmartMetric Inc. public filings with the SEC, including but not limited to, if applicable, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, proxy statements, Current Reports on Form 8-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200515005519/en/
AYTU Healight news. BARDA funding shouldn't be far behind.
Try the other "virus" board. This is for "at home" business opportunities. I.E. Amazon, etc.
N8 Medical Announces its CeraShield™ Coating inhibits COVID-19 Virus Growth on Endotracheal Tubes
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/523679070/n8-medical-announces-its-cerashield-coating-inhibits-covid-19-virus-growth-on-endotracheal-tubes
NEWS PROVIDED BY
N8 Medical
August 11, 2020, 12:45 GMT
Photo of endotracheal tube extubated from patient with COVID-19. Green coloration of the tube is indicative of extensive bacterial fouling.
Reduction in COVID-19 Virus Exposure May Benefit Patients, Doctors and Nurses
DUBLIN, OHIO, UNITED STATES, August 11, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- N8 Medical, LLC, a privately held biotechnology company, today announced that its CeraShield™ coated endotracheal tubes significantly reduced the growth of COVID-19 virus in recent testing. The testing shows statistically significant reduction in the growth of the COVID-19 virus on the tube surface in 60 minutes. Ordinary uncoated endotracheal tubes either allowed increased virus growth or had no inhibitory effect.
“Recent COVID-19 research has shown that the virus is able to adhere to plastic surfaces and is also able to be aerosolized and inhaled by people in close proximity, including doctors and nurses” says Ronald Bracken, President and Chief Operating Officer of N8. Mr. Bracken added “Most endotracheal tubes are made of plastic. COVID-19 patients who become mechanically ventilated will require use of one of these plastic tubes to connect to the mechanical ventilator.”
Ordinary endotracheal tubes lack any antifouling protection. Within hours, these tubes become breeding grounds for biofilms, pathogenic bacteria, fungi and viruses. This often leads to deadly secondary infections that can be multidrug resistant, and other complications.
Dr. Michael Niederman, a leading expert in respiratory infections and a member of N8 Medical’s Scientific Advisory Board stated “Anything that can significantly reduce the presence of pathogens on the surface of an endotracheal tube is a welcome advance that has the potential to reduce a patient’s length of stay, reduce antibiotic and drug use and improve patient’s outcomes. I look forward to the results of clinical studies to evaluate the magnitude of the potential benefit of the CeraShield™ endotracheal tube in COVID-19 patients.”
N8 Medical has previously completed first-in-human clinical trials in non-COVID, mechanically ventilated patients with no adverse effects. Those clinical studies have shown that the CeraShield™ endotracheal tubes were able to completely prevent pathogenic bacterial and fungal biofilm growth of tube surfaces.
A leading market research firm recently awarded N8 Medical’s CeraShield™ endotracheal tube “Product Innovation of the Year” award for its CeraShield™ technology platform for prevention of hospital-acquired infections. FDA has designated the CeraShield™ endotracheal tube as a “breakthrough device.”
The company previously announced that Health Canada has granted Emergency Use Authorization for use of the CeraShield™ endotracheal tube in COVID-19 patients who require mechanical ventilation in Canada. The Company has pending EUA request with the FDA and with the MHRA in the UK. Clinical studies are currently planned in COVID-19 hotspots. Hospitals that have an interest in participating in clinical studies are encouraged to contact N8 Medical at covid@n8medical.com.
ABOUT N8 MEDICAL
N8 Medical, LLC (www.N8Medical.com), headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, is a rapidly-growing, privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company developing a platform of anti-fouling medical devices designed to have significant, life-saving clinical impact through reduction of infection, related complications and mortality. Key publications are available at www.N8Medical.com.
PDSB NEWS OUT >> PDS Biotech Announces Publication of Preclinical Results of PDS0101 Combination by the National Cancer Institute in the Journ...
June 22 2020 - 08:30AM
PDS Biotechnology Corporation (Nasdaq: PDSB), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing novel cancer therapies and infectious disease vaccines based on the Company’s proprietary Versamune® T-cell activating technology, today announced the publication of data generated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) based on preclinical studies of PDS Biotech’s lead clinical program, PDS0101, in combination with two other investigational anti-cancer agents. The article “Immunomodulation to enhance the efficacy of an HPV therapeutic vaccine” by Rumfield et al. was published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, and provides strong rationale for clinical evaluation of this three-component treatment combination in a recently initiated NCI-led Phase 2 clinical trial.
The results of the NCI’s preclinical study indicated that PDS0101 generated both human papillomavirus (HPV)-specific T-cells and an associated antitumor response when used as a monotherapy. When PDS0101 was combined with two other development-stage anti-cancer agents, Bintrafusp alfa (M7824) and NHS-IL12, the data suggest the agents worked synergistically to provide enhanced tumor regression and T-cell response as compared to the agents alone.
Dr. Frank Bedu-Addo, PDS Biotech’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The results of this preclinical study highlight the potential of PDS0101, Bintrafusp alfa (M7824) and NHS-IL12 when administered in combination, to improve treatment outcomes in patients with advanced HPV-associated cancers such as anal, cervical, head and neck and vulvar cancers. We look forward to progressing development of this triple therapeutic combination in the upcoming Phase 2 study in patients with HPV-associated cancers.”
The studies detailed in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer were conducted under an existing Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between PDS Biotech and the NCI. The CRADA includes collaborative development work on both PDS0101 and a second development stage compound, PDS0103.
The full publication can be accessed here.
About PDS Biotechnology
PDS Biotech is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company with a growing pipeline of cancer immunotherapies and infectious disease vaccines based on the Company’s proprietary Versamune® T-cell activating technology platform. Versamune® effectively delivers disease-specific antigens for in vivo uptake and processing, while also activating the critical type 1 interferon immunological pathway, resulting in production of potent disease-specific killer T-cells as well as neutralizing antibodies. PDS Biotech has engineered multiple therapies, based on combinations of Versamune® and disease-specific antigens, designed to train the immune system to better recognize disease cells and effectively attack and destroy them. To learn more, please visit www.pdsbiotech.com or follow us on Twitter at @PDSBiotech.
CYDY $3.68 UP 370% since I alerted it at $1 3 months ago just prior to breaking out. CYDY has been basing for a couple months around $3 moving up late last week. Resistance low $3.8s then its breakout time again. More and more eyes are on cydy's leronlimab c19 drug that is saving lives. Once FDA trials acknowledge the positive life saving attributes it will be a 10-20 bagger from $1 alert. It's coming maybe sooner than we think.
Checkout my ETF ETN board for a few inverse funds.
Hell week might buy the short index ....Everything is crispy burnt
A good one for the "medical" board, next to this one.
For the other "medical" board. This board is for "stay at home" plays. I.e. ZOOM, AMZN, etc.
VENTILATOR Maker??? $BWMG Brownie’s Marine Group’s BLU3 Submits Emergency Use Authorization Request for BLU3 Vent to the FDA as a Top-5 Finalist in DoD Hack-A-Vent Challenge
GlobeNewswire GlobeNewswire•May 22, 2020
Pompano Beach, Florida,, May 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brownie’s Marine Group, Inc. (OTC Pink: BWMG) a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor in the marine industry, today announced that it has been named a Top 5 Finalist in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Vulcan “Hack-a-Ventilator Challenge.” The DoD released a website dedicated to sharing information about the Hack-a-Ventilator project on May 20th, 2020, with the link here: https://www.vulcan-v.com.
In March 2020, the DoD announced the Vulcan Hack-a-Vent Challenge to address the projected ventilator shortage as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Clinicians and engineers at the DoD received 172 submissions and began a rigorous process that within 60 days yielded 5 different scalable ventilator designs that can resuscitate a non-compliant lung. The group of finalists was named the “Vulcan-5” and includes the BLU3 Vent by BLU3, a division of Brownie’s Marine Group, Inc, as well as Corvent by Coridea, i3 Breather by L3 Harris, FieldVent by Northrup Grumman, and NAVSEA PRE-Vent by the U.S. Navy as reported by the DoD. BLU3 has now requested approval for BLU3 Vent from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). BLU3 submitted their Pre-EUA form to the FDA on May 14, 2020 and received initial feedback from the FDA four days later. The feedback includes requests for additional information such as specific graphical test data and descriptions of manufacturing quality systems, among other items. BLU3 is working toward fulfilling the FDA’s request for additional information with the assistance of the Wright Brothers Institute (https://www.wbi-innovates.com) and regulatory compliance consultants from TAMM Net (https://www.tammnet.com).
“We are so proud of our team’s accomplishment to be esteemed with some of the most innovative engineering companies and groups in the world. We entered the Hack-A-Vent challenge to answer a call-to-action from our military to address critical ventilator shortages. Our team of engineers worked tirelessly to reimagine our existing core technology to meet the challenges laid out before them.” said Robert Carmichael, Chairman & CEO of Brownie’s Marine Group, Inc. “BLU3 Vent has been designed to be low-cost and highly manufacturable so that it is feasible for governments to stockpile as Emergency Use Ventilators. We believe that governments should favor a just-in-case stockpiling approach opposed to the traditional just-in-time approach which lead to the ventilator shortages in the first place.”
About Brownie’s Marine Group
Brownie’s Marine Group, Inc., is the parent company to a family of innovative brands with a unique concentration in the industrial, military, and recreational diving industry. The Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, tests, manufactures, and distributes recreational hookah diving, yacht-based scuba air compressors and nitrox generation systems, and scuba and water safety products in the United States and internationally. The Company has three subsidiaries including Trebor Industries, Inc., founded in 1981 and dba as “Brownie’s Third Lung,” BLU3, Inc., and Brownie’s High-Pressure Services, Inc., dba LW Americas. The Company is headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida.
For more information, visit: www.BrowniesMarineGroup.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Rvvtf looks like 30s plus then extremely overbought retracement should have bought last week damn
It moved up nice today though.
I'm working on a refi- instead anyway.
Know anything about SNST?
Rvvtf support in 13s need to break the 19s...
Havent looked at that one
I plan to enter tomorrow. Still hanging onto SHRMF.
Rvv went through double top next stop 30s need to look past the 3yr
I will try I'm at work now lol...
Have some extra time on your hands?
I need some backup DD
PMEDF PREDICT MEDIX
CLOU CLOUD COMPUTING ETF
ERI ELDORADO
RVVTF REVIVE THERAPEUTICS
I'll move this over to the Virus Medical board.
$MYMX CoVid-19 NEWS Mymetics and Baylor College of Medicine start Research Collaboration for Virosome-based Covid-19 Vaccines
ACCESSWIRE FOLLOW
This is the board you want to look at for "medical" plays.
Coronavirus COVID-19 Medical Science Plays
Home medical mask gown plays...And I sold both...Might buy on a dip
Upwork: A New Inflection Point
May 15, 2020
Seeking Alpha
By Gary Alexander
Upwork UPWK shares have doubled since late March, owing to a rise in users and site traffic since the coronavirus began.
Rising unemployment has led many out-of-work job seekers to turn online.
Upwork isn't simply a freelance company; it has brand-name hiring partnerships with companies like Glassdoor.
Revenue growth has accelerated in the wake of the coronavirus, and Upwork's CEO notes that its site saw record visits in April.
Since I last wrote on remote job marketplace Upwork (UPWK) in late March, shares have more than doubled. Back when the market was at its nadir, investors were worried that Upwork's small market cap and niche appeal would render it too weak to survive the pandemic, and investors sold off Upwork like they did many other small-cap stocks. Yet the coronavirus has proven to be a blessing in disguise for Upwork, with the company recording huge volumes of traffic to its site and generating revenue acceleration. In my view, the vastly changed macroeconomic landscape - one that has confined many office workers to their homes, and left many more unfortunate workers without jobs and needing to resort to freelance work to pay the bills - has completely rewritten Upwork's growth trajectory.
Since Upwork's earnings report in early May, the shares have risen more than 50%, and though Upwork is now up year-to-date, the stock is still about 35% below all-time highs near $18 notched shortly after Upwork's IPO in late 2018. It's a good time for investors, in my view, to examine the momentum trade and review the bullish case for Upwork.
My earlier thesis that Upwork would benefit from increased site traffic throughout the pandemic (for which I used Google Trends search data at the time) has largely been confirmed by CEO Hayden Brown's appearance on CNBC this week. In the interview, Brown emphasized that some of the world's biggest employers have turned to Upwork during this critical time, saying:
Companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) come to us looking for talent that they can't find locally that we can supply through our platform, because we've got millions of workers all over the world who are skilled at remote work and are ready to get started."
As a further illustration of how Upwork has integrated itself into mainstream employers and isn't just a freelance site, other marquee corporate partners aside from Microsoft include General Electric (GE), GoDaddy (GDDY), and Automattic, the parent behind the Wordpress blog site. Upwork also partners with a wide slew of smaller businesses as well, and has been focused on remote work for twenty years. Since the coronavirus began, Brown noted that Upwork has been offering consulting to its various corporate customers on how to hire and maintain remote workforces, transforming its role and relationship to employers in the hiring market.
There's a lot to like about Upwork at this juncture - aside from its most recent traffic/revenue trends, Upwork also has strong cash balances and a consistent margin improvements and a low-cost business model that allows for impressive scalability. Plus there's the recent slew of insider buys since March that I detailed in my prior article. And despite the recent rally, Upwork is still cheap. At current share prices near $14, Upwork has a market cap of just $1.60 billion. After netting out the company's $145.3 million of cash and minor $31.3 million of debt on the balance sheet, its enterprise value is $1.49 billion.
For FY20, meanwhile, Wall Street analysts have a consensus revenue target of $336.0 million for Upwork, or +12% y/y (per Yahoo Finance). Considering Upwork's first-quarter 2020 revenue showed acceleration to 21% y/y growth, a 12% y/y growth rate for the full year is likely conservative especially when all signs point to the coronavirus being a tailwind for Upwork's growth. Regardless, even if we simply take this consensus revenue forecast, Upwork trades at a modest 4.4x EV/FY20 revenue. That's substantially below most other companies projected to grow in the ~20% range this year (a high single-digits multiple is more common among ~20% growth comps), especially when we consider the fact that Upwork is perfectly suited to the remote-work environment and is also generating gross margin expansion and free cash flow growth.
Stay long here and ride the upward momentum.
Let's now dig into Upwork's latest quarterly results in greater detail. The earnings summary is shown below:
Source: Upwork Q1 earnings release
Upwork's revenue grew 21% y/y to $83.2 million this quarter, substantially beating Wall Street's forecast of $80.0 million (+17% y/y), and perhaps even more impressively yet, seeing two points of acceleration in revenue growth versus Q4's 19% y/y growth rate - in a quarter when most companies have reported slowing growth.
For Upwork, of course, the coronavirus has been the exact opposite - a tailwind. Per CEO Brown's prepared remarks (key points highlighted) on the Q1 earnings call:
In early to mid-April, we began to surpass pre-crisis levels on numerous client activity metrics and momentum has continued to build. In the last week, for example, we broke our own records by a significant margin on leading indicators such as client registrations and new job posts. While it's still early in these trends, we are optimistic that these leading indicators of future spend will translate, as they typically do, into GSV and revenue. These signals indicate companies have shifted from the triage phase in March to a transition phase in April, as they are now focused on getting work done in new ways as they navigate the opportunities and constraints this crisis has created."
We have to acknowledge that there are still some risks on the horizon, however. Upwork does maintain a meaningful portion of its revenues from small and mid-sized employers, who have in recent times cut back on overall hiring and workforces in an attempt to preserve cash. Upwork has noted that these SMB clients' spend has decreased since March - although clearly, record-setting trends in visitors and job postings have been more than enough to offset higher churn from SMBs.
It's also useful to note that Upwork now has a plan to sustain >20% y/y revenue growth "in the years to come." Companies typically err on the conservative side when giving long-range targets, so the fact that Wall Street consensus only calls for 12% y/y growth this year and 14% y/y in FY21 leaves plenty of room for upside surprises.
Capitalizing on greater economies of scale, Upwork has also increased its gross profit margins this quarter too - up three points to 72% this quarter. This largely is a reflection of the fact that Upwork's "take rate" - or the percentage that it makes from a hiring transaction conducted on its platform - is up 80bps to 14.9% this quarter, from 14.1% in the prior-year Q1, driven by an increase in pricing and the rollout of paid client subscription plans.
Figure 2. Upwork gross margin trends
Upwork's focus on growth to capture market share during a time when the global workforce is focused on remote-work, however, has pushed the company into spending more on sales and marketing. Sales and marketing costs on a pro forma basis (that is, excluding stock comp) rose 50% y/y to $29.8 million, which also drove Upwork's pro forma operating margins down to -3%, versus breakeven in the year-ago quarter. Still, however, investors should be willing to sacrifice a few points of margin in the near-term to accelerate revenue growth and take full advantage of Upwork's recent surge in traffic. To offset some of this increase in marketing, Upwork has also cut travel & entertainment expenses (naturally, like most other companies with sales teams that are now grounded) and slowed down hiring and vendor spend.
In spite of slightly deteriorating operating margins, however, Upwork has still been able to deliver cash flow improvements. Q1 operating cash flows were virtually breakeven at -$1.7 million, versus a -$29.4 million cash burn in last year's Q1. Note, however, that on a full-year basis Upwork has been cash flow positive in each of the last two years; this OCF improvement in kicking off Q1 points to cash flow expansion in the year ahead. And with roughly $130 million in net cash on Upwork's balance sheet, we have no concerns on this company's ability to maintain a sufficient liquidity cushion.
Figure 3. Upwork cash flow trends
Key takeaways
Prior to the coronavirus, most investors regarded Upwork as a rather insignificant company filling an obscure niche for freelance workers. Now, however, remote work has moved into the mainstream - both for freelancers and large corporate employers. Upwork has seen encouraging trends, reporting acceleration in revenue on top of record-setting job postings and site traffic, and has a plan to sustain >20% y/y revenue growth over the next few years. Sitting at a valuation of just under 5x forward revenues despite its positive exposure to the pandemic and remote-work trends, I believe Upwork still has plenty of room to rise higher.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/15/investing/draftkings-earnings/index.html
Live sports are mostly gone, but betting is still big business
By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business
Fri May 15, 2020
DraftKings CEO: People are betting on table tennis and Tiger King during the pandemic
New York (CNN Business)DraftKings recently went public at what would seem to be the worst possible time. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there isn't a heck of a lot of live sports to bet on. So it should come as no surprise that DraftKings just posted a $68.9 million loss for the first quarter.
Although Major League Baseball has yet to start its season and the NBA and NHL have suspended play, gamblers still found other things to place wagers on. DraftKings reported $88.5 million in sales for the quarter, a 30% increase from a year ago. Including the operations of SBTech, a gaming tech company DraftKings bought late last year, sales in the first quarter were more than $113 million.
Gamblers are still betting on plenty of other events, such as virtual NASCAR races and esports tournaments, DraftKings said.
The betting and fantasy sports site has also launched free contests centered around pop culture and news events such as this year's Democratic presidential debates and popular reality TV shows like "Survivor" and" "Top Chef" to keep users engaged.
Investors loved the news. Shares of DraftKings, which soared when it began trading last month following a merger with an already-public special purpose acquisition company, were up more than 12% Friday.
DraftKings stressed that the company expects a surge in sports betting once the big leagues resume live events -— which could be later this summer or fall. There are also no current plans for the National Football League to change its schedule. The season kicks off in September.
The company said in the earnings release that it did not anticipate that the coronavirus outbreak would impact its financial results in 2021 or change its long-term plans.
Bettors have a lot of pent-up demand to watch (and bet on) football as well as any other sporting events that might take place later this year, CEO Jason Robins recently told CNN's Alison Kosik on the "Markets Now" show.
The Masters golf tournament, for example, has been rescheduled to November from April, while the Kentucky Derby, originally planned for May, will take place in September.
DraftKings is also rolling out other features beyond sports betting and fantasy sports leagues. The company just launched online casino games for customers in Pennsylvania, including virtual blackjack, roulette and slot machines.
DraftKings CEO says esports betting shows a ‘pent-up demand’ for sports
FRI, MAY 15 2020
By Tyler Clifford
CNBC
“Esports was really small for us until, you know, about 2 months ago,” DraftKings CEO Jason Robins said.
“Really, it was the only thing for a little while that people were still playing,” he said in a “Mad Money” interview.
“I think what it shows you is there’s a lot of pent-up demand for sports,” he said.
DraftKings CEO: eSports betting has seen ‘huge growth’ during coronavirus pandemic. Sports bettors turned to video games after sporting events across the spectrum were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins told CNBC’s Jim Cramer Friday.
“Esports was really small for us until, you know, about 2 months ago,” Robins said in a “Mad Money” interview. “Really, it was the only thing for a little while that people were still playing.”
Net revenue grew 30% year over year to $89 million, the company said in a press release.
The NBA season was cut short in March as multiple players contracted Covid-19, the disease caused by a coronavirus, as the virus began to sweep across the country. Soon after the MLB, whose season typically kicks off in late March and early April, postponed Opening Day, and the NHL put its own season on hold as states limited public gatherings in efforts to get a handle on the novel virus.
“Esports has stuck,” Robins explained. “It’s been a huge growth area over the last couple months for us and [it’s] hard to say what it will look like once the traditional sports are back, but I think a lot of people are finding it fun.”
Players like DraftKings and Penn National in the budding sports betting industry took a hit and were forced to improvise operations because of the cancellations. DraftKings, which became public in April during the outbreak’s height in the U.S., pivoted to creating more web content and supporting a budding industry in competitive gaming.
DraftKings did record numbers during the NFL Draft last month and strong results during Ultimate Fighting Championship events, Robins said. The company is anticipating the return of Nascar and other sports in the near future as states ease quarantine orders.
“I think what it shows you is there’s a lot of pent-up demand for sports,” Robins said. “People are hungry for sports to come back.”
Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and Virginia have legalized online sports betting, while more than a dozen other states are mulling legislation.
On an earnings call earlier that day, Robins said the intersection of the digital sports entertainment and gaming arenas has an addressable market projected to be at least $30 billion in the U.S. That includes online sports betting, fantasy sports and iGaming, he said.
He added that esports and other budding betting markets could grow exponentially. In the midst of stay-at-home orders across the country, DraftKings developed engaging content for esports events, including simulated Nascar and Madden football games. People are also placing bets on Korean baseball, which has made a return in a dearth of live events.
It’s a matter of getting customers to try something new, Robins told Cramer.
“We actually just added live streaming for table tennis so people can watch it now while they’re betting on it,” he said.
The company also said it does not expect that Covid-19 will impact plans it has for 2021 or its long-term vision.
Since coming public April 24, DraftKing shares have surged more than 42%. The stock spiked more than 15% to $29.23 Friday after the company reported earnings that morning.
Job Market Stocks Poised to Soar Once the Back to Work Order is Cleared
Insider Financial
By Chris Sandburg
May 15, 2020
The jobs numbers were the catastrophe everybody was expecting. The period between the second week of March and the second week of April — was the worst month for American workers at least since the Great Depression and possibly in the history of our great nation. With the abundance of qualified individuals who are out of work, it appears that employment service-related companies are geared to take advantage of this once in a century opportunity.
With the potential for much of the economy to reopen in the coming months, at least some portion of America’s laid-off workers will likely be called back to work. Yet layoffs could also rise again if state and local governments are forced to reduce their staffing or if a second wave of infections forces another round of shutdowns later this year.
Against that backdrop, what is the state of America’s job market, and what PubCo’s will benefit moving forward? Here are some questions and answers:
WHAT DOES THE DECLINE IN JOBLESS CLAIMS SIGNIFY?
Last week, 3.2 million people sought unemployment aid, down from all-time high of 6.9 million at the end of March. The new record level that was set in March was 10 times the previous high. Some economists see the decline in applications for unemployment aid as a sign that the job market may at least be bottoming out. With state wallets burning through funds to keep an influx of capital to their unemployed residents, a push for getting these individuals back to work and seeking employment will be their first priority even though most states Department of Labor (DOL) state on the weekly qualification for unemployment benefits, they do NOT need to seek work (usually 3 inquiries a week) due to COVID-19 and most states are still on one form of lockdown restrictions or another.
After the return to work order comes, people with gravitate toward employment platforms like the Indeed.com’s, CareerBuilder.com’s (majority owned by Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), Monster.com’s and growing social media platform LinkedIn.com (acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) in Dec of 2016 for $26.2 Billion) to assist in getting out their resume and finding work. We will call this Phase 1 of recovery on the employment front.
UTILIZING STAFFING AGENCIES AS WE ALL GO BACK, A QUICK FIX?
As states “reopen” amid historically high unemployment, agencies devoted to helping people find jobs are still operating, often remotely. Many are continuing to counsel clients and help with job placements. Staffing agencies are also meeting with job seekers on an as-needed, appointment only basis.
Companies we found in this space include UpWork Inc. (NASDAQ: UPWK), Robert Half Int. (NYSE: RHI), Insperity Inc. (NYSE: NSP), HireQuest (NASDAQ: HQI) and Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY). All of these companies have already seen around a 100% price increase since the bubble pop in mid-March.
UpWork was as low as $5.43/share on March 18, 2020 and as of Wednesday May 13, it was trading at $13.48/share (+148% last 7 weeks) — Very Impressive. The others have bounced significantly also, but still have quite a gap to fill before they reach their February of this year’s highs. An example: Robert Half was as high as $60/shares in late Feb., fell as low as $32.75 on March 23rd and now back in the $46 range. Insperity, a similar chart, was trading in the low $70’s in February, as low as $22.29 March 18th, has roared back to $50+ a share. Korn Ferry followed suit trading in the $42 range in February, as low as $21.60 March 23rd, and at $27+ now. As well as these companies have corrected, increased demand in the 2nd half of 2020 could result in testing those February 2020 highs in the near future.
Job Recruiter
EMPLOYMENT REBOOT, DON’T FORGET TO RECRUIT?
Job recruiters and recruiting websites and platforms are another layer of the job market sector that should see potentially an overwhelming boost. Companies like Recruiter.com (OTCMKTS: RCRT), Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS: RCRRF) and other agencies will be busy in the later part of this year.
Recruitment is a positive process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for the jobs in the organization, also known as head hunting.
Recruiter.com, an online global recruiting service that offers an industry-leading job market technology platform has a highly engaged membership base, and also works with hundreds of clients and employers. On March 19th, the company’s stock was at a low of $1.20 but has since found its way back to $2.50/share today.
Background Checks
HR MANAGERS READY FOR SCREENING, ONBOARDING AND BACKGROUND CHECKS?
Now that employers have found their candidates from the pool, the next phase will begin — Getting these future employees into the system, but not with proper screening, background checking and eventual onboarding.
Intel365 CEO Crispin Cruz commented,
“When Hiring Managers call, we are going to pick up, treat them as if they are our top enterprise clients and assign them a representative for their account.”
Onboarding and TAT (TurnAround Time) seems to be the hyper focus of Human Resource managers at the moment. When it comes to screening and background checks, the expectations are a 24-48 turnaround time. Having access to data, insights, and best practices pertaining to an array of areas affecting today’s workplace environments is key including contingent worker screening, identity verification, drug screening, continuous monitoring, and social media checks.
Intel365, recently acquired by Xalles Holdings (OTCMKTS: XALL), finds themselves competing for their slice of the pie in the market sector where majority share for screenings are taken by companies such as HireRight (merged with GIS in 2018), First Advantage (to be acquired by Silver Lake for $1.5 billion) and SterlingCheck.com (officially Sterling Infosystems Inc).
Some of the larger players have seemed to lose that personal touch and shift focus more on keeping their enterprise accounts happy. Along with failure to appeal to the small business, some have found themselves in hot water in the past with compliance issues. HireRight was the subject of a number of class-action and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) lawsuits. In 2011 the company paid $28 million to plaintiffs who accused HireRight of failing to provide copies of reports to job applicants and failing to resolve disputes. Background-check company Sterling Infosystems Inc. also had to pay $8.5 million and make policy changes to resolve a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit accusing it of violating the rights of roughly 7,100 job seekers. First Advantage is dealing with a similar class action in motion where more information can be found here.
“We have yet to be fined, and still give that personal touch”, added Intel365’s Cruz. “Being client centric is our mission with Human Resource managers as they require candidates to move fluidly through the process. When running a screen, only about 10% come back with issues. Unfortunately, by time these checks come back, the candidate has already gone through multiple interviews expelling valuable time and resources, although it’s less cost effective for employers to do these checks prior to interviewing.”
INVESTMENT SUMMARY
As you can see, many of these companies have seen dramatic rebounds, as almost all stocks, since the initial March meltdown, but if you are looking for speculative growth, the job market sector looks like a good one as the need for their services will be in demand as the country recovers. Many companies are still much lower than their February highs and can bring healthy returns if and when they reach that milestone again. Smaller companies like Xalles’ have positioned themselves with smart timely acquisitions like Intel365 who are estimated to generate $500,000 in revenue this year and quadruple that to $2,000,000 in 2021 according to recent press.
If layoffs, furloughs and unemployment were not enough, adding to the mix are all the college students shifting to the workforce rather than drowning themselves in student debt. With many universities already notifying students that classes will be done via Zoom classroom (NASDAQ: ZM), they are finding it exceedingly difficult to justify spending tens of thousands of dollars on streaming classes.
Which one? Both?
Are these "at home" plays or "medical virus specific" plays?
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