"During Katrina it ran to $30"
Smells a lot like a pump-n-dump game ...
To set the record straight: IPII reached a historic high of $29.50 on Aug 4, 2005, after having been run up in parabolic fashion by nearly 100% from the beginning of July, 2005. That run marked the blowoff of the housing bubble. Hurricane Katrina did not form until Aug 23. IPII had fallen from that $29.50 high to mid-20s by the time Katrina hit. And continued to fall in the immediate wake of Katrina, during the time the post-Katrina construction contracts were being handed out, and from there on to here.
Meanwhile, the Shaw Group (SGR), which actually was in a position to benefit meaningfully from post-Katrina work, was trading in the high teens prior to Katrina, went on to trade up by double by year's end, and then to continue onward upward.
IPII trading at $30 in mid-2005 was like the internet stocks in early 2000 -- a once in a lifetime joke, inflated on a once in a lifetime bubble. Today it is a company with a $9mm market cap, that is losing money at the rate of $6mm a year, and has burned through all but $1mm of its cash.
Don't be surprised if IPII has filed for bankruptcy protection by this time next year. Its last audit, released in January, included the dreaded "going concern" statement: "describing the existence of conditions that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." Which is why they've been shutting down facilities as fast as possible to try and stay afloat.
AI
