You may be right, JT, as I am mainly looking at the stock action over the last month and trying to arrive at a rational explanation for it.
From August 8 where the stock closed at 2.45 it has fallen 25%, with 10% decline since the August 31 close at 2.04. However, the average daily trading volume over that period was only 60k shares a day (excluding todays 232k shares traded), with the highest trade day being 124k on August 9. That's not a whole lot of volume and today's high volume reversal is significant IMO.
I can make a rational argument that after delivery of the first 15 robots and the discovery of a problem that caused them to stop future deliveries, this information was known to a significant number of people (franchisees who are also shareholders, employees of VEND and their partner companies, etc) and led to some people selling shares - not that many but more than enough to offset the daily buying volume and result in a declining share price.
The August 28 PR made public the halt of prior shipments, and noted that deliveries were starting again. However the 30+ day hiatus is going to have an effect on quarterly revenue and likely saw some holders selling, possibly with the intent of buying in later at a lower price. (I considered doing that but decided to just hold and see what news might be forthcoming in the interim.)
The buying late in the day today could be an indication that things are back on track, which is good news. Maybe I'm just looking through rose-colored glasses or I'm a born optimist, but I've talked this week with a franchisee who received one of the early machines and they are happy with the performance improvements and already working with the Compass Group to secure additional locations.
All just my personal and humble opinion.
Alvie
