Small Cap Network's  Instablog

LandStar, Opexa Therapeutics, AmeriResource Technologies, and Labopharm were heavily bought during the last trading session.

It's always a worthy investment of time to review why a particular stock suddenly saw a major amount of relative accumulation. Sometimes it's an omen... the beginning of a major rally. The stocks that saw an unusual degree of buying during the most recent trading day were LandStar, Inc. (LDSR:PK), Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (OPXA), AmeriResource Technologies Inc. (ARIO.PK), and Labopharm Inc. (DDSS).  Here's a closer examination of each one.

The news that accompanied Friday's 168% surge from LandStar, Inc. (LDSR:PK) probably wasn't the key reason for the buying; Landstar's Chinese subsidiary, Hubei Chuguan Industry Co., reported the sale of $285K worth of oil and gas recovery equipment to Beijing's Blue Sky Petroleum. It's hardly a barn burner.

More likely, the gains were a continuation of last Wednesday's buying prompt - the company completed a sale worth $8.3 million. Again it was the work of Hubei Chuguan Industrial....200 sets of oil and gas vapor recover equipment were sold, this time to Guangzhou North Condensation Energy Technology Co. Ltd.

As for any longevity to the trend, it's difficult to say. Chart wise, the recent breakout effort looks compelling considering shares - current at $0.0035 - were as high as $0.025 just a few months ago, when the company's news was far less impressive than it is now. Plus, the chatter of an OTCBB listing could fuel the buying flames for quite a while longer. It could be worth a swing.


Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (OPXA) kicked the weekend off in style, announcing in Friday that they'd be selling some of their stem cell technology to Novartis Inc. The deal calls for $3 million up front, and another $1 million spaced out over the near future. All told though, when factoring in potential royalties the deal could be worth up to $50 million for Opexa.

Better yet, the company officially heard from the NASDAQ exchange that they'd be able to keep their listing as a NASDAQ stock. 

Congrats to the company on both fronts, but this appears to be one of those one-day wonders.... news and a response that doesn't leave OPXA shares anywhere to go but down. Any future royalty payments are years away, and the stock didn't move to the NASDAQ - it just gets to stay there. Traders should consider locking in their gains.
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Another pick sheet name, AmeriResource Technologies Inc. (ARIO.PK) has seen more activity in the last six days than it's seen in the last six months combined.

The chart's fairly tough to get a read on, which is normal when shares are priced between $0.0001 and $0.0002. However, there's enough data to work with now to at least get an idea of a valuation.

The accumulation of ARIO started early last week, just before the company announced its foray into the freight-savings industry through its subsidiary, ATTO Enterprises, Inc. Later in the same week, AmeriResource Technologies announced revenue of $1.3 million for the first six months of the year. The week ended with news that Amerisource - as a company - was holding $750K worth of Nexia Holdings, Inc. (NXHD) and Green Endeavors, LTD. (GRNE).... both of which are also pink sheet companies.

All well and good, but interested investors should be leery of pink sheet companies that view holding other pick sheet stocks as news material. AmeriResource appears to be more of a mutual fund and less of a true holding company. That's fine, but investors better hope these pseudo-fund managers know what they're doing. (The fact that the company holds and relies on as many other pink sheet companies it does for income is something of a red flag.)

And finally, Labopharm Inc. (DDSS) saw an inordinate amount of buying on Friday despite closing in the red... a handful of investors went bargain shopping while the stock was near its low for the day.

What these investors may have been mulling was Labopharm's lowered second-quarter loss... only a nine cent loss this time around versus an eighteen cent loss in the same quarter a year earlier. Or, maybe it as the 28% improvement in quarterly sales that looked attractive.


Either way, DDSS spears to be the victim of a "buy the rumor, sell the news" mentality. The announcement was encouraging, but te stiock had been rallying since April - it was all baked in.

Longer-term, Labopharm Inc. is compelling. In the short run though, it remains to be seen if the support line the stock is approaching now will actually serve as a rebound point.

If you'd like to know of any changes in our opinion of these four stocks (or if we officially recommend them as trades), be sure to sign up for free newsletter today. It's delivered 2 to 3 times per week.