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Thanks, appreciate the links. The OTC website reports short interest but is late in reporting - last date was 12/14/18 whereas FINRA has 1/15/19.
Where do you get weekly short interest? Is it available on a weekly basis for other stocks also?
Thanks,
Alvie
Using 3rd Q adjusted earnings per share of 0.14 x 4 = 0.56/share annually, and the current $7.29, the P/E is 13 - relatively low. See what 4th Q earnings come in at - anticipated Feb 14.
Considering 3rd Q gold prices were on the low side, projected earnings could support a higher share price in 2019, IMO.
Agree, but the big buyers aren't relying on stock board information. These posts are mostly for our own amusement, IMO.
Alvie
If you go to the following link it will show the MM's and their bid/ask in real time.
VEND MM's
You can follow their changes as buys and sells occur (if you want/can spend time doing that. It provides insight into the market workings, imo.
That's the way it is with small company stocks that are still trying to establish themselves. Once you accept that as a fact, not that you have to like it, you'll realize that is how the market works. The MM's who are the middlemen in buying and selling are looking to make the maximum profit for themselves and are the 'manipulators', not the company. The company can be complicit, of course, in the way they handle their public relations and other matters. And there will always be day traders and short sellers who are looking to make a buck, especially with startups and the volatility of their stock.
With regard to VEND specifically, I believe they needed to come to some assessment of their current situation, which is why they haven't had a PR until today, and this is just another small step along the way, although a very positive one in my mind.
BTW, with respect to an earlier post of yours where you accused the company of selling stock into the market directly to raise cash, that isn't how the market works. The company can issue stock to accredited investors through a public offering in order to raise funds, but they don't sell directly into the market.
Looks like VEND is beginning to break out of its doldrums - now at 0.63 with some 170,000 shares bought and less than 10,000 sold....
NEW PR FROM YATES:
San Diego, CA -- January 24, 2019 -- InvestorsHub NewsWire -- Generation Next Franchise Brands (OTCQB: VEND):
Dear Shareholder,
Over the past few weeks, our operations team in partnership with the developers at Stoelting, Rethink, e2c, and Nayax have made tremendous improvements in the reliability and operation of the Reis & Irvy’s kiosk. We’ve seen less soft-serve errors reported, a decrease in credit card payments being declined, and an increased ability to operate unattended.
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Please see below a letter from local San Antonio franchisee Joey Buccellato, who operates a kiosk at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. This past weekend, his kiosk broke a record for sales achieved with a total of 816 sales made in less than three days of operation.
Team,
I would love to tell you about an event I attended this weekend at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. PAX South is an annual gaming convention that is held in San Antonio each year and usually draws crowds of 25-35 thousand people per day for a three-day event. Young and old flock to this convention to sample newly developed games, play trading card games like Magic, and try out the multitude of new gaming gear before it hits the market.
This was also a great venue for the Reis & Irvy's Froyo kiosk. The high-tech robotics, animated cartoon, and tasty frozen yogurt treat was exactly what these folks were looking for. Each day from the time the doors opened until 14 hours later when the doors closed there was a constant line at the Reis & Irvy's kiosk. Often times conventioneers waited 30 and 40 minutes to order their froyo treat and never a complaint was heard all day long. Day one netted 270 vends with cylinder recovery, consistency, and portion sizes all on target. Day two astounded us with a record 340 sales, again with no issues. Day three concluded with 191 sales and the only reason we didn't do more is because we ran out of product two hours before closing time. Our three-day total was 801 vends!
Robo 1, as she is called, was a true "Beast". She managed to do all that work and still entertain and put smiles on so many faces. Most people that stepped up to purchase from our kiosk had a cell phone in hand to video and upload to Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook as well as share with their family and friends.
If I were allowed one complaint it would be that approximately four feet up the kiosk, I had to constantly wipe finger and forehead prints off the glass where some of the customers felt they needed to be that close to the action to enjoy the experience.
If you have any feedback for me it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Joey Buccellato
KLN Vending Solutions
________
19 Degrees Corporate Service, LLC
We have secured a total of 65 locations for the new 19 Degrees Corporate Service,LLC (“19 Degrees”). In the last week, 40 units of the LLC have been purchased by franchisees looking to switch over to the passive opportunity. Some franchisees have offered their equipment which is already operating in the field, which the fund will take over immediately. Some franchisees have offered locations already secured but not yet installed to the fund. This is helping the fund grow organically. As long as there are no other franchisees close in distance to the locations provided or secured by the company, then it makes nothing but sense for us to get kiosks installed and continue to grow this brand.
If any prospective investors would like more information on the fund, I have emails drafted that offer the following;
· Operating documents
· List of 65 locations by category, foot traffic, and geography.
The best way to become educated is to peruse the docs then set up a call with me for Q&A.
A brief overview of how this works.
Dannon will be providing marketing and promotional assistance to all the units operated by 19 Degrees as well as producing for us an aseptically packaged liquid frozen yogurt consumable that does not require any refrigeration. Dannon will also be working with us to promote flavor profiles, host sampling events and market the product for the sake of maximizing sales at each of the locations we install. CSA Service Solutions will be operating each kiosk placed anywhere within the US and we are working towards a bundled package with them allowing for a flat-fee per unit. Yesterday Dannon and CSA spent the day in our office planning the execution of this new model. We are incredibly excited to take advantage of the locations we secure in territories that don’t have franchisees close enough to operate. We will also have a “franchisee first” policy for all locations secured in-house.
We selected the name “19 Degrees” because it is the optimal temperature for serving frozen yogurt and we believe that we have found the optimal model for advancing our innovative automated retail technology while reducing risk and maximizing returns to investors.
Investors will receive membership Units in the LLC. The number Units issued by the LLC will equal the number of robotic soft serve vending kiosks (“Robots”) that the LLC owns. Net Cash Receipts from all Robots will be distributed to the holders of Units based on the number of Units held on a quarterly basis. All Unit holders must be accredited investors.
To conclude,
Getting the technology perfect, having the best people committed to building it, building in volume, and securing the best real estate are the keys to our long-term growth. We have seen what happens when we install a kiosk that operates without failure and within a top tier location. It’s incredible! More of that is the our top priority. In order to achieve this, we have spent the last couple of months reevaluating many of our relationships so we can provide all shareholders with a clearer and much more conservative path in 2019.
I have also brought in some C-Level consultants who I will introduce to you all in the coming weeks. These are operational professionals with very successful track records of assisting small companies like ours and taking them to the next level.
Early next week, the Company also expects to issue a follow-up statement regarding its supply chain which will include production estimates through August 2019 and an explanation about why deliveries have been slower than previously anticipated.
As always, thank you all for your support
NickYates
CEO / Chairman
Thanks, it's always refreshing to hear from a franchisee and investor.
I agree with you that the company is not a scam but am withholding judgement on the management as I continue to believe the major problem is with the manufacturer of the units, FLEX. As far as VEND being able to absorb 150 units a month, remember that these, and many more, have already been sold and locations are just awaiting delivery - it doesn't require going out and selling 5 new ones a day to take delivery of the 5 machines a day.
Looks like a major buyer to me. Buyers of large blocks will often use a broker working with a market maker (MM) to accumulate enough shares and then sell them to a buyer as a block of shares at a set price (won't show up as a lot of trades at various prices.) Two large blocks and two smaller ones went through at 0.60 and totaled nearly 150,000 shares (57,000, 13,000, 7000 and 72,800 shares, respectively.)
JMO, Alvie
I know how you feel, Sonata, as I'm underwater also, and I don't have any specifics except that I believe in the long term viability of VEND and that the downturn in the stock price is likely the result of delivery problems by FLEX. When (not IF in my mind) they get those resolved, the stock price should go back up, maybe not as dramatic as last year's increase because buyers will likely be more cautious this time around.
JMO, Alvie
NITE (Virtus Americas), the MM who is known for working with the shorts, just let 24,000 shares go at 0.58 (short covering?). Should now begin to go back up if there is legitimate buying.
JMO, Alvie
Just an observation about short interest in VEND:
After bottoming out at 277501 shares short on 10/31/18 (per OTC Markets info), short interest increased by 85k shares between then and 12/14/18, with nearly 70k of those shorts happening in early December when the stock price was still above $1. At the current price of ~$0.60, those 70k shares have a potential profit of ~$28k.
It's conceivable that there has been some covering lately at 0.6-0.7 per share. As someone else noted there have been several large blocks bought recently with no increase in the ask price - rather unusual in normal trading activity. The same was true yesterday with an MM known for being involved with the shorts letting relatively large blocks go through with no increase in the ask.
Would be interesting to know the current short interest but OTC usually has a delay of a month in publishing that number (last number was 363,040 as of 12/14/18, some month+ ago.) If anyone has another source of short interest please note it.
Alvie
I assume you mean "If they don't make it with FLEX..."
Not sure of that. If they see the writing on the wall and begin doing their homework with another manufacturer the transition could be rather seamless - not painless but seamless. JMO
I have no idea at this time whether FLEX is ramping up their production (best case) or are still below their promised delivery level. I guess we won't know until the company announces something, which I would hope could come relatively soon. They certainly must know at this time whether the December deliveries met the target they stated in their Dec 10 shareholder update of 187 units installed by year end, and whether FLEX is building toward the 150 units/month previously promised for early 2019..
I believe that VEND's current problems are a reflection of manufacturing problems at FLEX, not just with VEND but also with other of their customers. FLEX stock increased continuously during 2016 and 2017, reaching some $18/share at end 2017. During 2018 it declined continuously and is currently around $8. During this past year they have had problems with NIKE, eventually discontinuing operations at their plant in Mexico and taking a loss of $30++ million (possibly as large as $100MM). They have also had problems at their operations in India and the CEO of FLEX retired recently.
If VEND can't improve their deliveries from FLEX, I believe they should look for another supplier of their robots, which shouldn't be too difficult given the current state of the economy.
JMO - Alvie
Haven't been in contact with anyone who might know something. The company doesn't need to officially announce 2nd quarter results for 45 days (mid-February) but did announce some 1st quarter results Oct 2 with total installations and franchisees and cash and other items, so not sure why no PR about 2nd quarter operational results.
Pretium Resources Inc. (TSX/NYSE:PVG) (“Pretivm” or the “Company”) reports that it has retained independent legal counsel to initiate an investigation of unusual trading activity in its shares.
Another of those relatively low volume days where the MM's are in charge - nearly 45,000 shares bought in the last 2 hours of trading and the MM's only moved the ask from 0.6999 to 0.7....go figure!!
Pretium Resources Inc. (TSX/NYSE:PVG) (“Pretivm” or the “Company”) reports full year and fourth quarter 2018 gold production results and summary for its underground Brucejack Mine.
Fourth Quarter 2018 Production Summary
96,342 ounces of gold produced
Full Year 2018 Production Summary
376,012 ounces of gold produced
Fourth Quarter 2018 Company Highlights
Repurchased 100% of the construction financing 8% precious metals stream for US$237 million
Closed US$480 million bank debt facility to refinance construction credit facility
Received amended permits to increase production to 3,800 tonnes per day
Ended the quarter after repurchasing the stream with a cash position over US$45 million as of December 31, 2018
“We ended 2018 on a successful note with the closing of the bank debt facility, repurchase of our precious metals stream, payout of our construction credit facility, receipt of amended permits to increase production to 3,800 tonnes per day and production of over 376,000 ounces of gold, all in our first calendar year of production which included six months of ramp up,” said Pretivm President & CEO Joseph Ovsenek. “Our successes can be attributed to the hard work of our team and the consistent profitability of the high-grade Brucejack Mine - the cornerstone of our plan to build Pretivm as a Tier 1 Canadian gold producer.”
2018 Gold Production at Brucejack
Commercial production commenced at the Brucejack Mine in July 2017, with ramp-up continuing into the first half of 2018 and steady-state production achieved in July 2018. Key advances over the course of mining in 2018 have included the implementation in the first quarter of the grade control program into short-term mine planning.
Mr. Ovsenek continued “As we have discussed in the past, the high variability of the gold mineralization throughout the Valley of the Kings deposit is a key characteristic of the Brucejack Mine and gold production is managed with grade control, the sequence of the mine plan and the availability of stopes for optimal grade blending. As we continue to generate significant cash flow, we will build on what we have learned mining the gold mineralization at the Valley of the Kings over the first six quarters of production to further refine our grade control program and mining methods in order to reduce dilution and optimize grade to the mill.”
During the fourth quarter, the grade control program over-called actual mill production of 96,342 ounces of gold, resulting in the mine producing 188,983 ounces of gold for the second half of 2018, or 95% of gold production guidance of 200,000 ounces. The grade control program will continue to be refined over the coming quarters to improve short-term grade estimation and predictability. The mine produced 376,012 ounces of gold for the full year 2018, achieving 97% of gold production guidance of 387,000 ounces.
A review of mining methods is underway to potentially reduce dilution and development costs with the use of longitudinal long-hole stoping.
2019 Catalysts
A specific timeline for ramp-up to the 3,800 tonnes per day production rate, along with production and cost guidance for 2019 is expected later in the quarter. Minor mill upgrades to support the production rate increase are required and will be completed during regularly scheduled mill shutdowns.
Grade reconciliation for 2018 and updated Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates for the Brucejack Mine will be provided later this quarter or early next quarter.
Lyle Morgenthaler, B.A.Sc., P.Eng., Chief Mine Engineer, Pretium Resources Inc. is the Qualified Person (“QP”) responsible for Brucejack Mine development. Warwick Board, Ph.D., P.Geo, Pr.Sci.Nat., Vice President, Geology and Chief Geologist, Pretium Resources Inc. is the QP responsible for the Brucejack Mine grade control program and the Brucejack Mine exploration drilling.
Fourth Quarter 2018 Operational and Financial Results – Webcast and Conference Call
Pretivm plans to release its fourth quarter and year-end 2018 operational and financial results after market close on Thursday, February 14, 2019. The webcast and conference call to discuss these results will take place Friday, February 15, 2019 at 8:00 am PT (11:00 am ET).
Don't know what impact it has on investors in VEND. Seems to be more aimed at franchisees and qualified investors, e.g. those with net worth over $1MM - are you thinking of investing in the LLC? If a franchisee wants to commit a unit or units to the LLC and become a passive investor instead of an active one, that's his or her decision.
If it accelerates the recognition of revenue by VEND, that would be good. As they stated previously, the corporate machines will be located in areas not currently covered by the franchisee territory agreements so they won't be in competition with them.
JMO after a casual reading earlier this morning - haven't had any clarification by anyone.
Alvie
MM's dropped the bid this morning after about 20,000 shares sold. Late day buys of 25,000 shares couldn't get the ask back up to where it had been.
Thanks, DDR, and Happy New Year to you and all the posters on VEND. It's been a tumultuous year, to say the least, with many ups and downs. Here's hoping that 2019 has more ups than downs and that the stock gains some traction soon. Waiting on an indication of whether R&I met their latest year end installation goal of 187 units.
Alvie
Great. Thanks for taking the time to share.
Thanks, GordonFG, good response. I'm assuming the '25 cups per day' is just giving a minimum and not a number you see as a 'target'. Based on your experience and what you know from other franchisees, do you have a target number you feel is realistic for after getting a machine up and running satisfactorily?
VANCOUVER, Dec. 21, 2018 /CNW/ - Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSX: NDM; NYSE American: NAK) ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") reports that, further to its press release of December 11, 2018, it has completed a first tranche closing of the fundraising through a private placement of 8,908,322 Special Warrants at a price of C$0.83 (US$0.62) per Special Warrant, for gross proceeds of approximately C$7.4 million (US$5.6 million). The Company expects to close the second tranche of 2,382,000 Special Warrants imminently, for total aggregate offering proceeds of approximately C$9.4 million (US$7 million).
In response to questions about today's PR, the company sent the following via Sean Paul, IR:
"This rollout was a real world field test for Flex and Pitney Bowes. Both of them being multi billion dollar companies responsible for producing, delivering and servicing the machines that Generation Next sells. The following was discovered during the 90 days.
1) Key weakness in the machines design were identified and multiple design enhancements and software upgrades were implemented to resolve all issues experienced in the field.
2) Both delivery and service protocols by Pitney Bowes were changed to increase delivery capabilities and enhance customer experience to address the increase in orders in 2018
This test also indicated that average price per cup over 100,000 servings sold was 4.61 per cup. The current cost per cup is 1.12. (311% profit margin)"
Also, although somewhat vague, I was told that 50 machines at a time were offline for upgrades at various times through this 90 day period. Average cups sold per day per operational machine was about 34 with some machines seeing sales as high as 100 in a day. This average includes machines prior to the upgrade as well as machines post-upgrade (my conclusion).
The IR contact I have is Sean Paul at 858-322-4449. He is happy to talk with any investor (or potential investor, I believe.)
Good post, DDR. Thanks for calling the company and reporting back. A few comments:
Art Budman was hired as CEO but was recently (~2 months ago) made CFO with Yates assuming CEO duties. My impression from listening to Budman is that he is more of a 'numbers' guy and seems of low energy, which may be why he was replaced. I'm not sure why he considers himself to be IR because they have an outside agency handling Investor Relations whose responsibility it is to communicate with investors and handle investor questions. Having said that, though, you probably got more information from Budman than you could have gotten from IR.
Regarding the machine in the Seeking Alpha article, the photo is undated but looks more like the early post-installation time. I live near an installation in Houston and have visited it several times and have talked with the franchisee. It was one of the first 15 machines installed last summer and initially had calibration problems with the robot arm and problems with the toppings not falling properly. Both problems were corrected fairly soon after installation, at least on a temporary basis, with permanent fixes following and the cups now load properly and the toppings have very little 'scatter'. The machine has never been down when I have been there and the various yogurts have all been delicious - vanilla, chocolate, raspberry sorbet and pumpkin spice at various times. The franchisee is currently working to install a second kiosk at a major company in Houston having several thousand employees whose food service is provided by Compass.
Also, a franchisee who has the Cincinnati area has posted favorably on Investors Hub. I believe in his last post he said he was expecting his third machine the day after Christmas.
In my mind this is the key 'proof' time - getting to the 187 installations Yates mentioned in his Dec 10 PR and then going into the New Year at a 150/mo installation rate. If they do that I believe it will show they have overcome the major installation problems and can achieve solid revenue numbers.
From my discussion with Nick Yates, which I posted Dec 14, (https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=145447305)), one of the significant items was what I related in the last paragraph about the two new outside directors, who both appear to be well-connected and successful:
"Finally, I asked about whether the two new outside directors had been engaged with company activities and Nick was very positive about contributions by both of them. Ms. Lavaille Lavette has been instrumental in their relationship with Walmart and Mr. Chris Maudlin, as Chairman of the Audit Committee, approves [probably should have said 'reviews'] all company Press Releases as well as other financial information. "
I'm not talking about selling to offset a gain in VEND stock, but say you had bought Apple at $100/share and sold this year for $200/share. You would have a large tax bill on the gain. This could be offset somewhat if you bought VEND at $2 and now sell for a loss, especially if you didn't have faith in VEND's long term potential, of even if you believed in it's long term potential you might plan on buying back in after the 30 day loss period. Just thinking here at tax time....
Could well be tax loss selling by those who bought higher, to offset gains in other stocks....
150/month is ~7/day for a 22 work day month, or only 5/day for a 24/7 month. I don’t know how Flex operates but I believe either is feasible and don’t see a problem with Flex producing 150 kiosks a month. Did you see the picture from earlier this year of their production facility?
That’s 150/month, not per day.
No contact at Flex but relying on what Yates said in his PR and reconfirmed in the conversation I had with him that once 150/mo is confirmed for both manufacture and installation that Flex can and will open a second production line.
Pretium Resources Inc.: Brucejack Approved for Production Increase to 3,800 tonnes per day
Pretium Resources Inc. (TSX/NYSE:PVG) (“Pretivm” or the “Company”) is pleased to report that it has received the amended permits to increase the Brucejack Mine production rate to 3,800 tonnes per day from the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
The amended permits allow for a production increase to an annual rate of 1.387 million tonnes from 0.99 million tonnes (daily average of 3,800 tonnes from 2,700 tonnes).
Minor mill upgrades (estimated to cost less than CAD$25 million) to support the production rate increase are required and will be completed during regularly scheduled mill shutdowns. A specific timeline for ramp-up to the 3,800 tonnes per day production rate along with an updated mine plan is expected in the first quarter of next year.
December 13, 2018
I spoke with Nick Yates today, Chairman and CEO of Generation Next, and he was very gracious in answering my questions and agreeing that I could post our conversation to the IH VEND thread and otherwise distribute it. Below is a summary of our conversation:
(1). I asked how certain they were that the problems with the robot kiosks had been resolved and whether FLEX could indeed manufacture and deliver units at the rate of 150/month beginning in January. Nick related how the problems detailed in the Dec 10 PR had been overcome as well as resolving problems with the fan placements by moving one of the fans further from the temperature detection device. Additionally, those changes have been incorporated in the units FLEX is manufacturing and they have delivered 17 units in just the last 48 hours, lending confidence to the 150/month ability to deliver beginning in January. New payment methods are also being incorporated into the units which will be an improvement.
(2). As far as Corporate owned kiosks, the first ones will be installed in January and they are targeted for markets where there is no current franchisee so as to not be in competition with them. The company continues to seek partnerships with national retail chains and Nick confirmed that his Monday meeting, the one that necessitated the cancellation of the shareholder meeting, was with Walmart in Arkansas. They will be delivering a kiosk to Walmart in January for testing by them. They are also pursuing other national retail agreements and Kroger stores was one of those mentioned.
(3). We discussed details of the current private placement designed to raise up to $5 million for research, purchase of corporate kiosks and working capital, which would result in the issuance of some 9MM additional shares of stock (including the transfer of shares from investors who had taken the $1.50 private placement offer previously) if fully subscribed. Nick believes it will be substantially less because the company may not require that much capital and they are not vigorously pursuing the placement.
(4). Regarding Flavor Burst and Compass Group (Canteen), of which nothing had been mentioned about the latter recently, Nick confirmed that Flavor Burst will be ready for installation by the end of January and that Canteen was still active in securing locations for placement of the kiosks. After a localized testing by Canteen, they have been given the authority to go nationwide with location placements.
(5). Finally, I asked about whether the two new outside directors had been engaged with company activities and Nick was very positive about contributions by both of them. Ms. Lavaille Lavette has been instrumental in their relationship with Walmart and Mr. Chris Maudlin, as Chairman of the Audit Committee, approves all company Press Releases as well as other financial information.
It was sent out to investors by text message. I watched it and posted it. Should be available to you through the link I posted - Penn Testimonial.
New "Infomercial":
Penn Testimonial
Or the traders don't expect positive news within the next couple of weeks and are selling now intending to buy back at a lower price later.
From the Dec 11, 2018 PR:
"Northern Dynasty, through the Pebble Limited Partnership, is currently advancing the Pebble Project through the Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") permitting process and notes that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have published an estimated January 2019 release date for the draft EIS on their Pebble Project EIS website. The Company remains committed to its goals of repositioning and re-partnering the Pebble Project."