Lumera Ready to Pop
Source: www.antandsons.com
February 13, 2007
Lumera Corp. (NASDAQ: LMRA) has attracted a lot of bottom fishers hoping that the stock would gain some traction to the upside after basing above the $4 level since early February. Lumera was first put on the radar in October of last year when it announced that it completed successful testing of its millimeter wave wireless bridge. Lumera said the system will allow the transmission of "vast amounts of data via a variety of high speed telecommunications networks." Yet, shares just went ice cold, peaking after November earnings news in which the company reported losses for the third quarter and announced a $17 million private placement.
In December, the company updated investors on its wireless bridge, saying that it successfully tested data rates from 2.5 gigabits per second (Gbps) to 10 Gbps and is still trying to create a commercial-ready product. Lumera is also working with Harvard Medical School researchers to build discovery and diagnostic methods with Lumera's Proteomic Processor biosensor relevant to cancer research. More recently, the company announced in January that it was showcasing the new design of its ProteomicProcessor at PepTalk, a week long conference on protein research being held in San Diego. According to Lumera officials, the new design is the result of feedback from drug discovery scientists at several biopharmaceutical companies with whom the company has ongoing discussions.
Could Lumera perhaps strike a partnership with these companies? It is a possibility, but the company has been real quiet. Certainly, though, any update on their research and development activities would likely go a long way in spurring shares that have not seen a lot of interest lately. A move in share price is also likely to be amplified by the massive short position in Lumera shares. Current data shows there are about 3.37 million shares short, nearly 35% of the company's public float of 9.48 million shares. Perhaps that is why there has been a few spikes higher this week as short sellers begin to cover their positions before there is any impetus to push the stock higher.
